Why X-Frame?

30% of all waste is a result of building, renovation and demolition activities. This is unprecedented.

The buildings that we live, work and play in - that we perceive as lasting forever - are systematically filling our planets valley's with toxic chemical preservatives, polluting our waterways, destroying natural habitats and depleting our irreplaceable material assets. These issues show no sign of going away as demand for new housing and infrastructure continues to grow exponentially. To break this crippling habit we need to design our buildings for change. We need to build in the capability to repair, reconfigure, remove and reuse each and every building element.

X-Frame™ directly addresses these issues. X-Frame™ replaces the decades-old waste creating approach of platform timber framing with a structure that enables all adjoining wall layers (things like internal wall linings and cladding’s) to be reversibly connected in a manner that maintains their inherent value. In-fact, X-Frame™ makes recovering and separating materials so fast that it becomes financial best practice to recover and reuse, rather than dispose. Using a carbon negative engineered timber material and components manufactured using inexpensive processes, X-Frame™ is an entirely recoverable and directly reusable structural frame for the next generation of buildings.

What are we trying to achieve?

It is our ambition to aid in the transition of the building industry from a linear economy to a circular economy. As part of our role we are working to establish X-Frame™ as a platform technology in which supplementary technologies and systems can be developed. X-Frame™ aims to begin the transition to circularity in construction by offering a structural frame that is capable of facilitating the recovery and reuse of almost all building layers.

Leveraging the modular precision of X-Frame™ we want to see existing manufacturers and material suppliers producing X-Frame™ compatible lining, insulation, weather barrier and cladding solutions. Together, we believe that we can build out an entirely different way of doing business in the building sector. We envisage that all products will have direct reuse potential, that they will be pure in their composition, be local in their supply and integrate comprehensive product stewardship schemes that out-live their creators. For this reason circular economy principles underpin everything we do.

Development Status;

The X-Frame™ technology is currently undergoing extensive prototyping, testing and market validation. Through a research program supported by the Building Research Levy of New Zealand and Victoria University of Wellington the technical capabilities of the system are being incrementally improved upon. Alongside this work, efforts to transition X-Frame from a niche research outcome to a smart and widely adopted building technology, are being undertaken by Wellington University Ventures (in collaboration with KiwiNet) and the Innovyz Institute.