RESPIRA Urban Mining Barcelona

The concept tackles the concrete issue in the most direct way. It acknowledges the necessity of concrete as an unavoidable material but shifts its sourcing from the earth’s crust to the built environment itself in a radically circular approach.

Instead of using the recycled concrete waste to manufacture another new in-situ concrete structure, RESPIRA is aiming to prolong the lifecycle of concrete by making multi-purpose elements re-usable many times. They do not support the conventional constructive logic of reinforced concrete which enabled us to build virtually any shape — but bound the material to that single-use. Instead, they hint at a much more readable, tangible and eventually flexible architecture: The Blocks are stacked, layered, vaulted, tensioned as stones — and disassembled.

RESPIRA proposes Urban Mining in the spot, separating concrete waste into its original components to create a new, carbon-capturing building block: the RESPIRA Block.

The pilot project shown at UIA 2026 exhibition from 19. June to 19. July 2026 shows live concrete crushing, the casted new RESPIRA blocks and the assembly of a RESPIRA storage sculpture that becomes urban furniture.

On Tuesday, 30 June 2026 at 12:25 pm, Roger Boltshauser will present the RESPIRA concept, as part of the broader theme “Reinventing Stone: Ecological Continuities and Tectonic Innovations” together with AAU ANASTAS.  

Opening Previous Congress: 19 – 27 June 2026

Opening Ceremony: 28 June 2026

Roger Boltshauser Lecture: 30 June 2026, 12:25 pm, Program

UIA World Congress of Architects: 28 June – 2 July 2026

After Congress: 3 – 19 July 2026

Location: Barcelona, Three Chimneys