Shahin Sayyareh, doctoral student within the ArcelorMittal Chair of Steel Construction at the University of Luxembourg, received an award at the Eurosteel 2023 conference for his outstanding paper about Petite Maison, a circular economy project which was carried out in the framework of Esch 2022, European Capital of Culture.
Petite Maison as an alternative construction
The project Petite Maison was built as an ephemeral sculpture on Belval campus in front of the Maison du Savoir to introduce the public to the culture of alternative construction and circularity in the broad sense. Built with recycled materials, as well as with renewable and/or highly reusable materials, products and raw materials, the small prototype consisted of more than 500 construction elements.
The project was led by Prof. Carole Schmit together with Dragos Ghioca from the Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences and in cooperation with Prof. Christoph Odenbreit from the Faculty of Science, Technology and Medicine and several partners from Luxembourg and the Greater Region.
In his paper entitled “The pavilion Petite Maison of the European Cultural Capital Esch2022: a case study of circular economy benefits in steel construction”, Shahin Sayyareh presents the project and focuses on demonstration and assessments of circular economy objectives. “With Petite Maison, we clearly answer the concept of circular economy by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, saving critical resources and reducing waste. Indeed, in construction sector and specially in steel industry, critical environmental situation and increasing awareness in academia and industry, have concentrated the focus of research work on such objectives”.
Reward of several years of work
Petite Maison was based on the research work done by engineers from the University of Luxembourg together with European partners in the frame of the Horizon 2020 project “Reuse and demountability using steel structures and the circular economy” (REDUCE). From 2016 to 2019, researchers tested new demountable composite floor systems and develop new methodologies, tools and guidance to assist in design for deconstruction. This led to new shear connection systems for demountable composite construction, based on push tests and beam tests to verify composite action and to develop design rules.
For Shahin Sayyareh, winning this award means a lot: “First of all, it proves to us the importance of this topic in today’s research works. After that, it shows me that my research is going in the correct direction and my hard work and the effort that my supervisor Prof. Christoph Odenbreit has put in directing me the last two years is resulting in some valuable outcomes. It also makes me happy to know that I could facilitate the contribution of Luxembourg University in this trending research topic.”
About Eurosteel 2023
The conference Eurosteel 2023 which took place from 12 to 14 September 2023 in Amsterdam presented the latest research results of academics and practitioners related to the use of steel and composite structures in structural applications, with the overall objective of promoting and enabling a more sustainable construction sector. The conference featured traditional paper presentations, keynote speeches by invited speakers and numerous discussions addressing state of the art technologies and future challenges.
