BUILDEX Wood goes Circular

In Februar 2019 Dudoc was part of BUILDEX Expo, Western Canada’s largest forum connecting the holistic building industry. If you attended, you probably remember our 2000 sqft ‘European Innovations Pavilion’ with carpet blue carpet and high wood structures framing our innovation partners showcases. 

While the innovations we featured were carefully crafted, each built piece had a story too. When planning for the exposition, we considered the sustainable use of resources. While we wanted to build something memorable and eye-catching, it was important to us that materials could be re-used after the 2-day trade show. 

The plinths that held Hypeboxes and our custom-made welcome desk were built locally by Willow and Stump design, which welcomed the idea of reusing wood they had in stock. Now, the tall 8ft wood structures surrounding our space as well as the smaller dividers between ‘rooms’ were all made by reclaimed wood from Unbuilders. Their wood is milled from 500- to 1,000-year-old trees, rarely seen today. “Unbuilders recaptures this history, keeping irreplaceable lumber in the supply chain.” Our Buildex wood was from a 200-year-old house in West Vancouver. 

But it doesn’t end here. We unconstructed the wood after BUIDEX and used it a few times in our own space. Recently, we agreed that we no longer needed the wood and donated it to Habitat for Humanities ReStore. ReStores help Habitat build more homes for families in need of a safe, decent and affordable place to live. 

While Trade Shows can be incredibly wasteful with many single-use set-ups, they can also be a place for disruption and sustainability. In our case, the 200 + year old, local wood that had served many families in their first life, was taken all the way to BUILDEX and eventually, given a second life as home.

Going circular doesn’t just reduce environmental footprint but also tells beautiful stories of durable materials such as wood.