Reversible Experience Modules (REMs)

An indoor interactive and modular exhibition space on circular building materials

Follow the development of REMs in the Pilot Project Blog.

Focus

  • Promote the benefits and the use of Materials Passports by providing direct access to the Materials Passports Platform through the different construction products displayed in the exhibition.
  • Improve and test the upscaling potential of a transformable and adapt¬able kit-of-parts exhibition module.

Type

  1. New Construction,
    transformed and relocated five times

Size

  1. Minimum size: 40m²; maximum size: up to 100m²

Function

  1. Travelling exhibition of circular materials

Location

  1. Brussels (BE), London (UK), Watford (UK), Amsterdam (NL), Eindhoven (NL), Westerlo (BE)

 

PILOT CONCEPT

The Reversible Experience Modules (REMs) form a traveling interactive exhibition on circular building, which displays 70 products and systems designed for reuse, recovery, and recycling in circular buildings. Each material and product inside the REMs exhibition is available on the market and labelled with a virtual Material Passport. Visitors of the exhibit can manipulate the products and gain direct access to the online Material Passport data for each by scanning the product’s QR code with their phone.

The structure itself was designed and built applying a re versible building design approach. The assembly, (dis) assembly and relocation of the exhibition (six times during one year), showcased the extreme reversibility of the whole setup and its adaptability to different configurations.

OBJECTIVES

The exhibition provides tangible means for professionals from the built environment and others interested to interact and discover the integration of the passports, healthy materials, and reversible design. By continuous interaction with the public, the team has tested the understanding of the passports as a source of valuable interchangeable data to be used within different construction phases and by different actors. Practically the passports are guides on how to detach or disassemble products, and they provide data that helps prevent waste, improve resource productivity, and reduce emissions. Manufacturers and end-users have discovered opportunities for new circular value propositions.

 

INNOVATION

Based on the experience in other industries, digitalization is expected to drive innovative disruption in the Construction industry. By exploring the relationship between physical
products and the related digital data, REMs, the largest traveling exhibition on circular building materials in Europe, supports the prospect of the development of new business
models, potential new players, and new market opportunities.

ACHIEVEMENTS

The pilot has been assembled and disassembled six times with almost no waste production. A small set up was presented
at Brussels Environment HQ, early 2018. The first full-size construction was presented at Ecobuild, in London
in March 2018. In spring 2018, it travelled to Watford and Building Holland. The set up was redesigned for the Dutch
Design Week in Eindhoven, just before arriving in Westerlo, Belgium.

The exhibition attracted a large number of visitors: architects, contractors, suppliers, building owners, project developers,
and dismantlers. It gathered insightful feedback for the improvement of the BAMB passports ICT platform.

 

REPLICABILITY AND SCALABILITY

The REMs highlights cross-sectoral opportunities. Being an exhibition module, it uses reversible construction systems conceived for optimized multiple uses. The solutions developed
can readily be transferred from exhibition setups to other construction sectors, e.g. partition walls for residential, commercial or health facilities, or temporary setups.

Travelling schedule

The REMs started their travelling schedule at the end of January 2018 in Brussels, during the BAMB stakeholder network meeting at IBGE headquarters. It traveled for a year, until the end of january 2019, and visit Belgium, the UK, the Netherlands and Germany.