Taisugar Circular Village

TaiSugar Circular Village

TaiSugar Circular Village

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3n7ZVh-JYQ

TaiSugar Circular Village (TCV) is located within the Shalun Smart Green Energy Science City, Tainan. This residential project is the first of its kind in Taiwan, focusing on circular economy concept in the built environment. Taiwan Sugar Corporation (TSC) has taken a bold initiative to experiment with this new economic model. This project is aptly placed within the masterplan that was initiated by the government in 2016 with the vision to build a smart ecosystem city that co-develops with nature, as well as to build up “people-oriented” community and the necessary green life system. In response to the advent of a sustainable economy and the policy goals of nuclear-free homeland in Taiwan, the government has listed the circular economy as an important issue of its “Five plus two innovative industries policy”. Government thus makes efforts to boost the potential of circularity in the resource limited island so as to bolster the nation’s energy security, to create a green economy and to promote environmental sustainability.

The site is 10 minutes away from Tainan High Speed Rail station with the site area of 13,994.07 square meters. This development consists three identical housing blocks, a circular demo house (C-House) and an eco-house (E-house). There are a total of 429 rental units of mainly studio apartments with a small numbers of one bedroom, two bedroom and three bedroom apartments.
The “Circular Village” is made up of the three “Circular Blocks” where the living quarters is located, “Circular Field” where it consists of a “C-House”, an “E-House” and a “C-Farm”. The C-House functions as the living room of the village, the E-House as the kitchen while the C-Farm is the garden where food is produced. In this project, we have categorized the idea of circularity in a few aspects which include Circular Concept, Circular Management, Circular Resources, Circular Living and Circular Policy to helps us positively explore new possibilities and solutions in the circular architecture.

TaiSugar Circular Village (TCV) is located within the Shalun Smart Green Energy Science City, Tainan. This residential project is the first of its kind in Taiwan, focusing on circular economy concept in the built environment. Taiwan Sugar Corporation (TSC) has taken a bold initiative to experiment with this new economic model. This project is aptly placed within the masterplan that was initiated by the government in 2016 with the vision to build a smart ecosystem city that co-develops with nature, as well as to build up “people-oriented” community and the necessary green life system. In response to the advent of a sustainable economy and the policy goals of nuclear-free homeland in Taiwan, the government has listed the circular economy as an important issue of its “Five plus two innovative industries policy”. Government thus makes efforts to boost the potential of circularity in the resource limited island so as to bolster the nation’s energy security, to create a green economy and to promote environmental sustainability.

The site is 10 minutes away from Tainan High Speed Rail station with the site area of 13,994.07 square meters. This development consists three identical housing blocks, a circular demo house (C-House) and an eco-house (E-house). There are a total of 429 rental units of mainly studio apartments with a small numbers of one bedroom, two bedroom and three bedroom apartments.
The “Circular Village” is made up of the three “Circular Blocks” where the living quarters is located, “Circular Field” where it consists of a “C-House”, an “E-House” and a “C-Farm”. The C-House functions as the living room of the village, the E-House as the kitchen while the C-Farm is the garden where food is produced. In this project, we have categorized the idea of circularity in a few aspects which include Circular Concept, Circular Management, Circular Resources, Circular Living and Circular Policy to helps us positively explore new possibilities and solutions in the circular architecture.

Circular Concept in Built Environment
In the circular economy, materials are reused and virtually no waste is created. The design stage takes into account assembly in construction and deconstruction after use. The materials used in creating TCV include recycled materials and green materials. For instance, the salvaged hardwood from TaiSugar old dilapidated buildings will be used as the main structure for the E-House while their recycled railway tracks will be designed as fence on the ground periphery. Also, the wooden planks from the old buildings will be treated and reuse as the wooden frame for the pivoted door at C-House. As to reduce the carbon emissions, we have opted for green materials like CLT (cross laminated timber) and recycled LED glass insulation blocks for façade and internal partition use respectively.

Design for disassembly is a cornerstone of the circular economy because it allows
the different components to fit into a closed material cycle, where they can be reused, reassembled and recycled to new products of similar or higher quality. For that matter, steel is chosen as the structural material rather than reinforced concrete. As for the facade design, the components are modularized with nuts and bolts connection for the purpose of disassembly. In addition, the apartments wall are made of dry wall construction that could be disassemble and reuse in the future.

