Inspiration
Recypark in Anderlecht
Reuse at another level! This weekend saw the opening of the new 'Recypark' in Anderlecht - a place that is both a waste collection centre and a skate park (!). Also remarkable: the new wooden structure incorporates twenty massive arches in glued laminated timber, which have been salvaged from a former horse riding school in Liège.
The use of second-hand structural elements is still extremely uncommon, especially in the context of public tenders. For this project, the idea was already present in the very first designs by architects 51N4E. The client, Bruxelles Propreté, had the courage to choose a design where the final shape of the building would depend on second-hand beams still to be found. Our colleagues at Rotor asbl were also involved, helping to select the material and set up a reuse methodology.
Demolition firm Stallaert signaled a wooden structure that proved suitable for the project. As the riding school was located on a plot of land belonging to the Liege airport, it was acquired through an atypical purchase procedure between two public bodies. The arches were then stored in a hangar in Nivelles and subjected to inspections and tests to make them acceptable from a structural engineering point of view. This included mechanical tests in a laboratory to check the strength of the wood. Design strategies also helped to mitigate the risk, notably by reserving salvaged elements for less demanding parts of the structure (the half of the arches are new), designing specific reinforcements and over-dimensioning.
The project has certainly been a bumpy road at times, but the perseverance of the design team and the client has paid off. Of course, there is still a long way to go before we have a fully developed reuse circuit for this kind of component. But from now on, any new glulam building project that wants to be called circular has one less excuse for using only fresh wood!
Arch: 51N4E
Stab: Bureau Greisch, Witteveen and Bos
Lab tests: Sweco
Reuse consultant: Rotor asbl
Techn. eq. consultant: Détang Engineering
Skate park design: Les marneurs, Janne Saario
Envir. consultant: Earth'n'bee
Safety coord: Securisan
Contractor: Art Valens
