Business case

Reduced green house gas emissions released into the biosphere

Reduce Emissions (SDG13)

Reduced use of virgin materials and/or an increase of the use of secondary and bio-based materials

Reduce Material Consumption (SDG12)

Producing building materials and providing services to create residential and non-residential infrastructure and real estate


Construction and Infrastructure

Using bio-based materials such as bioplastics, mushroom-based materials, etc.

Alternative bio-based materials and inputs

Locally produced food has to travel shorter, which means less fuel is consumed and less greenhouse gases are generated. Moreover, buying locally produced food helps local farmers and markets and creates more jobs in the local businesses. 


Produce locally

Impacts

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Industries

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The principles of a circular economy concern designing out waste, regenerating ecosystems and keeping items in use. Decoupling the economy from material flows—improving the rate of resource productivity faster than the economic growth rate—is also a consistent guide. By evolving with the growing number of applications of circular economy principles, and consolidating these strategies across thematic areas, Circle Economy’s Key Elements Framework (KE) renders the elements of the circular economy salient and serves as a basis to derive contextual strategies and interventions. 


The Framework consists of:
- Core Elements: Activities directly handling product or material flows; and uniquely,
- Enabling Elements: those that remove obstacles for core actors.


Key elements of the circular economy

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Circle Economy's framework of strategies and activities that define the circular economy

Urban Opportunities

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Based on the work of [Bocken et al. (2016)](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309699661_Product_design_and_business_model_strategies_for_a_circular_economy), the Four Flows Framework serves as a simple framework for managing resource flows in a circular economy by using less (Narrow), using for longer (Slow), using again (Cycle), and using clean, regenerative materials and energy (Regenerate).

These different principles of circular economy can be applied to our socioeconomic metabolism: we can design stocks like buildings, infrastructure, machinery, and vehicles to be rich resource mines for the future, and design manufactured goods and consumables to be cycled and made regenerative. Furthermore, the focus must also centre on getting more value out of fewer materials. Achieving the aims of a circular economy—minimising material use, regenerating the Earth, and preventing material losses—can be done through these four key strategies mentioned above.

Source: Circle Economy. (2023). *[The circularity gap report 2023](https://www.circularity-gap.world/2023)* (p.22). Amsterdam: Circle Economy. 

Four Flows Framework

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     Kathryn Larsen’s project, Seaweed Thatch Re-imagined, which she presented at Antenna 2019, looks to the old seaweed thatching method of the Danish island of Læsø. 
During the Middle Ages women used to create roof thatches made from eelgrass that washed up on the shores of the island. The women treated the thatching process like the spinning of wool and completely dominated the construction industry on the island at the time.
The material was rot resistant, could withstand any weather condition and also served as an insulating material. The island had a thriving seaweed export industry. However, during the 1930s there was a global wasting disease that nearly destroyed the eelgrass beds of Denmark. 

As a result the people of Læsø had to turn to traditional thatching materials and methods. Today eelgrass is seen as a waste material. According to Larsen 22 000 tons of eelgrass are thrown out annually. 
Larsen believes that if we change our perspectives on the material we can begin to harvest it again and create a more eco-friendly building material. She thus came up with the concept to bring seaweed thatch to the modern building industry by creating fabricated thatch panels. 
“I envision that these panels could be used on facade and roof and act as supplementary insulation and at the same time act as a kind of green roof,” says Larsen.
Adding: “I firmly believe that from learning from our past we can build for a better and greener future”.
This talk is part of the third antenna conference, a collaboration between Design Indaba and the Dutch Design Foundation, which recently took place as part of Dutch Design Week.
Find out more about Antenna. 
      

