The University of Birmingham is the UK academic project partner for CHARM (Circular Housing Asset Renovation & Management), a 4 year, €7 million project funded by Interreg North West Europe and led by TU Delft University.
The CHARM project aims to develop and implement an asset management approach that prevents the downcycling of materials in the renovation and construction of social rented homes. This is done by creating circular building strategies tested in demonstration exemplars by 4 EU social housing organisations, developing guidelines for a circular procurement strategy, and a material exchange platform to enable circular flows of building components in the social rented sector. The planned outcome of CHARM for the project partners is for 36% of materials to be prevented from downcycling (compared to the current maximum of 10%) which is equivalent to 40,000 tonnes of annual material recovery.
Our work at the Housing and Communities Research Group for CHARM focuses on the UK housing association Accord who are building 12 virtually plastic free demonstrator homes, as well as the social impact on, and role of tenants, across all the EU partners organisations adopting these principles of the Circular Economy in social housing.
More information
More information about the project in general.
Latest project news
For the latest news on the project please view CHARM Newsletter series.
Contact us
For more information on the CHARM or to get involved with the project please contact Halima Sacranie (H.Sacranie@bham.ac.uk)
Planning approval has been granted to Accord and work on site has begun on 12 virtually plastic free homes in Edward Street, Redditch as part of a £25 million regeneration scheme of affordable housing. Construction on site began on the 17th of September 2020.