Together with the architectural firm Artec and support from partners FutureBuilt and Loopfront, Frydenbø Eiendom has initiated an ambitious total rehabilitation of Damsgårdsveien 127 in Bergen. The goal is to achieve close to 100% reused materials in the project, while creating a beautiful office building with surplus materials from Frydenbø's previous tenant adaptations.
We have interviewed Viktor Svantesson (Architect at Artec AS) and Per Reigstad ( Project Manager at Artec AS) about their experiences so far in the process.
Frydenbø Eiendom, the project owner, has been collecting various reusable materials for many years after tenant adaption projects. In connection with the fact that this warehouse has become larger, they have initiated an initiative to organize the way in which objects are stored, see how they can be put to use and which products are well suited for reuse. Føniks (Phoenix) is a pilot project/test bed for this process.
Frydenbø Eiendom has tenants in the office, as well as cars and boats (something they also do themselves). Historically, it has been very common that when a tenant moves into an office building and takes over an entire floor, they often want a completely new solution with their own color concept and design. This leads to many doors, system walls, power poles etc.. being left over. Frydenbø has tried to reuse as much as possible on site, as this is the simplest solution.
For example, the exterior door we now have at Artec's office has its third placement in the building, in addition to various system walls and glass fronts (office walls). Even if we tried to reuse a lot for our office, there is always a lot left over. We have instead stored this in a storage. Office walls are very suitable for reuse, as they are often modular and modern office walls are also planned for future dismantling.
In addition to office walls and equipment (kitchen, electronics, lamps, etc.), we have, for example, LED lights from a car shop that changed car suppliers, and therefore needed other lamps that fit the design manual of that car company.
What is the current status of the "Føniks" project and what are the plans going forward?
Right now we are in the "light dismantling" phase. The building is currently being dismantled to only the supporting structures. The plan is to start with "heavy dismantling" (concrete sawing) during November. Once this is done, we will start building the new office premises at Damsgårdsveien 127.
Initially, we have focused on a tight building (i.e. a wind and rainproof building), and so far we have mainly worked on the facade and technical installations. We will start working on interior solutions in spring 2025.
How have you approached reuse in the project?
There are an incredible number of quality products on the market with potential for reuse, but so far there have been no good and clear systems for finding these materials. There has been a lot of calling "friends of friends" and exploring our own network to find things. We are therefore looking forward to the maturation of more clear offerings such as Loopfront's recently launched marketplace. When we find materials we want, we save them in our storage and register them in Loopfront.
When it comes to the facade, we have gone for a fairly high proportion of residual materials (things left over from construction projects, or incorrect orders). It has been important to find building components with the best U-value as possible, so that we do not consume a lot of energy in operation, which also results in greenhouse gas emissions in the long term.
Windows have been much easier to get than we first thought. We were sure that we would only get windows from the 90s with low U-values, etc., but it has turned out that there are many different windows in stock around, you just have to call around and ask. The oldest window we have now is from 2018, and several of the windows we have acquired have never been installed in buildings before, as they have been leftovers or wrong orders from various projects. As long as you have an adaptable facade concept, there is a lot to find out there. The challenge is that almost all windows are different from each other. For example, we have 40 windows from Oslo, where 20 of them were installed in a building in 2022, but which were later removed and sent to Ombygg at Økern, where we bought them and sent them by train to Bergen.
Another important element in the building is the elevator. Reusing the elevator is still something we are trying to solve. This is something we knew from the beginning could be difficult to reuse. However, we had quite high confidence that we could solve it with a used elevator. We have found several different elevators, including one from 2012 here in Bergen, which has hardly been used. According to the regulations, if you are going to be able to put an elevator in a building and put it into use, you have to replace almost all the parts in the entire elevator. The parts are a bit different depending on the type of elevator, so it seems that the elevator we will use will possibly be a combination of reuse and residual materials.
"Something that is very easy to reuse, and that everyone should do, is reusing toilets and sinks. There are a lot of things that are reusable, and they are also very easy to disassemble and install.."
- Viktor Svantesson (Artec AS) – Architect
Even though you are still in the early stages of the project, have you experienced any savings with reuse so far in the process?
"We have so far spent 1400 NOK / sq.m on reusing the windows for the project. This would normally be around 4000 NOK / sq.m if we had bought brand new windows."
- Viktor Svantesson (Artec AS) – Architect
Obtaining used windows, dismantling them and transporting them has taken a little more time, but in isolation the costs associated with the extra work are not more expensive than what we save by buying used windows.
This will probably not be the case for all products, but as we get further into the project, we will learn which building components are more economically advantageous to obtain used rather than buying new.
Watch a video about Frydenbø Eiendom's "Føniks" project
Video about Frydenbø's "Føniks" project in collaboration with Artec, FutureBuilt and Loopfront. Film / Edit: Akasuki AS
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