City of Espoo organising a design competition to seek concepts for the reuse of building parts in Kera

According to estimates, 50% of the world’s natural resources and 40% of unrefined energy is used on buildings and construction. As such, the transition of the real estate and construction sector to a circular economy plays a key role in climate change mitigation and the prevention of biodiversity loss: for example, the reuse and recycling of building materials and parts can conserve natural resources and reduce the emissions and waste generated by construction. Finland alone generates approximately 1.6 million tonnes of demolition material per year, which could potentially be utilised for other purposes. 

In autumn 2022, the City of Espoo is organising a design competition to seek innovative and original concepts for the reuse of building parts and materials in the Kera area. The competition will explore the potential for reusing materials and parts from buildings in Kera and the readiness to carry out such reuse in practice at new building and repair sites. The aim is to establish operating methods for highlighting buildings to be demolished as potential sources of reusable structures, parts and end products. At the same time, the concept ideas can explore the characteristics of materials and parts from the perspective of reuse and product approval.  

The design competition will be held in the form of a public tendering procedure and open invitation to tender. Espoo will be selecting 1–3 of the best concept ideas out of all the competition entries to showcase and undergo further development. The author of the best concept idea will be paid EUR 5,000 for the showcasing of the concept idea and related presentation material, while the authors of the potential second-best and third-best entries will be paid EUR 4,000 and EUR 3,500, respectively (+ VAT). In addition to this, Espoo will pay up to EUR 12,500 per concept for the further development of the concepts. 

The design competition’s info event and Q&A session was held on 24 October as part of the Kera Talks! From building demolition to circularity mini webinar. The mini webinar explored e.g. what kind of inspiring opportunities circularity and the reuse of building parts will introduce in the construction sector.  

The design competition has been published on the Cloudia tendering service(external link) or below in Finnish. The deadline for concept proposals is Friday 9 December 2022 at 23:59.