In-situ construction often creates a lot of waste and mostly takes longer period to construct. In order to reduce waste on site, we proposed to use pre-fabrication and pre-cast construction system. For this project, we have designed the external façade to be pre-cast panel while the balcony façade system to be pre-fabricated off site and install like curtain wall system. Modular pre-fab hollow core slab will be the floor system spanning across the main beams. This system reduces the use of small beams significantly compared to decking system. We, too, have incorporated the pre-fab toilet at the shops on the ground floor.

Modular design is another concept or circularity as it provides flexibility and increases adaptability of systems. We have design three seemingly identical housing blocks with repetitive balcony façade system. As for apartments, we have design a unitized universal bathroom type that is appropriate for all the apartments.

In the spirit of circular economy, the components are to be designed in parts for the ease of maintenance and repair, as such for the interior furnishing, we have adopted minimal intervention and raw beauty as our concept. The shared spaces wall and ceiling materials are made of wooden panel and coated steel wire mesh panel respectively. Again, the panels are attached with nuts and bolts installation for the ease of disassembly. The floor in the apartment is using high wear resistant timber flooring that could be disassemble and reuse in the future.

Circular Management: from planning & design to maintenance
If all material data of a building is recorded in a material passport, then the materials can be recovered during the renovation and demolition for reuse. By doing so, it is prevented that these demolished materials are dumped or burned, with which their value is wasted. A building ready to be demolished thus becomes a storage for useful material. For that to be recorded, BIM (Building Information Model) is an excellent tool to set as an online “library” that provides the framework and technology to give materials an identity. This way, the amounts and specifications of all materials are clear at a single glance.

Circular architecture should adopt the idea that building is a depository resources of raw material suppliers or BAMB (Building as material bank). Building products are consciously chosen according to where they come from, what they are made of and whether they can be disposed of in an environmentally-friendly manner. However, circular economy and C2C go even further. When creating products, the whole process from the start to its end must be considered, especially the opportunities for reutilization, even when it comes to whole buildings. There should be no more waste or construction rubble during demolition. If a house has reached the end of its life cycle, only pure recyclable materials remain in an ideal case. Existing buildings are thus the raw material suppliers of the future which made the building as material bank (BAMB). For this project, we have adopted REVIT since the inception of this project and till date we have built a BIM model of the circular village, not just for the record but also for coordination during the design phase.

Circular Resources: from harnessing to regenerating
The two crucial resources that we should address in circular economy is energy and water. This project aims to increase the use of renewable energy by installing around 2,500 sqm of solar panels on the roof that harnessing close 350 kWh/yr for the village. These energy will be used to create a Carbon Neutral C-House. The heat loss from the centralized cooling system for the C-House will be collected to power the domestic hot water for shower in the housing block.

A building's use of water is also a key factor in its environmental impact. We have designed the building and porous surface area to collect rain water to use for farming and aquaponics The grey water from the domestic use will be recycled as well and mainly use for washing, watering landscape and filling up the eco-pond. There is also a natural grey water filtering system in the central courtyard. The pool of water on the eco-pond would help to reduce the heat with cool breeze during the summer time.

Next to the E-House, there is a biogas digester system to digest the bio-waste into biogas for the use at at the shared kitchen in the pavilion. Other than harnessing energy, we have included a few passive design strategies such as façade system to help provide shades with the louvers and fresh air with the green wall to reduce energy consumption. Spaces are designed with natural daylight and ventilation to minimise energy consumption and produce a healthy indoor climate. They will actively promote the health and well-being of occupants.
Circular Living: from ownership to sharing & renting
In this new paradigm, manufacturers, retailers and developers would remain the owners of the product, with maintenance and repair becoming part of the deal. It is time to rethink ownership and make a shift from consumer to user, purchasing service rather than product.

For instance, instead of buying lights for your apartment you would buy lighting as a service, enabling you to be worry-free from maintenance and keep up with the latest technology for energy efficiency. With the manufacturers being fully responsible for the upkeep of the products, their incentives are now more aligned with where they should be, creating and maintaining products for optimal performance.

