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Researching adaptive buildings, we explore circular solutions for future-proof office- and residential space. By reimagining buildings, we adjust them to a human-ecological scale and contribute to the emergence of a sustainable and attractive lifestyle.

Futur2K

We research and develop adaptive buildings to provide more freedom, cost efficiency and peace of mind for builders and to accelerate a successful transition towards a fully circular industry that allows people, planet and economy to thrive.

To execute this mission, Futur2K (F2K) is currently developing a scalable building-system for regenerative and high-quality office- and residential-buildings, which are reusable and customizable and can adapt to changing needs and contexts over time. This building-system is called ADPT.

CURRENT DEVELOPMENT STATUS

The production of the first small-scale ADPT-prototype has been successfully completed. The prototype (“Building Block No 1”) has been unveiled at Museum Folkwang’s Exhibition “Folkwang and the city” and has been updated for the next chapter of the journey: the ADPT-module is now part of the Unesco World Heritage Site Zollverein.

If interested in upcoming milestones and current development-steps, you can find all updates on our social media channels.   /  

CHALLENGES / BUILDING SECTOR

© F2K

LACK OF FLEXIBILITY

  • increasing demand to repurpose/reconfigure buildings due to changing needs and contexts (technological advancements, economy, demographics, climate, etc.)
  • common practice today: “demolish and build new” as current buildings lack the ability to adapt
    • leads to a significant loss of energy, material, meaning & economic value
  • high costs
  • lack of resilience
  • risk for „stranded assets“

HARMFUL

  • building sector responsible for
    • approx. 37% of CO2 emissions (globally)
    • 50%+ of waste (globally)
  • not aligned to
    • EU-Taxonomy
    • SDG’s
    • upcoming regulations
  • billions of tons of valuable material are stored in our built environment and can’t be reused, because everything is “baked together” (due to concrete, adhesives, etc.).
  • only 1-8% of materials used for buildings are re-used, which translates into high economic, social & ecological costs and sensitive supply chain dependencies.

COMPLEX & RISKY

  • associated with multiple risks, high stakes, many stakeholders and uncertainty
  • lack of security regarding costs/financing, timeline, quality of outcome, on site-conditions., etc.
  • changing needs/contexts are hard to anticipate
  • remodeling/reconfiguring is often a complex, costly & time-consuming process.

BUILDING AS USUAL = NOT FUTURE PROOF

The list of challenges could easily be extended and illustrates the significant ecological, social and economic potential of future proofing the real estate sector. To unlock this potential, transformative, circular and scalable solutions are required. This is what F2K is going at.

PARTNERSHIPS FOR CHANGE

© F2K

To execute our mission, F2K is patnering up with leading forces in the field to create our circular and adaptive building-system. With the support of our main development partner ARUP – a global leader in circular design, engineering and architecture – the Institute for the Digitization of the building sector (Universität Duisburg-Essen) and other partnering organizations from science and industry, we contribute to the complex task of changing the way we build.

CO-CREATIVE & CO-VISIONARY

We believe that it needs strong companionship, a diverse skillset and leading expert knowledge from different domains to create a resilient and regenerative world. Thus, we celebrate a culture of co-creation, mutual learning and continuous improvement and join forces with academic, corporate and public institutions. We also partner up with early adopters to showcase our system and to create a first fully scaled building based on the ADPT idea.

VISION

Our joint Vision is to make ADPT a key to showcase the feasibility of a fully circular economy in the building sector. Together we aim at inspiring change in the built environment by creating a scalable building-kit for regenerative buildings that can adapt to changing needs, provide more freedom and peace of mind to customers and empower communities to live and work in congruence with nature. We envision a future where our buildings contribute to the well-being, performance and resilience of all stakeholders, preserving planetary conditions which allow us and future generations to thrive.

FOUNDERS

Bastian Michael & Lukas Reinhard  

After developing a concept for circular and adaptive buildings, Bastian joined forces with long-term friend Lukas, who has been engaged in creating sustainable buildings with a focus on reducing grey energy for many years.

Together they began a research and development journey in their free time to create a scalable building-kit for adaptive buildings. This led to founding the research & start-up project Futur2K GmbH (F2K) in 2021.

Sharing the belief of Carlota Perez that green will not spread by guilt or fear, but by desire and aspiration, they strive to offer more freedom, resilience and peace of mind to fellow humans – contributing to make sustainable options a natural choice, simply because they are the more attractive solution.