KØBENHAVNS ERHVERVSAKADEMIIndividual Thesis Research and Year-Long InstallationYEAR: April 2018-PresentADDRESS: 29N Guldbergsgade, 2200 København NSUPERVISORS: Mette Marko Hansen, Anke Pasold (Material Design Lab KEA)SUPPORT: KEA Campus Service (September 2018), Boligfonden Spirekasse (March 2019DEZEEN’S TOP 10 INNOVATIVE MATERIALS OF 2019PROJECT DESCRIPTION: Imagine a building material that is rot resistant, fire resistant, non-toxic, insulates comparably with mineral wool, and can be used to create carbon negative buildings. Sounds amazing, right? Actually, this material has been used for centuries already around the world- until we forgot how to use it. It’s called eelgrass, and is a type of seagrass.         I chose to focus my thesis on the seaweed houses of Læsø, as it is a subject without many resources in English, and has huge potential for the global building industry. In the middle ages, on Læsø they began to build thatched eelgrass roofs after running out of timber on the island. Eelgrass grows across the world, but has declined in amount due to climate change and a wasting disease in the 1930s, and the thatching method on Læsø was nearly lost as a result.Eelgrass has an incredible potential as a world-wide building material. As a result, I chose not only to focus on the historical context of the seagrass, but current and future applications of it.         data-provider-name=YouTube>Installation VideoIt is not a requirement for the thesis to conduct original research. However, I decided to expand on my previous finalist competition entry and develop a prefabricated panel that could be used for roof or facade externally.These panels, along with the small scale tests, will be installed on a structure on the roof terrace of Guldbergsgade 29N for a year to study how the eelgrass reacts over time to the elements, as well as the thatch construction that I have created.The installation will continue even after the thesis submission in October 2019. The panels were designed with the original tectonics of the Læsø houses in mind: embracing the organic quality of the material instead of forcing it to conform. However the wood boundaries and underlying structure of the panels transforms the tectonics, adding repetition and order to the organic properties of the seaweed.       Photo by Anders Lorentzen, KEA CommunicationsInvitation by Material Design Lab           Photo by Anders Lorentzen, KEA Communications    I began with small-scale tests, building off both the old methods of thatching, and existing research from Studio Seagrass and Tobias Gumstrup Lund Øhrstrøm's master thesis. Tobias combined eelgrass with different natural binders, which in some cases made it immediately waterproof, and also created a structural integrity.        These small scale tests consisted of first working only with water and eelgrass, rehydrating the eelgrass, and then adding minimal amounts of natural binders, on 10x10cm structured wood panels.  Since the goal was to retain the organic quality of the eelgrass, very minimal amounts of binder were used in the mixtures and recorded meticulously to account for human error and variety. I only used natural binders, so that the non-toxicity of the eelgrass would be preserved.I started with two natural binders and water. I expanded to eight different binders that were plant or animal based with different bloom strengths. Three of each binder and panel typology were made in these sketch models to be installed on varying sides of the installation structure. After the small scale tests, I decided to make the larger panels out of just water and eelgrass. This is because in general the binders changed the texture and the nature of the eelgrass, removing it from its original context.The water allowed flexibility in the eelgrass while thatching, while the binders stiffened and in some cases made the eelgrass more brittle. However the binders could improve the water-tight abilities of the construction and studying it outside over time will allow me to research this.                       Photo by Anders Lorentzen, KEA Communications    

Denmark

Copenhagen

Kathryn Larsen

Copenhagen School of Business

<p>Natural construction materials are a good alternative to traditional materials derived from finite resources, which are easier to recycle than concrete or cement. Danish designer Kathryn Larsen&nbsp;has created panels from eelgrass, a seaweed that has been used in traditional Danish construction methods. Her prefabricated panels, which are currently being tested on the roof of the Copenhagen School of Business, are waterproof, durable and 100% made from natural materials: timber, seaweed, and water.</p>

Using seaweed as a roofing material

Impact on the ease of innovation, and facilitating uptake of innovations

Innovation

Minimise waste through diversion: Instead of sending waste to landfill, it is redirected into other industrial processes for handling, treatment, recycling, recovery, or reuse in various forms. 

Minimise waste through design: At the outset of a process of project, plan and design such that there is zero waste or minimal waste during production, use, and at end of life. 

