It started with a movable courthouse and a demountable office. Now Cepezed is building a flexible hospital as if it were child’s play. An interview with the man who sees buildings as vacuum cleaners, Menno Rubbens. A conversation about “detachable buildings,” perhaps a new niche in the real estate market. “With construction, we can really make a dent in a stick of butter.”
Does he feel more like an architect, a contractor, or a developer? “All three, actually.” That’s Menno Rubbens, director of Cepezed Projects (Delft), through and through. At Cepezed, one cannot exist without the other, and from day one of its existence, they have strived to “embody the classic role of the builder.”
“To put it bluntly, as an architect, you’re not just picking out the color of the tiles—you’re also really thinking about designing smart buildings, together with the contractors.”
Read more or listen to the full interview here on Bureau Stoer
Rubbens lashes out without intending to hurt anyone. He doesn’t have time to insult anything or anyone—he’s far too busy for that. The detachable society consumes all his attention.
He made an impression with a temporary and relocatable courthouse, turned heads with a demountable office building in Delft, and this time he’s sinking his teeth into a high-quality, demountable temporary hospital unit. Or as he puts it: a sliding building. “This allows us to carry out the necessary maintenance on the current hospital.”
During the interview for the Bureau Stoer podcast at Speys restaurant in Utrecht, Rubbens is immediately at ease. His vision for modular buildings is far from being a loose collection of ideas. No, this architect, builder, and developer all rolled into one has a vision, a mission, and rarely minces words.
Do you see the world around you falling apart because parties in the sector apparently take hardly any responsibility?
“No, but I do think that fragmentation in the construction industry really slows down innovation. People become risk-averse. A contractor gets a design thrown over the fence and is then sometimes expected to come up with a price for it in just a few weeks. Impossible…”
What’s the story with your ‘demountability agenda’?
“To start with, moving buildings isn’t an end in itself. Above all, I want to ensure that the value you invest in a building remains accessible for the future. At Cepezed, we’ve actually been doing that ever since we were founded 52 years ago: we approach buildings as products, just as if you were building a vacuum cleaner or a car. That gives us more control over quality. Now, that philosophy ties in nicely with the whole discussion about circularity and preserving the value of materials.”
Dick van Ginkel, innovation manager at TBI Woonlab and one of Bureau Stoer’s regular collaborators, also joins the discussion. His new home will be completed soon.
Just how detachable is that?
Van Ginkel: “I think you can detach the roof, and that’s about it, hahaha. But I do find this trend toward detachable construction interesting and relevant.”
He briefly references a report from the EIB (Economic Institute for Construction). It addresses the disappointing returns from adding stories, subdividing, and repurposing existing buildings. The EIB’s main message is that the Netherlands should invest more in new residential neighborhoods on the outskirts of cities. According to Van Ginkel, both approaches are important. “In my opinion, we shouldn’t have to choose; we simply need everything to make that housing possible.”
Rubbens describes himself as a fan of adding stories to existing buildings, but notes that many projects quickly fizzle out. They run into trouble with parking regulations or resistance from local residents. Together with Cepezed, he developed a tool that helps him address the concerns of local residents.
What else is needed to make building extensions take off?
“I’ve occasionally advocated for a law that would allow two additional stories to be added to every building. That makes economic sense, too. The parking problem? That’s often just a problem on paper…”
Back to demountable construction. How difficult is that?
“I think anyone can do it. It’s not rocket science, though as a designer and builder, you do have to take responsibility for the entire process. At the Sophia Children’s Hospital in Rotterdam, we’re currently building a demountable Intensive Care Unit. Incidentally, its structure is similar to the portable courtroom we built earlier. However, this building must be more vibration-free because of the ‘babies in incubators.’ Not a single vibration is acceptable, which places higher demands on the structure.”
Which materials are best suited for this?
“In my view, there are no good or bad materials—aside from toxic ones. There are, however, good and bad applications.”
Why is demountable construction a gap in the market?
“We’recurrently in talks with a number of major area developers. In new neighborhoods, they want to build a number of service buildings with general functions that can be relocated to other neighborhoods after about seven years.”
How quickly can you actually move a building like that?
“The higher the quality of the building, the longer it takes. You can pick up a container building in no time, but dismantling and reassembling the courthouse took about a year in total.”
How do other architects view you guys?
“Many architects focus on the context of buildings. When we design buildings as products that can be placed anywhere, that’s certainly going to spark a debate with the purists in the field of architecture.”
And what do you say to that?
“That we actually feel we’re regaining control over the design and the entire construction process. Incidentally, we also renovate many national historic landmarks. So the fact that we design modular buildings doesn’t mean we don’t respect the surroundings.”
You might even be building in a “circular squared” way. You’ve also pushed to make a dismantling plan mandatory as part of a zoning plan. It didn’t go that far…
“Unfortunately, the discussion around circularity is still hijacked by recycling… Instead, we in the sector should be thinking much more about the long term. In new construction (non-residential), everything is now focused on creating an ‘exit’ for a building after 7 years. Indeed, the throwaway society.”
The average builder might think: everything has to be digital, sustainable, and industrial. Now we also have to build in a modular way. Why?
“For the sake of the environment and to prevent material waste. The construction industry is responsible for 11 percent of global CO2 emissions. That means that we in the construction industry can really make a difference if we tackle this better.”
Curious about the full interview with Menno Rubbens and Dick van Ginkel? Listen to Bureau Stoer here.
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