ADPT

Future-proof office- and residential-buildings.

Three Basic Principles

Freedom

ADPT-Buildings can be freely customized to perfectly align to individual needs and specific building-sites. In addition, they provide the freedom to evolve with you over time. If your needs or contexts ever change, ADPT-buildings change with you, making sure that you always have the building setup you need. No more, no less. More flexibility means more freedom to adapt and thus, more resilience.

Resilience

ADPT is developed to resynchronize our way of living with nature, contributing to local and planetary conditions that enhance comfort, health and performance. Establishing a radical circularity-framework at the core of the system, facilitates reusable buildings which are able to regenerate and adapt like the cells of a living organism. Thus, ADPT-buildings don’t loose function, value and meaning over time. They reduce CO2 emissions and waste and enable a new degree of durability and resilience.

Peace of mind

The ADPT-system is designed for peace of mind. Significantly reducing construction-times, complexity and risks, while providing transparency regarding costs, sustainability data, construction-phase and building-performance, enables informed decisions. Prefabrication is key to design out long time-periods of noise, dirt, weather dependent risks and other unpleasant aspects. Knowing that your building is a future proof asset, in congruence with regulations, while providing a positive impact on physical health, performance and mental abilities feels good. In addition, that ADPT-buildings can respond to unforeseeable changes means less reasons to worry about an unknown future and more resources to focus on what is important now.

More freedom

1. A building that adapts to individual needs, context and conditions (planning phase)

  • choose a building-configuration that fully aligns to your company’s or residential-project’s needs:
    • freely customize building size, materials, floorplans, technology, etc.
    • freely choose between different payment-options

2. A building that evolves over time (use-phase)

  • If there is no need for change, ADPT-buildings can be used like any conventional building. If needs or conditions change, they can adapt:
    • update or substitute ADPT-elements to regenerate buildings (i.e. technology, façade, space plan, etc.)
    • add ADPT-modules for additional space
    • add ADPT-elements (i.e. smart-building systems, a roof-top-terrace, energy-systems, etc.)
    • modify/repurpose building (i.e. an office-building into living units or vice-versa)
    • reduce modules for less space
    • utilize modules at a different location
    • sell/monetize them

3. A building, that is only there as long as you need it (post-use-phase)

  • Sell it to a third party, move it to another site or give it back for refurbishment & reuse.

Your freedom. Your choice.

More resilience

IN SYNC WITH NATURE

1. REDUCTION OF CO2 EMISSIONS & WASTE & DECOUPLING GROWTH AND RESOURCE CONSUMPTION

    • Circular Materials – biobased (high-performing, carbon storing) & recyclates (high-quality, aesthetic, made from “waste” = actively reducing waste from our environment)
    • merging carbon storing and waste reducing materials with a building-system designed for multiple re-use is a tangible key to decouple economic growth and resource consumption and facilitates buildings which not only respect planetary boundaries, but actively reverse damage done to our natural environment in the past
    • the freedom to modify ADPT-buildings, allows them to regenerate and to adapt to new usage demands, breaking the linear pattern of continous “demolition-build-demolition-build” cycles. This means an additional reduction of CO2 emissions and resource consumption.
    • at the end of their lifecycle, ADPT-buildings are not waste, but material banks, storing sets of valuable resources.
    • from “individual project” to „scalable and customizable product” means getting away from energy and resource “heavy” building-processes. While conventional approaches conceive buildings as isolated artefacts which need a lot of planning and building-resources, prefabricated and standardized buildings are highly efficient regarding their “input-output” ratio (personnel, materials, waste, energy, etc). Plus “products” get more efficient and better in quality with each iteration.
    • resource efficient building operations (advanced insulation, regenerative energy sources, etc. reduce energy-consumption and costs)

2. MINIMALLY-INVASIVE

  • significant reduction of landsealing, preserving ecosystem-functions of the soil (ADPT-stilted-system)
  • Flexibility & modularity of the building-kit enables thorough integration of buildings into the environment (i.e. to “build around” existing elements like trees, instead of cutting them down)

3. UNLOCKING POSITIVE EFFECTS OF A HUMAN CENTERED DESIGN

  • only what is perceived as beautiful and valuable is preserved over time and thus a human-centered and timeless design, is key for our sustainable approach.
  • We spend up to 90% of our time indoors, thus a surrounding which does not only impact our well-being, but also physiological measures like heart rate, blood pressure etc., matters. From air quality to light sources, a multitude of variables affects us every day and incrementally over time. That’s why we research, choose and design every material and configuration carefully to support a positive impact on comfort, health and cognitive capacities.

