The construction industry is facing major challenges: The high consumption of resources and the associated environmental impact make a rethink urgently necessary. The circular economy is seen as the key to more sustainable construction. However, both in Germany and France, there is a lack of marketable solutions and incentives for the use of recyclable materials. In the

Promising approaches are currently emerging in the Upper Rhine region that have the potential to serve as role models and strengthen the acceptance of circular practices in the construction sector. A concrete contribution to this is being made by the Franco-German event series "Circular Building"which sheds light on various aspects of the topic.

The event kicks off with the "Clay as a circular building material" on 10 July 2025 - an opportunity to get to know the traditional yet sustainable material clay from an architectural, craftsmanship and research-based perspective. As part of this, we offered participants an excursion with Prof Andreas Löffler to the Community centre made of rammed earth our largest and most impressive rammed earth project to date, which was honoured with the Exemplary Building Award.