The morning session, “Supplying circularity for social and affordable housing”, investigated the market-readiness of circular solutions by assessing if there is a fit between products (circular construction/renovation solutions) and market (social housing companies).
Moderator, Dara Turnbull, Research Coordinator at Housing Europe, kicked off the session with an introduction to Housing Europe. The audience was then welcomed and introduced to the DRIVE 0 project by Cecilia Mazzoli, Assistant Professor at the University of Bologna, Department of Architecture. Following Cecilia, Elettra Agliardi, Full Professor at the University of Bologna, Department of Economics provided an introduction to Circular Business.
This was followed by a short poll on the topic of “uptake circular solutions in social & affordable housing”, to get to know the audience better and to understand more about their current circular habits.
Presentations continued following the poll with Targo Kalamees, Full Professor at the Tallinn University of Technology, presenting the pains and gains of using circular solutions in apartment associations. After Targo, Eero Nigumann, Project Manager at TIMBECO presented TIMBECO’s circular business model. Finally, the last presentation covered WEBO’s circular business model, with speaker Bart Voortman, Innovation project coordinator at WEBO.
To round of the morning session, there was a brief discussion session on how to better supply circularity to social & affordable housing providers.
The second session of the day, “Mainstreaming circularity in the social housing sector - the role of the EU”, provided the opportunity for early adopters of circular processes to showcase their work to EU policymakers, and to provide feedback on the current direction and scope of EU policy with regard to upscaling and mainstreaming circularity within the residential housing sector.
The afternoon session was initiated by Dara Turnbull, Research Coordinator at Housing Europe, welcoming attendees and giving a short overview of the HOUSEFUL project. The welcome was followed by a presentation by Philippe Moseley, Policy Officer, Sustainable Industrial Policy and Construction at DG GROW, European Commission, discussing what the current EU strategy for boosting circularity in the residential housing sector is.
This was followed by a presentation about Locally sourced and circular social housing in the Balearic Islands, from Carles Oliver Barceló and David Mayol Laverde from Institut Balear de l’Habitatge. Carlos and David were followed by Isabelle Quet-Hamon, Head of the Sustainable Housing Department at Paris Habitat who discussed bringing value back to existing construction materials in Parisian social housing. Isabelle was to be followed by Hugo de Vries, Development Manager, Area Wonen to discuss resource efficient and circular Dutch social housing, however due to a last minute emergency, Hugo was unfortunately unable to present. The final presentation was from Raphaëlle Brune, Architect, La Société du logement de la Région de Bruxelles-Capitale / Brusselse Gewestelijke Huisvestingmaatschappij on coordinating the move to a more circular system in the social housing system in Brussels.
The afternoon session was rounded off with a Q&A session. Each of the speakers was provided the opportunity to direct feedback, comments, and questions on the current EU policies and the promotion of shared learning to Philippe Moseley, Policy Officer, Sustainable Industrial Policy and Construction at DG GROW, European Commission.
