Speaker
Description
With the Green Deal, the European Union aims to achieve carbon neutrality and circularity through building renovation and the use of secondary resources. As a major source of carbon emissions, resource consumption, and waste, the construction sector must play a central role. In Wallonia, where construction generates 39% of waste, large-scale energy renovation of historic buildings, often considered as energy-inefficient, creates significant material flows. From an Urban Mining perspective, these flows represent a valuable stock of reusable materials, particularly historic timber, valued for its durability, cultural significance, and carbon storage capacity. However, its reuse remains limited by normative barriers, leading most end-of-life timber to energy recovery.
The research focuses on 19th-century houses in Liège, known for their rich and high-quality timber structures. It aims to prove that historic timbers are suitable for structural reuse in new construction; to support their reuse through a protocol that guarantees technical performance and heritage value; and to propose scenarios that question current regulations.
Five methodological steps are proposed based on ten digitally documented case studies to achieve two main deliverables: a technical dataset for historic timbers, and a technical protocol, developed and validated on site in collaboration with renovation professionals, and using visual classification, statement methods, and mechanical tests.
This interdisciplinary research, combining building archaeology, structural engineering, circular construction offers new insights into 19th-century carpentry and supports reuse practices and circularity in the wood industry, bridging constructive memory with architectural innovation, and contributes significantly to reducing carbon emissions in the construction sector.
| If your abstract is not accepted for an oral presentation, would you be interested in presenting it as a poster instead? | Yes |
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| If accepted by the Scientific Board, I agree to have my presentation/poster and abstract published on the Belgian Climate Centre websites and social media. | Yes |
