About
The PREUSE Symposium is a one-time event that brings together professionals and researchers with a shared interest in public reuse centres. The aim is to present knowledge and experiences from diverse fields of expertise and to enable an exchange between international participants who share ambitions and face similar challenges.
What are public reuse centres?
In the context of PREUSE, we understand a public reuse centre to be any form of physical infrastructure to store and/or prepare construction materials for future reuse, which is supported by a public authority in some way or another. If you are curious about existing cases of such infrastructures and types of public support, you might be interested in the PREUSE Atlas of Reuse Centres. During the symposium there will be plenty of opportunities to learn from some of the leading examples in North-West Europe.
Who is the symposium for?
An important aim of the symposium is to cross disciplinary silos. In short, we welcome everyone who is interested in publicly supported reuse infrastructure, from whatever professional background. In particular, we welcome:
Public officials and policymakers who wish to establish or support reuse infrastructure for the construction sector;
Researchers who are interested in public reuse infrastructure from their particular field of study (ecology, anthropology, urban planning, geography, public governance, sociology, etc.);
Reuse professionals in the private or public sector who are involved in the actual salvage and reuse of construction materials.
Registration
Some activities allow for only a limited number of participants. Please register as soon as possible if you wish to participate in the entire programme.
Programme
Day 1
Mechelen - Lamot Congress and Heritage Centre
Morning programme
After an introduction on the PREUSE project, the main goal of the morning programme will be to explore what exactly is at stake when setting up a reuse centre. Three researchers will each elaborate on a theoretical framework to help navigate its political, social and ecological context.
8:30 - Welcome & coffee
9:00 - Opening remarks & introduction on the PREUSE project
Presentation of the symposium programme and a brief introduction on the PREUSE project and its main deliverables.
9:45 - The reuse centre as a public stock of materials
Lecture by Martial Vialleix (FR, L'Institut Paris Region, Université Paris-Dauphine) on urban material flows from the perspective of metabolism studies and urban planning.
10:30 - Coffee break
11:00 - The reuse centre as a space for urban productivity
Lecture by Sarah De Boeck (BE, IDEA Consult) on public land and urban planning as leverages to make space for the reuse economy.
11:45 - Speaker TBA
12:30 - Networking lunch
14:00 - Parallel round tables
Cycle A: Materials In these sessions, we focus on the materials themselves, and bring together diverse reuse centres which share a specialization. | Cycle B: Projects In these sessions, we focus on a single case study per roundtable, and bring together several actors who played a part in their establishment. | |
14:00 | A1: Finishing Materials With Hugo Bonnet (Cycle Up, FR) and August Smessaert (Materialenbank Leuven, BE) | B1: The public-private reuse centre: the case of Roubaix (FR) With Valentin Mousain (Lille European Metropolis) and Léo Pares (City of Roubaix) |
15:00 | A2: Roadwork materials With Ronald Koning (City of Amsterdam) and Paul Lesieur (Université Gustave Eiffel) | B2: The internal reuse centre: With Lieske Oostveen and Mirjam Scholtens (City of Utrecht) |
16:00 | Coffee break | |
16:30 | A3: Historical materials With Paula Lage (City of Porto) and Lara Reyniers (Vrije Universiteit Brussel, BE) | B3: The temporary reuse centre: the case of Nancy (FR) With Jérôme Burtin (Maison du Réemploi), Arnaud Gauthier (Ajir Environnement), Jean-François Briche and Mathieu Collot (OMh) |
17:30 - Networking dinner (on registration)
19:00 - Public keynote lecture by Finn Williams (SE/UK)
Finn Williams is City Architect of Malmö and co-founder of Public Practice. In his lecture, Finn will address the public management of urban material stocks from a broader outlook on urban development and the role of the public sector therein.
Day 2
Brussels - On site and at COOP Anderlecht
9:00 - Site visits of reuse infrastructure in Brussels
Attention: this activity allows for only a limited number of participants. Please register as soon as possible if you wish to participate.
Participants meet in the North of Brussels for a visit to the Brussels’ municipal depot for roadwork materials under the guidance of the city services. The depot is easily accessible through public transport from Mechelen or Brussels.
Next, a private bus will take participants from the depot to Recypark Demets, a domestic waste collection facility near the centre of Brussels.12:00 - Networking lunch
13:30 - Parallel workshops
Attention: this activity allows for only a limited number of participants. Based on the participants expression of interest in any or one specific workshop in the registration form, the workshops’ hosts will extend an invitation to participate.
Workshops take place in COOP, Anderlecht (see below), which is located right next to Recypark Demets.
Workshop 1: A strategy to set up and run a reuse centre Hosted by Rotor (BE) During this workshop, participants are invited to react to the first version of a PREUSE deliverable aimed at assisting public authorities in setting up a reuse centre. | Workshop 2: The architecture of reuse centres Hosted by Bellastock (FR) and prof. Tiphaine Abenia (Université Libre de Bruxelles) During this workshop, participants are invited to a discussion on the spatial and architectural quality of urban reuse infrastructure. | Workshop 3: Experiences from the European Circular[x]Change network Hosted by materialnomaden (AT) During this workshop, participants are invited to share cases and experiences of public reuse centres beyond the NWE area. |
16:00 - End of symposium
The full programme is available to download here.
Practical Information
The symposium takes place on Thursday 4th of June and Friday 5th of June 2026. The symposium will be hosted in two extraordinary venues, both reconverted industrial sites.
Day 1: Lamot Congress and Heritage Centre
Van Beethovenstraat 8/10, 2800 Mechelen
How to get there: Lamot Congress and Heritage Centre lies in the centre of Mechelen, within walking distance to Mechelen train station, which is served by trains from and to Brussels every 20 minutes.
Day 2: Site visits and workshops at COOP, Anderlecht
Fernand Demetskaai 23, 1070 Brussels
How to get there: Participants will meet in the morning on a yet to be determined location in the Brussels area. The location will be accessible by public transport from both Mechelen and Brussels. From there, a private bus will take participants to the second site visit and COOP, where the afternoon visits will take place.