For our circular village, Taisugar will be renting out the apartments and provide all necessary maintenance to the residents ranging from building all the way to furniture and electrical appliances. As such, the user will pay to use and not pay to own. This project opted the rental idea and extend it to renting light fixtures, furnitures and appliances from the suppliers. Also, we have introduced rentable electric car, scooter and bicycle to the residents.

Other shared facilities includes shared kitchen, shared living room, shared washing machine are available within the village.

Circular Policy: from production to up-cycling

Here in this village, we have strategically placed a farm in the centralized courtyard to provide the food to the villagers. This Circular Farm would consists of permaculture, aquaponic, roof farming and beeskeeping. There is also a composting system using the black soldier fly to manage the digest the domestic bio-waste and turned them into fertilizer and finally feed back to the farm.

At the C-House, an upcycling center and workshop is located to share knowledge with the villagers to up value their “unwanted” materials.

Envisioning circular economy in built environment
The circular economy is a relatively new theme for the public. Circular in this context means all materials can be reused as much as possible within their maximum lifespan. This matters because as a society we have to cut back on consumption of our dwindling supply of raw materials. Furthermore, by using green building methods, we're emitting less CO2, which contributes to a better environment, a healthier society and a more sustainable economy. In the circular economy, production chains are no longer open-ended. Instead, the circle is closed, and waste is always recycled.

A circular architecture embeds the principles of a circular economy across all of its functions, establishing a system that is regenerative and restorative by design. In such architecture, the idea of waste is eliminated, with assets kept at their highest levels of utility at all times and the use of digital technologies a vital process enabler. A circular architecture aims to generate prosperity and economic resilience for itself and its citizens, while decoupling value creation from the consumption of finite resources.
TaiSugar Circular Village adopts the regenerative concept where the outputs of one system are the inputs of another. This is a holistic approach that combines a variety of innovative technologies, such as smart homes, renewable energy, community high-yield organic food production, aquaponics, water management, and waste-to-resource systems.
This integrated community design provides clean energy, water and food right off the doorstep. TCV adds not only environmental and financial value, but also social value, by creating a framework for empowering families and developing a sense of community, where people become part of a shared local eco-system: reconnecting people with nature and consumption with production.

Transitioning towards a more circular world
The challenges of circular economy in construction are great, just as are the opportunities. Manufacturers of composite building materials have already converted their industrial production so that the individual components, such as facades, can be disposed of correctly sorted. Thus all building materials are used again as secondary raw materials. Clean energy can be generated free of charge with photovoltaic.

In a circular economy, we seek to bend that linear economy line into a circular ecosystem, so that the different elements from worn-out products or decommissioned buildings can breathe life into new products or buildings. The circular mindset is about creating value regarding a sustainable aspect or an economic aspect as well as a social aspect.

The transition cannot be achieved by any single actor. It will require collaborative efforts across the value chain, involving individuals, the private sector, different levels of government and civil society. Companies need to design products with circularity in mind, and build components that can close loops in production. Individuals have a key role in creating demand. The public sector needs to play its part in making available the necessary infrastructure, and formulating policies and regulations that incentivize innovation without imposing burdens that dampen growth.

Realising the potential of the circular economy requires a new approach to all aspects of the value chain. This includes financing, procurement, design, construction, operation, maintenance, repurpose and recycling. It requires a step change in systems thinking, design, technology and economic approaches. Connectivity and digitisation are helping to fuel innovation, which is driving a shift to circularity by maximising efficiency, encouraging flexibility and by cutting waste. A wholesale shift will necessitate the rethinking of the way the value chain operates, including business models, financial incentives, use of technology and rewards for reducing wastage.

Circular Concept in Built Environment
In the circular economy, materials are reused and virtually no waste is created. The design stage takes into account assembly in construction and deconstruction after use. The materials used in creating TCV include recycled materials and green materials. For instance, the salvaged hardwood from TaiSugar old dilapidated buildings will be used as the main structure for the E-House while their recycled railway tracks will be designed as fence on the ground periphery. Also, the wooden planks from the old buildings will be treated and reuse as the wooden frame for the pivoted door at C-House. As to reduce the carbon emissions, we have opted for green materials like CLT (cross laminated timber) and recycled LED glass insulation blocks for façade and internal partition use respectively.

