New paper on historical survey of concrete reuse

The reuse of concrete pieces in new buildings is more common than one may think. For this paper authored by Célia Küpfer, Maléna Bastien Masse, and Corentin Fivet (Structural Xploration Lab), 77 precedents with reused concrete pieces have been collected and analyzed. Our findings show that:
- Built precedents in Northern Europe and the USA have existed for many years, with the earliest recorded example in 1967. The largest application reused more than 900 prefabricated elements and the highest is a 7-storey-high apartment building.
- There is a diversity of reclaimed pieces and applications: prefabricated wall and slab panels, trusses, girders, composite decks, cut cast-in-place structures, … have been reused to build garages, houses, pavilions, footbridges, foundations, apartment buildings, …
- All records report large environmental impact reductions and most even report cost savings, hence supporting the viability of this circular economy construction practice.
- De-/re-construction techniques and assessment tools exist but the full potential scope of reused concrete applications remains unexplored. The barriers to wider adoption are considered largely transitory.
Célia Küpfer, Maléna Bastien Masse, Corentin Fivet (2023) “Reuse of concrete components in new construction projects: Critical review of 77 circular precedents”, Journal of Cleaner Production, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.135235