Immobilia SVIT Switzerland: A question of creativity Circular economy
When converting the building into an office landscape, the interior design firm Raumtakt reused existing components and materials in the spirit of the circular economy. This saved costs and conserved resources. The young creative company Monami GmbH has pitched its tents on Zurich's bustling Langstrasse opposite Europaallee, in an inconspicuous building that housed a private care center until 2019. Zurich real estate agency Immobilienkosmos is overseeing the interim and conversion use of the property, which is limited to five years. After that, the four-storey building with a vertical green exposed aggregate concrete façade will make way for a new building. It was not only the limited budget that led Stefan Müller and his team, Simona Raschle and Gianmarco Tolone, to decide to make only a few structural changes during the conversion into a trendy office landscape.
Circular economy in architecture
Recycling instead of landfill. Climate-friendly construction is no longer just about using renewable energies for heating and cooling. The ecological footprint of the components used, the raw materials and the energy used in construction are also playing an increasingly important role in energy-efficient construction. The aim, but also the challenge, of the circular economy is to generate as little energy and waste as possible throughout the entire processing chain, from extraction to installation and disposal. Many used building materials are also too valuable to be disposed of in a landfill. For this reason, numerous research projects have been launched in recent years that focus on the recycling and reuse of building materials. In Switzerland, the research results of circular and energy-efficient construction are being implemented in the "Next Evolution in Sustainable Building Technologies" (NEST) test laboratory at Empa and Eawag. Here, among other things, recycled "waste" is reused or used building materials are reused.
Recycling as part of the corporate identity. What is a complex undertaking in the field of constructive architecture can be implemented pragmatically and purposefully in interior design. The Zurich-based architecture and interior design firm Raumtakt has consciously committed itself to circular building. Particularly in the context of conversions or refurbishments, Raumtakt GmbH therefore repeatedly asks which materials and components can be reused directly on site and how to use as few valuable resources as possible during the conversion. On the one hand, the increased consideration of the circular economy reduces the conversion costs, and on the other hand, the explicitly visualized recycling - as in the example of Monami GmbH - can very well convey a climate-friendly corporate philosophy within the framework of the corporate design.
Architecture: RAUMTAKT GmbH
Text: Conzept-B, Christina Horisberger
Images: Studio Gataric Photography