Design for disassembly is a cornerstone of the circular economy because it allows
the different components to fit into a closed material cycle, where they can be reused, reassembled and recycled to new products of similar or higher quality. For that matter, steel is chosen as the structural material rather than reinforced concrete. As for the facade design, the components are modularized with nuts and bolts connection for the purpose of disassembly. In addition, the apartments wall are made of dry wall construction that could be disassemble and reuse in the future.

In-situ construction often creates a lot of waste and mostly takes longer period to construct. In order to reduce waste on site, we proposed to use pre-fabrication and pre-cast construction system. For this project, we have designed the external façade to be pre-cast panel while the balcony façade system to be pre-fabricated off site and install like curtain wall system. Modular pre-fab hollow core slab will be the floor system spanning across the main beams. This system reduces the use of small beams significantly compared to decking system. We, too, have incorporated the pre-fab toilet at the shops on the ground floor.

Modular design is another concept or circularity as it provides flexibility and increases adaptability of systems. We have design three seemingly identical housing blocks with repetitive balcony façade system. As for apartments, we have design a unitized universal bathroom type that is appropriate for all the apartments.

In the spirit of circular economy, the components are to be designed in parts for the ease of maintenance and repair, as such for the interior furnishing, we have adopted minimal intervention and raw beauty as our concept. The shared spaces wall and ceiling materials are made of wooden panel and coated steel wire mesh panel respectively. Again, the panels are attached with nuts and bolts installation for the ease of disassembly. The floor in the apartment is using high wear resistant timber flooring that could be disassemble and reuse in the future.

Circular Management: from planning & design to maintenance
If all material data of a building is recorded in a material passport, then the materials can be recovered during the renovation and demolition for reuse. By doing so, it is prevented that these demolished materials are dumped or burned, with which their value is wasted. A building ready to be demolished thus becomes a storage for useful material. For that to be recorded, BIM (Building Information Model) is an excellent tool to set as an online “library” that provides the framework and technology to give materials an identity. This way, the amounts and specifications of all materials are clear at a single glance.

Circular architecture should adopt the idea that building is a depository resources of raw material suppliers or BAMB (Building as material bank). Building products are consciously chosen according to where they come from, what they are made of and whether they can be disposed of in an environmentally-friendly manner. However, circular economy and C2C go even further. When creating products, the whole process from the start to its end must be considered, especially the opportunities for reutilization, even when it comes to whole buildings. There should be no more waste or construction rubble during demolition. If a house has reached the end of its life cycle, only pure recyclable materials remain in an ideal case. Existing buildings are thus the raw material suppliers of the future which made the building as material bank (BAMB). For this project, we have adopted REVIT since the inception of this project and till date we have built a BIM model of the circular village, not just for the record but also for coordination during the design phase.

Circular Resources: from harnessing to regenerating
The two crucial resources that we should address in circular economy is energy and water. This project aims to increase the use of renewable energy by installing around 2,500 sqm of solar panels on the roof that harnessing close 350 kWh/yr for the village. These energy will be used to create a Carbon Neutral C-House. The heat loss from the centralized cooling system for the C-House will be collected to power the domestic hot water for shower in the housing block.

A building's use of water is also a key factor in its environmental impact. We have designed the building and porous surface area to collect rain water to use for farming and aquaponics The grey water from the domestic use will be recycled as well and mainly use for washing, watering landscape and filling up the eco-pond. There is also a natural grey water filtering system in the central courtyard. The pool of water on the eco-pond would help to reduce the heat with cool breeze during the summer time.

Next to the E-House, there is a biogas digester system to digest the bio-waste into biogas for the use at at the shared kitchen in the pavilion. Other than harnessing energy, we have included a few passive design strategies such as façade system to help provide shades with the louvers and fresh air with the green wall to reduce energy consumption. Spaces are designed with natural daylight and ventilation to minimise energy consumption and produce a healthy indoor climate. They will actively promote the health and well-being of occupants.
Circular Living: from ownership to sharing & renting
In this new paradigm, manufacturers, retailers and developers would remain the owners of the product, with maintenance and repair becoming part of the deal. It is time to rethink ownership and make a shift from consumer to user, purchasing service rather than product.

