Building Materials Recycling (1)

The building materials recycling include three main sections: 1. traditional building materials 2. general waste 3. New type of recycled materials.

The traditional building materials cover burnt produce (e.g. tile and brick), gravel, concrete, wood and so on. These materials would become construction garbage when demolish buildings. In fact, most of construction garbage could be recycled which would save building material resources. The wood is a non-renewable resource, so recycling of wood become an architects’ point of focus. The architect of Masanari Murai Art Museum uses a lot of original wood in external walls of new museum. The picture shows the external walls of Masanari Murai Art Museum.

In addition, the elemental recycling technology means recycling massive ‘Plattenbau’ to build new construction. ‘Plattenbau’ is a German word which means a building whose structure is constructed of large, prefabricated concrete slabs. The word is compound of Platten (panel) and Bau (building). The following two picture show the process of elemental recycling technology from demolition projects to reusing. There are several benefits of elemental recycling technology which include could reduce the time, saves pay wages above 30%-40% and save building material resources.

Reference：He, CJ & Wu, FL 2005, ‘ Building Material Recycling’, Journal of Urban Affairs, vol. 27, no. 1, pp.1-23.