© C. Küpfer

On June 22, 2026, the Joint Workshop on the Reuse of Concrete Structures took place at Ruhr University Bochum.

The CRC 1683 team discussed the reuse of reinforced concrete components with Prof. Célia Küpfer from McGill University in Canada and Prof. Numo Bertola from the University of Luxembourg. Prof. Küpfer is an architect whose work focuses on circular design, reuse, preservation, and the transformation of the built environment. Prof. Bertola heads the Sustainable Concrete Structures research group and focuses on innovative, low-emission solutions for concrete structures as well as reuse.
Both are pioneers in the field of reusing reinforced concrete components and were able to report on a wide range of research and application projects. 
The workshop began with keynote speeches by the two guests and a presentation of the CRC. Following this, subprojects C02, A01, A03, B02, and C03 presented their results. The research approaches and findings were discussed in detail, and valuable, practical feedback was provided. The event concluded with a tour of the test hall and the CRC’s reference components stored there.
Prof. Küpfer and Prof. Bertola are collaboration partners of the CRC. At a broader level, areas of overlap in research were discussed. Close collaboration has been agreed upon for the future.