Reuse creates local jobs - dismantling, repairing and adapting takes more care and time than demolishing and throwing away.

An architecture firm shows how high-quality buildings can be constructed primarily using salvaged materials.

“Designing with salvaged building materials does not limited creativity” – Barbara Buser

Although the existing building has an angled wall on the south side, the added stories are built in a rectangular shape. This is due to the reused steel structure, taken from a building in Basel.

“Data is usually not readily available” – Kerstin Müller

“This kind of work is extremely exciting” – Marc Angst

Load bearing steel structure sourced from the Co-op storage facility in Lysbüchel, Basel.

“We pushed ourselves to the limit” – Pascal Hentschel

“The components stimulate creativity immensely” – Benjamin Poignon

Neomontana storage – Corrugated steel plates from Zurich.

Orion office building – Windows from Zurich.

Sulzer Areal Werk 1 – Aluminium windows from Winterthur.

At the “Lagerplatz” in Winterthur, we add three stories to an existing warehouse with the intention to use as much dismantled building components from nearby demolition projects as possible.

Exterior access balcony with granite slabs. The slabs used to be facade cladding. In order to fulfill the necessary slip resistance required for a floor, the slabs were turned upside down.

Reused material is not only valuable for its embodied energy and carbon. It is also valuable for its embodied story and craftsmanship.

Buildings like H1118, designed to be taken apart again, can only become standard practice in the long term in the entire industry rethinks material life cycles.

The solutions to reduce construction waste are specific to the country’s construction industry. Once people decide to take action, the solutions depend on the economical set up of the country and the local availability of materials, labor force, production lines, etc.

View of transition from the existing building to the added stories. Reused exterior staircase and facade cladding.