4. RESILIENT COMMUNITIES

  • The ADPT-buildings capacity to adapt empowers companies and communities to adapt to changes of markets, climate, technological advancements etc. fostering long-term resilience.

Scaling solutions like ADPT enables us to minimize emitting CO2 and to massively reduce the need for raw materials and landsealing. Once fully established, the ADPT-system has the potential to become the first climate positive and adaptive solution in the sector and to actively contribute to reduce waste from our environment.

Peace of mind

1. PEACE OF MIND DURING PLANNING PHASE

  • get a customized Building aligned to your
    • needs
    • building site / context / conditions
    • preferences
  • enjoy full transparency regarding
    • costs
    • sustainability data
  • customize your payment options to match your preferences
  • benefit from cost- and resource efficiency due to automatized preproduction and digitized processes
  • building is developed in congruence with EU-Taxonomy and SDG’s and (generally) eligible for public funding (Germany)

2. PEACE OF MIND DURING CONSTRUCTION-PHASE

  • fast & easy process: order » preconstruction » delivery on site
    • 50-70% faster than BAU (“build as usual“)
    • saving time & money
  • benefits of standardized prefabrication
    • security regarding time schedule and quality of outcome
    • reduced „site-condition dependencies” (i.e. weather)
    • reduction of stress on-site (construction noise, pollution, dirt, etc.)
    • fast erection of building („plug n‘ play“)

3. PEACE OF MIND DURING USE-PHASE

  • Future proof asset
    • congruent to current/upcoming sustainability regulations
    • flexibility » reduction of risk for stranded asset
    • helps to attract top-talent / positive impact on retention, performance and identification
  • Flexibility & Resilience
    • ability to regenerate and adapt prepares for the unknown. If something changes, the building can evolve too.
  • Organisms who adapt to changing contexts best, have an competitive edge. The same is true for companies and communities which utilize buildings that can respond to change.
  • Health, well-being and performance nurturing design
  • Durability
    •  lowering total costs of ownership

4. PEACE OF MIND DURING POST-USE-PHASE

  • do, what’s best for you
    • reallocate building to another site
    • Give it back for refurbishment and reuse
    • Sell and monetize modules or entire building
    • Building is not waste, but a valuable asset („material bank“)

USE SCENARIOS

© Arup
© Futur2K

ADPT-buildings can morph into different shapes, sizes and functions within a variety of use scenarios and – if necessary – regenerate and being repurposed multiple times over their lifespan. They can be utilized as detached buildings or for redensification purposes, unlocking new economic and social opportunities for future proof commercial and residential space.

Freedom powered by flexibility

The flexibility of the „ADPT“-system is the enabling factor to reimagine what a building is and can be. ADPT’s new degree of flexibility is based on the detachability of building layers and parts. Like a Lego-kit, layers and parts can be attached to each other, detached and reconfigured. All layers can be substituted according to their individual lifespan, facilitating the building’s capacity to regenerate like the cell of a living organism and to adapt to changing needs and contexts over time.

© Arup

Boosting circularity – from linear to circular to adaptive

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Linear processes are energy-, CO2 and resource intensive, increase waste and incentivize planned obsolescence. Applying circular economy principles to the building sector in a way radical enough, to have a positive and significant impact on climate and resource consumption when scaled, requires reimagining the way buildings are conceptualized, planned, realized, operated and dealt with at the end of their lifecycle.

Such a “radical” circular mindset underlays the development of the “ADPT-building-kit”. The ADPT-system is keeping buildings, modules, elements and materials at their highest value longer, by circulating them inside of the ADPT-system. The ability to adapt makes sure that the use-phase of buildings is extended. Even at the end of their life-cycle ADPT-buildings are not waste, but material banks on which valuable resources are stored, which can be refurbished, reused and monetized.

