Reusing concrete panels from the industrial mass housing of the 1960s

Abstract

A strong political strategy of demolishment is currently seen in the social housing sector from the 1960s and the early 1970s in Denmark. Architecture and building technology of that period are based on industrial mass production of concrete panels. The ideas behind the current demolition strategies are to overcome social problems by erasing housing blocks and replace them with new housing types and new functions. In this processs, even architectural heritage is demolished and the neighborhoods transformed into so-called mixed areas. Valuable building materials and a great number of excellent flats are downcycled into banal gravel. In contrast this paper will provide considerations concerning the question of reusing concrete panels in future architectural construction in Denmark. The paper clarifies potentials and barriers for reusing concrete panels in Denmark. It is the ambition to develop a more environmentally friendly thinking concerning the transformations of the neighborhoods towards more responsible housing areas. It is argued that if more environmental regards were taken, concrete panels can be reused as building materials in their second life and thereby as building components create both an architectural narrative of what was here, and at the same time apply for a more ecological use of already existing building materials. The paper forms a knowledge foundation to which further research regarding reuse of concrete panels can be developed in new architecture in Denmark.