For instance, instead of buying lights for your apartment you would buy lighting as a service, enabling you to be worry-free from maintenance and keep up with the latest technology for energy efficiency. With the manufacturers being fully responsible for the upkeep of the products, their incentives are now more aligned with where they should be, creating and maintaining products for optimal performance.

For our circular village, Taisugar will be renting out the apartments and provide all necessary maintenance to the residents ranging from building all the way to furniture and electrical appliances. As such, the user will pay to use and not pay to own. This project opted the rental idea and extend it to renting light fixtures, furnitures and appliances from the suppliers. Also, we have introduced rentable electric car, scooter and bicycle to the residents.

Other shared facilities includes shared kitchen, shared living room, shared washing machine are available within the village.

Circular Policy: from production to up-cycling

Here in this village, we have strategically placed a farm in the centralized courtyard to provide the food to the villagers. This Circular Farm would consists of permaculture, aquaponic, roof farming and beeskeeping. There is also a composting system using the black soldier fly to manage the digest the domestic bio-waste and turned them into fertilizer and finally feed back to the farm.

At the C-House, an upcycling center and workshop is located to share knowledge with the villagers to up value their “unwanted” materials.

Envisioning circular economy in built environment
The circular economy is a relatively new theme for the public. Circular in this context means all materials can be reused as much as possible within their maximum lifespan. This matters because as a society we have to cut back on consumption of our dwindling supply of raw materials. Furthermore, by using green building methods, we're emitting less CO2, which contributes to a better environment, a healthier society and a more sustainable economy. In the circular economy, production chains are no longer open-ended. Instead, the circle is closed, and waste is always recycled.

A circular architecture embeds the principles of a circular economy across all of its functions, establishing a system that is regenerative and restorative by design. In such architecture, the idea of waste is eliminated, with assets kept at their highest levels of utility at all times and the use of digital technologies a vital process enabler. A circular architecture aims to generate prosperity and economic resilience for itself and its citizens, while decoupling value creation from the consumption of finite resources.
TaiSugar Circular Village adopts the regenerative concept where the outputs of one system are the inputs of another. This is a holistic approach that combines a variety of innovative technologies, such as smart homes, renewable energy, community high-yield organic food production, aquaponics, water management, and waste-to-resource systems.
This integrated community design provides clean energy, water and food right off the doorstep. TCV adds not only environmental and financial value, but also social value, by creating a framework for empowering families and developing a sense of community, where people become part of a shared local eco-system: reconnecting people with nature and consumption with production.

Transitioning towards a more circular world
The challenges of circular economy in construction are great, just as are the opportunities. Manufacturers of composite building materials have already converted their industrial production so that the individual components, such as facades, can be disposed of correctly sorted. Thus all building materials are used again as secondary raw materials. Clean energy can be generated free of charge with photovoltaic.

In a circular economy, we seek to bend that linear economy line into a circular ecosystem, so that the different elements from worn-out products or decommissioned buildings can breathe life into new products or buildings. The circular mindset is about creating value regarding a sustainable aspect or an economic aspect as well as a social aspect.

The transition cannot be achieved by any single actor. It will require collaborative efforts across the value chain, involving individuals, the private sector, different levels of government and civil society. Companies need to design products with circularity in mind, and build components that can close loops in production. Individuals have a key role in creating demand. The public sector needs to play its part in making available the necessary infrastructure, and formulating policies and regulations that incentivize innovation without imposing burdens that dampen growth.

Realising the potential of the circular economy requires a new approach to all aspects of the value chain. This includes financing, procurement, design, construction, operation, maintenance, repurpose and recycling. It requires a step change in systems thinking, design, technology and economic approaches. Connectivity and digitisation are helping to fuel innovation, which is driving a shift to circularity by maximising efficiency, encouraging flexibility and by cutting waste. A wholesale shift will necessitate the rethinking of the way the value chain operates, including business models, financial incentives, use of technology and rewards for reducing wastage.

https://www.taisugarcircularvillage.com/