In construction, true innovation rarely happens in isolation. It takes shared vision, trust, and the courage to test something no one has done before. That’s exactly what happened when Peikko Benelux and Consolis VBI joined forces to explore new ways of building for a circular future.
When Wim Zwaan, Director of Peikko Benelux B.V., joined the company in 2007, few people in the Benelux area believed in bolted connections.
“I was convinced, but persuading customers was the hard part. Slowly but surely, we succeeded. In 2017, our customer from Belgium saw the potential: what you can screw together, you can also unscrew. Dismounting was already in our solutions’ DNA, it just wasn’t visible yet,” Wim Zwaan says.
Now, design for disassembly is the guiding principle behind Peikko’s newest achievement: a reusable slim floor structure, DELTABEAM® Green Reuse, tested and proven in a pilot project done together with Consolis VBI.
A natural match for circular thinking
In the Netherlands, circular construction has long been part of the national conversation, yet it has mostly focused on façades and finishes and not the structural frame.
“There’s a lot of circular development here, but it rarely touches the structure itself. We’ve been working in close collaboration with our customers for years, and now they come to Peikko because they want to hear our insight. They want clarity and tangible solutions, and that’s exactly what the market at large needs,” Wim explains.
That clarity came through collaboration. In 2024, Peikko Benelux and Consolis VBI launched a joint pilot project to demonstrate that true circularity can reach the structural core. Their goal was simple but ambitious: to design, build, and repeatedly disassemble a real frame structure, and prove that it works.
At Consolis, the vision aligned perfectly.
“Our collaboration originally started on Dutch Steel Construction Day in 2023. It was the first time VBI had a stand there, because hollow-core slab floors are a perfect match for steel structures. Peikko Benelux was there too, and that’s where we first started discussing and sharing ideas. Then we said: let’s just do it, and learn from it,” Ronald Klein-Holte, Research and Development Manager at Consolis VBI recalls.
“At Consolis, we are active in all three pillars of sustainability: reducing CO2 in our concrete mix and production, reducing material use, and expanding the lifetime of our products by reusing hollow-core slabs, Ronald adds.
Designing for disassembly
Ronald’s first impression of Peikko’s solution goes back years.
“My first experience with DELTABEAM® dates back a long time, when it was introduced to the Dutch market by the trading company Hacquebord. From the start, it was a natural fit with hollow-core slabs. In my view, hollow-core slab floors and DELTABEAM® belong together,” he says.
The pilot combined Peikko’s DELTABEAM® Green Reuse with Consolis precast hollow-core slabs, ATLANT® composite columns, precast columns with HELKA ® Column Shoes and timber columns mounted with ROOCO® Column Shoes. The team created a hybrid structure that could be built and taken apart multiple times, testing joints, latches, and overall endurance.
“We executed the test, built and disassembled two times and simulated the second lifetime of the structure. DELTABEAM® really endured. There’s always some waste, but it’s very limited and can be recycled. It worked fantastically: the beam, the joints, everything. We were all excited,” Wim says.
For Consolis, the pilot ran like a small, well-managed project.
“We did it as a normal project. The main challenge was to conduct the pilot in a dry environment, but we found the opportunity in an empty production facility. With deliveries, assembly, and testing, everything went very fast—it all came together smoothly,” Ronald explains.
From opportunity to collaboration
The partnership soon turned into a two-way challenge, and the mutual mindset facilitated the flow of the project.
“We didn’t want another study; we wanted a concrete result to show it was doable—even simple,” Wim says.
Ronald agrees.
“This partnership shows that both parties share the same view on reuse and showing it in practice. We hardly had to change our product, but we designed the floor without structural topping, which is normally used. The connecting rebars were positioned in the longitudinal joints and screwed to the beam instead of casted rebars to make it work as intended and we also added steel-edge beams. It worked perfectly,” he says.
“The pilot was done in a positive flow. Both teams shared the same ambition, and communication was great. Early on, we decided that instead of inviting designers to visit, we’d present the outcome through a video, to show the process and results to a wider audience,” Ronald adds.
A small but dedicated team of modular designers and business thinkers drove the work forward.
“It was a fantastic collaboration. Everyone had the same ambition level, and the energy was contagious,” Wim says.
Next steps for a circular future
The pilot proved that designing for disassembly is no longer only a theory—it’s a working method ready for scaling. But to make reuse mainstream, two major steps remain.
“First, we need clear building regulations so companies can adjust and scale up. And second, designers and architects must start making their designs fit for disassembly and reassembly from the beginning,” Wim says.
This change is already visible across the Netherlands as more customers turn to Peikko and Consolis VBI for guidance.
“People are starting to believe in the change. You just need the courage to take the first step,” Wim reflects.
Ronald agrees that this kind of practical example is exactly what the market needs to move forward.
“The pilot showed that instead of taking an academic approach, we can create a real, practical case with a positive result. Now we can show designers that design for reassembly can be applied without additional costs—and that makes all the difference,” he says.
Rethink. Reframe. Reuse.
The pilot by Peikko and Consolis VBI demonstrates that reuse isn’t a distant ambition: it’s a proven, scalable way to build smarter. One beam, one structure, and one courageous step at a time.
Learn more about our campaign and DELTABEAM® Green Reuse.