Rotor

Mechanics of rejuvenation

The building sector is a major consumer of precious material  resources and is responsible for the production of more waste
than any other sector (construction and demolition waste amounts to 34.7% of all waste materials in the EU). While recognized as a strategy to prioritize above recycling and incineration as wastemanagement approaches, reuse in the building sector is hampered by a vast array of obstacles, that are not only logistic or technical, but also of an administrative and legal nature. Rotor, incorporated as a no profit since 2006, has developed a portfolio of projects that, each in their own way, try to help overcome some of these obstacles.

After many years of activity as researchers, designers, consultants, exhibition-makers, ... the team decided to explore a new field: building deconstruction. In 2016, they incorporated Rotor DC (for Deconstruction and Consultancy) a spin-off co-op acquiring expertise in the selective disassembly, for ulterior reuse, of building parts in properties slated for demolition or heavy renovation. Being established in Brussels, Rotor DC’s focus is on the kind of real estate most likely to undergo changes in the capital of Europe: large-scale buildings in the tertiary sector, more often than not projects that are only a few decades old.


Fountain of Youth, Lucas Cranach (1546)

The elements are carefully taken apart before conventional demolition works begin, prepared for reuse and sold before
reentering new building projects.

Since the start of its activities in 2013 (before the incorporation), DC has dismantled and resold more than 1,275 tons of reusable materials that would have been scrapped, crushed, or otherwise destroyed. They employ now 6.5 FTE’s that are active either on the deconstruction sites, or in the warehouse/workshops of Rotor in Anderlecht, close to the Brussels city center, where the team rents a 2,500 sqm building that functions as a storage, workshop and showroom/shop for both Rotor and Rotor DC.

In the following text, two young collaborators of Rotor DC, Victoria van Kan and Camille de Jerphanion give their insider’s account of the treatment materials at Rotor DC go through. They assimilate the operations to a rejuvenation process, the stages of which they will describe in detail below.

As an assemblage of thousands of joint pieces, in general the building itself constitutes the last step in the construction chain. In the case of Rotor DC’s practice, the life of a large number of pieces is extended through the deconstruction process.


Spread from the 1940 commercial catalog of Cérabati,
French manufacturer of quality ceramic tiles.

The moment of deconstruction is the disassembly of these thousands of parts.The multiple modes of junctions are then challenged and the materials that were part of the building as a whole are dismantled one by one. Before demolition takes place, a preliminary inventory of potential re usable materials is established. Those materials are evaluated according to their heritage and symbolic value but also by their method of fixing, size, weight, and their ability to be stored and transported on a pallet.  Every deconstruction begins with an experimental phase. Any element to be detached from its original position is first subjected to a disassembly test.

Depending on the material and its extraction difficulty, the experimental phasecan be very long. The first batch of dismantled materials is often damaged and cannot always be resold. Once the dismantling technique is set, the movement of deconstruction led by the human body begins. Deconstruction is an immersive physical experience. During their lifetime, buildings undergo transformations spread throughout several years. The original components and the fastening systems are replaced, different layers are tinkered with. It is necessary to be attentive and constantly adapt the way of dismantling. The materials are then stacked and strapped on pallets and make their way to Rotor DC’s warehouse where counting and sorting has to happen a second time.


Once the deconstruction stage is over, the material goes through  a process of cleaning, revalorizing and reworking. Deconstruction and reuse are not only about a sort of art of destruction; they are also about the art of regeneration which includes several stages of adjustments necessary for a straightforward reuse.  The process can be compared to a fountain of youth, in which material enters old and sometimes unusable, and exits regenerated and ready for use. While the surface of the water is smooth, its unseen bottom is in perpetual motion. The practice of deconstruction leaves materials with traces of their previous life. In some cases, these traces are to be removed in order to revalorize each component. The cleaning process requires above all technical knowledge in order to maintain or enhance its value. The human hand is essential. Regeneration is an irregular process, essentially unfit for mechanization. The aim is therefore to remove the residues of a prior fixation without necessarily removing traces of wear that often add value to the material. This delicate operation in some cases is the repetition of a caress, a friction that may also leave traces. Cleaning contributes to the alteration.


Once the materials, extracted from their previous state, they will be first subjected to an inventory. As accurately as possible, each element is measured, counted and examined for defects or particularities. It is at this precise moment that a broader and more accurate understanding of the recovered components emerges. First grasping how to dismantle the element and how it previously functioned, we then learn how to treat it and start considering it as it is, isolated from previous context or function. In this way, a radiator-cover, an emblematic furnishing in 70’s office environments, becomes a curved plywood panel again. An idiosyncratic marble floor becomes a batch of marble slabs again. Each component starts to exist as an individual entity and differs from one another. This results in a vast number of lines and columns in an excel file.

The task of making an inventory is a complex mental exercise. It requires constantly juggling between the particular vision of an element and the global vision of the lot. This task cannot be dissociated from the watchful human eye which at the slightest glance could miss the detail that characterizes the piece. The repetitive labor of the inventory becomes fine grained labor the sum of dozens of small inventories specific to each element of the batch of material. This human eye is not infallible, almost every time, an inventory mistake is discovered during the resale of materials. The difficulty in achieving accuracy is probably due to the fact that the inventory must be made quickly, the material must be available for sale faster and its sale does not always cover the cost of an exhaustive inventory work.

From one task to another, when in a hurry, we forget what is important and what was planned for the future: the tasks are multiple. Things then remain motionless and unfinished in a corner of the workshop. In an atmosphere of multiple specific cases at the same time, communication between collaborators is of prime importance to avoid the loss of precious knowledge.

