RE-sign: today's cities, tomorrow's mines
The Italian company RE-sign has marketed an app matching up supply and demand for reclaimed construction materials.
The project also brings together things, people and ideas to make circularity happen, all on one platform. The platform collects listings for the trade in reclaimed construction materials and components, and each listing comes with geolocalisation, the option of downloading BIM component models and the owner's contact details. The platform is a hub where reuse professionals can network and promote their business, as well as a place to exchange ideas about how to reuse construction materials.
RE-sign makes construction processes less wasteful by encouraging people to use reclaimed resources instead of raw materials. RE-sign has also developed a simple, easy-to-use tool which helps the construction market to adapt to changing environmental regulations and the shift to more sustainable, circular construction. The project responds to the widespread need for tools supporting simple, shared and sustainable forms of consumption, at a time when purchasing power has slumped, social networks have been weakened and everyone is concerned about the environment.
The project is expected to:
- reduce construction waste and the use of raw materials and resources in construction processes
- save energy and cut CO2 emissions
- expand the market and workflow for reuse professionals
- develop non-extractive design processes in architectural design
- create a network of reuse stakeholders
- raise awareness of circular issues among peple who have followed RE-sign's training programmes
- create jobs in the materials reuse industry (such as material hunters, material brokers and certifiers).