ADPT-cycle

adaptive, circular & durable – the ADPT-building

  • made of circular modules and elements, which can be stacked up to 5 stories
  • can regenerate
  • can start big or small, grow, shrink, transform and move
  • prolonged (re-)use-phase, saving CO2, resources and costs
  • deconstructed into modules and elements at end of lifecycle (no waste)

circular layers – the building-kit

  • modules and elements made of circular materials
  • can cycle through ADPT-buildings multiple times
  • deconstructed into homogeneous materials at the end of their life-cycle

circular materials – the base

  • biobased & renewable – “nature designs best”
  • recycled & aesthetic – “there is no waste, just stuff in the wrong place”
  • on this „base-level“ materials enter and leave the ADPT-system
© Arup

Data from the first prototype
“Building Block No 1”

We successfully completed development phase 1 in 2022, where flexibility of structural elements and exploration of circular materials have been in focus.

Material related circularity 84%
CO2 Emissions versus building as usual (BAU): 50%
2 times durability of building as usual (BAU) 100%
Detachability index 67%
Available for reuse and recycling after lifetime 68%

Aiming at climate positive solutions and zero waste, we made great progress with our first prototype. One example of many: more carbon is captured in the prototype than has been emitted throughout the entire production process, starting with extraction of raw materials. However, this was only the beginning and very first step. Once fully established, the ADPT-system has the potential to become the first climate positive and adaptive solution in the sector.

SDG’s IMPACTED BY ADPT (SELECTION)

3 – GOOD HEALTH AND WELL-BEING
7 – AFFORDABLE AND CLEAN ENERGY
8 – DECENT WORK AND ECONOMIC GROWTH
9 – INDUSTRY, INNOVATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE
11 – SUSTAINABLE CITIES AND COMMUNITIES
12 – RESPONSIBLE CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION
13 – CLIMATE ACTION
15 – LIFE ON LAND
17 – PARTNERSHIPS FOR THE GOALS

Find out more about the goals here.

Sustainable Development Goals

Prototype 1 – Folkwang Project 2022

We are thankful for having been provided the platform to showcase the first ADPT-prototype at renowned Museum Folkwang. “Building block No 1” has been a centerpiece of the museums 100-year anniversary exhibition “Folkwang and the city” in 2022, dedicated to urban development and transformation towards a sustainable future.

In the middle of Germany’s biggest urban agglomeration international artists, decision makers, local communities and eco-impact-start ups came together to explore the opportunities of a future proof tomorrow.

„Building Block No 1“ was utilized to test circular materials and the constructive innovations required for an adaptive building system. Visitors could explore the module and learn how this new construction approach can be a driving force to move us toward a net-zero and low-waste society.

Impressions from site / exhibition opening

Prototype 2 – From circular module to adaptive building

Model project for inclusion and redensification on the basis of an adaptive, future proof and community enhancing buildingsystem.

Partnering with the inclusion fostering social organizations Aktion Mensch, EMMA+WIR and ARUP, F2K has been contracted to explore the beneficial implications of the ADPT-system for a fully accessible and inclusive residential complex via a feasibility study. Integrating an adaptive, sustainable and minimally invasive building structure into the local ecology of a specific site and thoroughly adding new building-elements into the context of a beautiful and already existing school-building, has been key in this exploration. You can take a look into our work via the following link („Machbarkeitsstudie Kunstwerkerschule“).

Partner

Successful transformation needs co-creative collaborations. Many excellent and creative minds contribute to the ADPT-development.

DEVELOPMENT PARTNERS (PRODUCT)

Arup
Arup University
Institute for Digitization of the building industry
(University Duisburg-Essen)

PRODUCTION (PROTOTYPE DEVELOPMENT)

Baumgarten GmbH

START UP DEVELOPMENT & SUPPORT

Impact Factory
RuhrHub Essen
Innoshot
EWG

Team

Time to grow. In case you…

  1. want to join the challenge to develop a circular, attractive and future-proof building system
  2. enjoy the culture of an ambitious, committed and companionship-driven start-up team with flexible work-modes
  3. have a proven track record of success or show other signs of talent in the fields of circular economy, business building, design, programming, AI/BIM/Blockchain, architecture & engineering, communication or project-management

…we should talk. Write us at mail@futur2k.com. We look forward to hear from you!

Stay tuned. More to come soon.

Or connect with us. Stay updated regarding the next Steps of the ADPT-development and share your thoughts with us via social media or mail. Enabling a future proof work- and lifestyle requires joint forces.

mail@Futur2K.com
Futur2K GmbH
Kahrstraße 23
D–45128 Essen

All images and graphics © Arup unless otherwise noted.

© 2022–2023 Futur2K GmbH · Impressum · Datenschutz

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