The unforeseen interferes with pure economic thinking. The irregular, slow temporality of the inventory contradicts the logic of maximum efficiency. Reuse can hardly be systematized and stands in between two opposite worlds : the pressure of the cost of labor and the embrace of a caretaking approach.



Photo studio at Rotor DC’s workshop in Brussels.

Efforts are being made to erase the troubles of the previous steps. This is an attempt to mask the complexity of the process and it is in fact nearly the only option for spreading the use of reused building elements. It is a question of smoothing out the surface of the water. The smoother, no-hassle and simpler reuse (or at least reinstallation) looks the more it will be acknowledged.

One of those tools for this smoothing is the website, which gives a ‘live’ inventory of every product, thus providing considerable reassurance. The materials are photographed in our workshop. The representation of the component must be attractive and must at the same time expose defects and particularities. The smoothed image negates the irregular process through which the material has gone. This simulation of an optimal material leads to a series of recurrent questions contesting the value of the resale price. In addition to that, the online sale of second hand materials is obviously problematic due to this altered image. Each unmentioned quality entails direct consequences and generates a considerable number of emails that need to be answered one by one. We must then simultaneously reconsider the process of preparing for re-use. Deconstruction has significant visibility due to the seductive nature of the images it produces, while the regeneration phase remains almost invisible. Questions about what happens underneath the surface, inside the workshop, and the issues this all entails are seldom shared. The knowledge of the whole process is an incentive for second hand initiatives.

After all, not all materials reemerge from the water. They get stored somewhere and then just keep moving around to make place for new materials. Gradually pushed back to the back of the depot, they get forgotten and reappear only when there is an urgency for space again. Some materials also will never enter. It is a matter of taking decisions. It is at this point that the reuse value of a material can be reevaluated, which is complex to anticipate. What to store, what to refuse, what to throw away after a long time of storage (useless warehousing). It is easy to fill a warehouse with second hand materials. It is far more complex to assure the redistribution and the constant renewal of the stock, otherwise those materials end up being nothing more than a meaningless pile of trash.

Ceramic Tile

Produced by a number of Belgian companies from the 1920s onwards,  ceramic tiles are worth salvaging on demolition and renovation sites. With a hammer and chisel they are removed line by line (counting on a percent for breakage). The unbroken tiles, still holding a thick layer of mortar, are put in crates and transported to be reprocessed. The thick layer of mortar is first removed with a pneumatic drill, tile by tile. Back in their crates they are dropped in a bath of organic acid, where they rest for a few days,leaving the tiles intact but dissolving the mortar leftovers. The tiles are then cleaned with a high pressure water jet, dried, inspected and sorted. They are packaged (strapped in packs of 20 tiles) counted and inventorised. One of each sort of tile gets photographed in the studio and put online (along with the quantity available in square meter units). Freed from their mortar they are very easy to re-install in a thin mortar bed or even with cementglue. Cooked at very high temperatures, they require a lot of energy for production.


Deconstruction of ceramic tiles in a 1930s university complex, prior to a renovation, Liège.  Photo: OBeart


Deconstruction of ceramic tiles in a 1930s university complex, prior to a renovation, Liège. Photo: OBeart




These ceramic tiles, extracted from a 1940 office of the national Telecom company, are being reinstalled on-site after cleaning at Rotor DC. The offices have now become apartments. Tivolibuilding, Brussels. Photo: Rotor

Marble Slab

Several hundred square meters of marble were dismantled from the iconic North Station in Brussels and prepared for reuse by Rotor DC. The slabs are sealed together with joints. When the joints are soft the slab can be extracted with only a crowbar. If the joints are more solid it is necessary to use a side-grinder to split the slabs. The floor-slabs were laid on a noncement base, which makes removing easier. The wall-slabs are attached with brackets and must be cut free. They are then palletised and strapped for processing at Rotor DC. In the workshop they pass one by one through a rotating stone grinder. The remaining joints are scrubbed away from the side and the edges are straightened out. They are cleaned and classified according to quality. A, B, C. A quality refers to an exceptional surface and straight sides, with no damage to the edge (3mm margin). B slabs surfaces are damaged but their unpolished side (down facing surface) is in good condition and can be used in the final placement. The marble slabs are stored outside in the courtyard, separated from each-other by battens. They are then inventorised, usually per square meter.

Removal of marble slabs at the North Station in Brussels during a 2018 revamp. Photo : Rotor

Photo studio at Rotor DC’s workshop in Brussels. Photo: Rotor



Photo studio at Rotor DC’s workshop in Brussels. Photo: Rotor

Curved Plywood Panel

The WTC (World Trade Centre) towers in Brussels, built in the 70’s are being stripped for renovation. Rotor DC dismantled a part of its materials and extracted 2620 radiator covers. They are relatively easy to deconstruct without damage. The panels are unscrewed, detached, inspected, stacked according to their quality, placed on pallets and strapped. Each pallet is labelled and transported to Rotor’s warehouse. While the truck gets unloaded the pallets are counted, inventoried and stored. A few single panels are brought to the workshop for closer inspection. The general state of the material is determined,(the panel will be sold uncleaned in two qualities (A, B). A price is given per panel. The panel is photographed in the studio and published for sale indicating the quantities. Because of the panels curved, the element stands on its own and it is an easy material to work with. Rotor reused the curved plywood panels to make a bookshelf in the Abattoirs de Bomel project.

Radiator covers on site at the WTC towers in Brussels, 2019. Photo: Camille de Jerphanion.



Dismantled curved plywood panels at the WTC towers in Brussels,2019. Photo: Camille de Jerphanion.


Reuse of curved plywood panels at the old slaughterhouses of Bomel. Project by Rotor, 2014. Photo: Rotor