Marije graduated as an architect in 2007 from the University of Delft, the Netherlands. As an architect, trying to minimize the damage to the environment, she worked mainly with materials as cross-laminated timber (CLT) and bio-based materials as flax and straw. Being driven to make impact by contributing to the transition to a more sustainable and circular construction with lower emissions and less impact on the environment, she started to work for TNO in 2023. In her role as consultant in the Biobased Materials & Structures team she mainly works on projects which remove obstacles regarding the use of biobased materials in construction, in this way upscaling the use of them.
Synopsis of presentation:
This presentation will focus on business opportunities to produce building materials from biobased materials in Africa. In the Netherlands we face similar challenges for upscaling the production of biobased building materials from, for example, flax, straw or other local fibers. These challenges and lessons learnt can be translated to the African regions, with local material as bamboo or fibers from coco shells, hemp, nutshells or palm trees or biochar production using waste from timber production or agricultural waste streams. Different solutions are already in place, however there is still a lot of opportunity for scaling with the right business model.
