Event Description

A contemporary office building in Oslo is designed and built of 80% recycled materials.

A wooden railing from an old public swimming pool is transplanted as a new staircase. A ceiling grate from a motor room is revamped into an atrium railing. Lumber from a sauna becomes a ceiling. Tiles, hidden for ages, shine again.

Oslo’s KA13 is a groundbreaking project by Mad Architecture. They use ‘donor-buildings’ materials that were headed to the landfill and transplanted them into the design and construction of a new office building. The project is Norway’s first of its kind and puts reused building materials on center stage.

If you didn’t guess, the construction industry has a waste problem. Over 20% of the United States’s waste stream is from construction and demolition. Architecture, Design, and Construction also have a carbon problem. Buildings account for 40% of global carbon emissions, and 11% come directly from building materials and construction. How can designers and architects wipe out waste and dramatically reduce carbon emissions? Can construction join the circular economy? Can we re–use materials at a commercial and urban scale?

MAD Architecture’s Åshild Wangensteen Bjørvik will lead us through the process of building KA13, and tell us how she and her team did it.