Universal material passport for "resource depot 2.0"

Kamp Circulair turns Belgium's first circular office building into a "raw material depot 2.0" thanks to the implementation of a universal material passport

The Kamp Circulair consortium is building Belgium's first circular office building this year: 't Centrum in Westerlo. The office will be 100% demountable. It is therefore in itself a raw material depot for future expansions or for other projects: every part of 't Centrum is reusable or interchangeable, as described in its material passport. However, because there are different systems of material passports, it will be quite a challenge to manage the materials in 'raw material depot 't Centrum' properly. What now?

The consortium does not intend to develop a new material passport that they can use for all parts of 't Centrum. However, they do want - using 't Centrum as a test case - to map and analyze all existing material passport systems. Their objective: to present a recommendation for an umbrella standard into which any existing system can be incorporated. The uniform use of parameters becomes crucial in this process. It makes the different material passports compatible among themselves, without losing their individuality.

Because they want to use a universal material passport, the consortium calls their circular office building 't Centrum a "raw material depot 2.0" - to avoid confusion with existing definitions. Indeed, raw material depot 2.0 conceptually goes far beyond what is currently possible with material passports. By describing and valuing products and building elements in a uniform way, one large compatible system is created. And this forms an ideal basis on which to build further. Cooperation with other European countries could in the future lead to a true European standard for material passports.

Click here for a presentation of 't Centrum.