Minimise Waste (SDG12)

Reduced use of fossil fuel energy sources and/or increased use of renewable energy

Reduce Energy Consumption

Account for the systems perspective during the design process, to use the right materials, to design for appropriate lifetime and to design for extended future use

Design for the future

Utilise bio-based, reusable, non-toxic and non-critical materials

Regenerative materials

Designing products that are made to last and to ensure longer use

Design for durability

Buildings are where we live, work and play, and also where we store machinery and goods for later consumption. Buildings are but one component of the greater built environment which includes urban infrastructure such as roads, bridges and utilities. 
Current construction techniques have buildings consuming the bulk of materials globally. With increasing urbanisation and therefore demand for buildings of every kind, we drastically need to re-imagine how we design, utilise and decommission buildings.

BUILDINGS

Slow strategies aim to keep materials in use for as long as possible, for example through design for durability and repairability. A more circular economy is also a slower one: materials, components, and products—and even buildings and infrastructure—that we lock in stocks are made to last. This will lower material demand in the long run, in essence also serving to narrow resource flows.

Slow

Regenerate strategies phase out hazardous or toxic materials and processes and substitute them with regenerative biomass resources. A circular economy aims to mimic natural cycles—by shifting to more regenerative farming practices, for example—while also maximising the share of circular biomass that enters the economy. Regeneration can happen both at the systems level (by designing regenerative processes) as well as at the product level (by switching synthetic to organic fertilisers, for example).

Regenerate

 Traditional Danish seaweed thatching could be updated into a sustainable contemporary building material, according to research by Kathryn Larsen. Copenhagen School of Business and Design student Larsen became interested in the potential for seaweed architecture after studying the Viking practice of thatching roofs using eelgrass on the island of Læsø.

"Eelgrass is a fantastic material that is naturally fireproof, rot resistant, carbon negative and becomes entirely waterproof after about a year," said Larsen. "It also insulates comparably with rockwool [a common type of insulation]."
"Plants grow in it, giving the effect of a green roof. It is a material that we should be considering seriously in an era of climate change."

A student of the Material Design Lab at the Copenhagen School of Business and Design (KEA), Larsen went on to test what a contemporary iteration of seaweed thatching might look like. She tried different binders and grid spacing, eventually developing a set of prefabricated eelgrass-thatched panels to suit roofs or facades. Colloquially known as a seaweed but actually a type of seagrass, eelgrass is common across the UK and Scandinavia.
Larsen notes that while eelgrass levels are diminishing, there would be enough to supply a Danish construction industry, and that there are ways to farm and harvest the plant without harming the marine ecosystem.
        
She drew on the results of a 2013 project, The Modern Seaweed House, built on Læsø by architecture studio Vandkunsten and non-profit organisation Realdania Byg.
In contrast to the vernacular buildings on the island, where the seaweed is stacked into shaggy roofs about a metre thick, the Modern Seaweed House has a slimmed-down look, achieved by stuffing the eelgrass into net pillows around the facade.
She also built on the work of Copenhagen architects Studio Seagrass, who have made innovative use of eelgrass in interior design and other areas.

Larsen's eelgrass panels are now eight months into a one-year testing period on the KEA roof. At this point Larsen says they are "almost entirely intact" and beginning to grow moss.
The architectural technologist has secured funding to continue her research into seaweed thatching and build more prototypes in the year to come.
"I hope to test the panels u-values, to see what insulation properties they can bring to construction," said Larsen of her future plans. 

<p>Danish designer Kathryn Larsen has developed a method of producing prefabricated thatched panels for roofs made of seaweed—based on medieval traditions from the island of Laeso. Saltwater strengthens the seaweed, making it less susceptible to decay: while a traditional thatched roof can last around 40 years, a roof made of eelgrass can last up to 400 years. The material is also fireproof, resistant to rot, waterproof (after about one year) and carbon negative. Larsen’s design brings this eco-friendly material back into use in modern architecture by creating premade panels, which are already being tested in-use on the roof of Copenhagen School of Business. So far, the project has been a success: after close to a year outside, the panels remain intact. This project also uses waste as a resource: see as waste, approximately 22,000 tonnes of eelgrass are thrown out each year. Larsen continues to receive funding for further developments of this technology.</p>