2nd Holcim Roundtable “Re-materializing Construction”

About The Event

The second Holcim Roundtable for Sustainable Construction “Re-materializing Construction” aimed to develop strategies at two scales: material use in individual buildings and the logistical chains distributing these materials across regions.

The Holcim Roundtable brought together experts from 12 countries dedicated to specific topics related to the building sector with the objective of developing strategies to “re-materialize” construction by reducing consumption throughout the material cycle from extraction to processing, transport, installation, maintenance, and removal. The Roundtable was held at the Bibliothek Werner Oechslin, Einsiedeln, Switzerland in June/July 2015.

Re-materializing construction

Re-materialization is the practice of designing purposeful shifts in the material culture of production and use for:

• Health, identity, beauty, and equity,
• Innovation for the highest and best use of materials,
• Inspiring transformative flows and cycles, to address human, systemic, and ecological crisis and drive economic regeneration.

The strategies to “re-materialize construction” would contribute to a leaner industry, one with a smaller ecological footprint and no longer driven by the long-standing pretence of infinitely available raw materials. This shift in the construction sector’s mode of operation can only yield lasting results if economic growth is decoupled from wanton material consumption. Measures of quality must be brought into sync with demands for quantity. This would require careful reconsideration of the political, economic, and social frameworks in which the building trade is situated.