Valbowal and ULiège win awards at the SBE conference

At the end of June, the SBE conference took place in Zurich, featuring Sophie Trachte, Valbowal's leader and professor at the University of Liège's Faculty of Architecture, and two researchers from the Acte laboratory (UR AAP - Unité de Recherche Interfacultaire Mixte Art, Archéologie et Patrimoine), Ophélie Noël and Aline Romboux. The women from Liège return with the Best Poster award...

Faced with the environmental impact of the construction sector, the SBE conference - which stands for Sustainable Built Environment - aims to envisage an in-depth transformation of this sector towards climate neutrality and the circular economy, guaranteeing dignified living conditions for a growing humanity, in a context of climate upheaval. Its aim is to highlight a systemic approach, the only one capable of revealing synergies and arbitrating trade-offs between different building functions (safety, comfort, health, etc.), scales (from material to planet), sectors (industry, agriculture, energy, etc.) and key dimensions (economy, society, ecology).

During the three-day conference, the following strategic axes were explored:

• Integrated management of energy and resources, from buildings to territories;
• Digital transformation as a lever for a systemic shift from a linear to a circular model;
• Innovative business models, to accelerate the implementation of regenerative solutions;
• Synergies between sustainable systems, at the interface of the environment, society and the economy.

It was in this prestigious setting that Ophélie Noël presented her diploma thesis on the reuse of old timber, and Aline Romboux her doctoral thesis on the potential integration of bamboo in Wallonia, and its consequent use in low-carbon circular construction. Sophie Trachte, meanwhile, presented her research into the benefits of bio-sourced insulating materials for energy renovation.

After numerous exchanges with the scientists present, both active in the field of reuse and bio-based materials, Aline and Sophie returned home with the conference's Best Poster award.