Ga verder naar de inhoud
Je ziet plots goed wat de provincie allemaal doet
Startpagina
Home News and stories Partner in the spotlight: Design Museum Gent
News
12/07/2023

Partner in the spotlight: Design Museum Gent

In the pavilion of The Exploded View Beyond Building, Kamp C partners also present their bio-based building materials and circular construction methods. These include the Design Museum Ghent, which developed a circular facade brick. Bie Luyssaert, head of public relations and communication at the museum, explains.

"We were already familiar with the Exploded View biohouse," said Bie. "We ourselves already brought the miniature version to Ghent twice. The first time was in 2021 in full corona period. Individual visitors got to see the model, but performances for groups could not take place. We made up for that in 2022, during Design Fest Gent. Storytellers took the visitors along and used the model to tell them about ways of using materials with little added value as building materials. For example, it's about sewage water, egg shells, seaweed, fungi ..."

Waste as a building material

In the demo house, the Design Museum presents the DING project, for which they developed their own circular facing brick. "DING is the name of the new wing of our museum," says Bie. "We are aiming for an opening in 2026. Designing a futureproof building was our main starting point. That's why we developed our new facing brick in collaboration with BC materials and Flanders Circular."

Through Flanders Circular and OVAM, the building owner was able to start a material-technical and legal research process sogent. Among other things, they investigated how to incorporate waste into the facing brick. An additional requirement: it had to be a light-coloured brick. Quite a challenge, as waste is usually dark in colour.

"BC materials succeeded wonderfully in that," Bie continues. "They press the bricks, unlike conventional baking. The materials are mainly lime, sand and construction waste from Gentenaars, such as concrete rubble and glass. As a result, CO2 emissions are significantly lower during the production process, as well as during the entire life cycle of the bricks. An independent certification body provided the certificate of suitability for the building sector. The result: the Gent Waste Brick for Ding will be produced in Ghent from spring 2024."

"The more the production model of our circular facing brick becomes widespread, the more waste streams will be reduced"
- Bie Luyssaert

For now, no company is yet offering the facing brick on the market. So it will only be on display at the museum. "However, we do hope to further scale up the production process. That is why we are presenting the brick in The Exploded View. Because the more the model spreads, the more waste streams will be reduced thanks to reuse of building materials."

Building applications based on waste streams

Together, Design Museum Gent and Kamp C are also giving Orineo, Onbetaalbaar, Circular Matters and Studio Plastique the opportunity to give their innovative building materials and techniques a place in the bio pavilion.

Bie: "Moreover, we are collaborating with Colruyt Group to study the role of residual streams in the building sector. The many residual streams within Colruyt Group are well documented. In fact, the group is already very strongly committed to recycling materials and raw materials. Now we are putting them in touch with designers who are studying how the retail chain can use those residual flows in new ways in a circular way."