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The creation of a symbiosis for our living environment and to improve the “living together” is the raison d’être of this annual event, as recalled Pierre Hurt, the Director of OAI in his opening speech. The topic is promising, as 70 participants were identified in the first edition two years ago. There were almost three times more this time.

The event proposed a number of interventions to cover a wide range of topics. Among the speakers, the Minister of Energy and Spatial Planning, Claude Turmes, focused on importance of combining energy, health / well-being and circular economy. With an ambitious goal: to replace “indoor pollution” with “indoor well feeling”.

Good use of BIM

Among the other speakers of this rich and intense conference, Charles-Albert Florentin, Luxinnovation’s Luxembourg EcoInnovation Cluster manager, made the link between automobile and construction, particularly with regard to material banks.

OAI conference Charles-Albert Florentin“The automotive industry is very vertically integrated,” he says. “All components of a vehicle are well known and maintenance is done directly with the manufacturers or specialists. Prototyping, nomenclatures and information exchange are key to the industrial methods used in the automotive sector. Conversely, the construction industry is highly decentralised and not all components of a building are generally known. And there is often a loss of information between the design and construction of a building. The systematic use of Building Information Modeling (BIM) and the material data bases would make it possible to solve them.”

BIM can be summed up in a collaborative working method that improves the flow of information, by creating a digital clone of any project, in which can be integrated all the information collected by each of stakeholders involved in the project, from the architect’s plan to the cables and pipes, but also the installations, even the furniture used. The design, construction and operation of a construction or renovation project can thus be greatly simplified.

For better harmonization of standards

“Making collaboration between actors even more effective, as is the case in the automotive sector, is one of the ways in which the construction industry should be inspired,” says Charles-Albert Florentin. It also means greater harmonisation of standards and the implementation of real policies, whether at national or European level. “The establishment of a secondary market for post-deconstruction materials should also be explored. For the moment, there is almost nothing in this area.”

Some initiatives are still noteworthy, such as Eurorecup, which operates a platform both physical and dematerialized for the reuse of products and materials after deconstruction. In addition, there are already companies specialised in deconstruction and demolition, such as Polygone, Xardel, Entrapaulus, D3 …

Whether in terms of initial design phase, economies of scale or digitisation, the construction sector can certainly be inspired by that of the automobile to be always more efficient.

In conclusion of this meeting “Research => Innovation + Construction”, Pierre Hurt pleaded for the setting up of a framework favorable to the reciprocal exchanges between research, innovation and construction. According to him, in addition to the aspects of public financial support and tax incentives, the innovation methodology should be applied to the legislative and regulatory framework.

Indeed, in his opinion, “smart legislation” is a sine qua non for innovation and creativity. It requires flexibility while rapidly anticipating new data.

Photo credit: Julien Swol

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