Foundations have been in the news regularly in recent months. Up to one million Dutch houses are at risk of subsidence – the process by which land or dwellings sink to a lower level. This applies especially to houses built on wooden piles. The sinking groundwater level – due to drought – causes the wooden poles to rise above water. This causes the wood to rot. Concrete foundations (also called foundations on steel) on peat or clay soil also pose a risk. In drought, the soil shrinks, and in wetter periods, the soil expands. The shifts can cause a foundation to lose stability, and a lot of water over a short period can wash away the material under the foundation. Repairs can add up to more than a ton per building, causing anxiety for homeowners.
The foundations are the basis of all buildings, so they must be solid. It’s time to explore new solutions then. What innovations can improve foundations? And solve the problems? I talked to building scientist Faas Moonen and entrepreneur Gijs Schalkwijk. They are working on innovations in construction every day. “Repairing or replacing the foundation of a building is a big task. It takes a lot of time and involves considerable engineering efforts. So far, no smart solutions have been devised to simplify this process on a large scale,” outlines Schalkwijk, CTO and co-owner of B-smart.
Foundations from the factory
Schalkwijk’s company focuses on improving the construction of new foundations, a process that takes several steps and involves several other companies. “The construction process is very fragmented, and many different parties are needed to arrive at an end product,” he says. Companies are highly dependent on each other. If one person delays, it affects the rest of the process. That often makes it very inefficient and also increases the risk of failure costs.
B-smart’s construction method is completely different. It consists of fewer intermediate steps, all done by one party. The foundation’s formwork is largely made in a factory. This automated process ensures fewer errors, higher quality, and faster turnaround time. Craftsmen lay the ready-made formwork, including reinforcement, on the ground and pour concrete. “In this way, the process goes a lot faster,” Schalkwijk says.
From research to startup
The innovative foundations have now managed to secure a spot in the market. But that didn’t happen by itself. It started some twenty years ago with scientific research by Faas Moonen, associate professor of innovative structural design at the Faculty of Architecture at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). Moonen earned his doctorate by researching a new form of foundation. Using Moonen’s research as a basis, B-smart builds many foundations for distribution centers and focuses on the more complex infrastructure.
It is a push to make the promise of research into new technology come true in practice
Faas Moonen
While studying at TU/e, Gijs Schalkwijk, and Joost Huijgen wrote a business plan based on Moonen’s idea. Schalkwijk graduated with a thesis on the technical part of the product, and Huijgen focused on the commercial aspects. A golden entrepreneurial duo, as the following years proved. “We got a grant from the Foundation for Technical Sciences (STW) to further develop the product and make a prototype,” Schalkwijk says. Such grants are crucial to getting innovations off the ground, Moonen emphasizes. “It is a push to make the promise of research into new technology come true in practice.”
Covering all aspects
The founders of B-smart introduced a completely new view of construction, and that is not always easy. Says Schalkwijk, “In the current construction process, innovation is hard to get off the ground because everyone only does a small piece of the job. So, the influence of an individual party is limited. For a major innovation to really get off the ground in the complete process, parties must work together. Moreover, fewer parties will be needed in such a development in the future.” He believes in a model where everything takes place under one roof. “Parts are made in the factory, but we also have engineers in-house who devise everything and craftsmen who eventually build it. The lines are short and clear.”
B-smart, then, is not Schalkwijk and Huijgen’s only company. They now own the B-group, which includes five different companies. In addition to B-smart’s foundations, B-invented is the engineering firm, and B-too deals with architecture – both inside and outside. B-happy, in turn, takes care of the execution of total buildings on site. Schalkwijk: “This allows us to make the necessary efficiency efforts, the lines are short, and improvements are implemented faster. Moreover, we learn much for the future, so we keep improving ourselves.”
Moonen emphasizes that innovating in construction is difficult, in part because of a deeply held belief in society: “Construction works differently than many other economies. If we buy a car, we know that the vehicle will be worth next to nothing in a certain number of years and that we have to save up in time to buy a new one. With a house, it works differently. If we sell a house after several years, we want to get more back for it than we invested. As a result, there is a fear of depreciation throughout the sector, which makes everyone stick to the familiar ways of working, and thus we innovate less.”
Collaboration is important
B-smart has always maintained a connection with the university; for example, there is regular consultation between entrepreneurs and scientists, such as Moonen. In addition, several students work at the company. “They help us with making drawings and other tasks. This is very convenient for us and instructive for the students; they gain practical experience early on. In recent years, many of those students also stay with us after their training. They grow within the company.” Such collaborations between universities and companies can drive innovations forward, as seen within 4TU.Built Environment, a partnership between the architecture faculties of the four technical universities in the Netherlands. They also regularly seek collaboration with innovative companies in research and education projects.
The power of sustainability
Sustainability plays an important role in B-group’s process. “In all honesty, when we started this company, people thought sustainability was fun if they got it for free. Now, sustainable construction is fundamental. This is, of course, because government regulations have become stricter in recent years, but we also see that our clients are making different choices in this area for real,” Schalkwijk outlines. In the engineering process outlined by B-group, the construction is optimized as best as possible. “This results in major savings compared to original designs,” Schalkwijk states. As a result, materials are also used more economically. “For example, we use a filler element in our foundations so that the concrete forms a kind of tube instead of a completely massive beam. This way, we save concrete without the foundation losing stability.” Such an innovative approach to design for sustainability in construction is needed for the transition to a circular economy by 2050. That is one of the focal points of the Domain Acceleration Team (DAT) Circularity & Sustainability within 4TU.Built Environment.
In the coming period, Schalkwijk and Huijgen will focus on wood construction in addition to their existing activities. B-leaf is the youngest member of the B-family. This company’s main focus is timber construction. “With the same thought as with B-smart, offering a whole wooden construction, including connecting elements, production, and execution of the whole.”
Collaboration
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