Impact & Benefits
Decarbonising construction, one floor at a time
With the RFS, VAULTED offers a lightweight, low-carbon, fully circular alternative for structural floors that have a significant impact on the ecological footprint of a building.
We believe in a sustainable and fully circular construction industry
The Rippmann Floor System builds on more than a decade of academic research into funicular and shell structures. Its technology directly draws on computational design, advanced masonry engineering, and digital fabrication methods developed at ETH Zurich.
By applying these principles and using geometry to carry loads more efficiently, the RFS significantly reduces the amount of material required compared to conventional floor systems. This results in a meaning ful reduction in emboddied carbon emissions and the extraction of raw materials.
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Compared to common concrete floors
Today, most buildings are demolished once they are no longer considered useful. At best, their concrete is crushed and downcycled as construction demolition material, resulting in a significant loss of material value.
The Rippmann Floor System is designed to break this pattern. It is fully circular and explicitly designed for deconstruction. When a building reaches the end of its life, RFS elements can be disassembled and reused in new projects rather than being demolished and discarded. A floor installed today can become a new RFS floor in a different building decades from now.
By preserving structural components for reuse, the system avoids repeated material production and significantly reduces environmental impact across multiple building cycles. Engineered for exceptional durability and long-term performance, the RFS retains material value far beyond a single building lifecycle.
Impact at scale!
Demolition waste accounts for 75% of all waste in Switzerland. A huge impact for which humans are responsible. We need to do things better.
Prof. Dr. Philippe Block
Chairman and Co-Founder VAULTED
Industry-leading sustainability and circularity, with smarter project economics
Economics today and over time
Today, the Rippmann Floor System is broadly cost-competitive with established floor systems when assessed in isolation. It is neither significantly cheaper, nor more expensive on a pure system-level comparison.
Looking ahead, the picture becomes more attractive. While costs for conventional systems are largely plateauing, the RFS benefits from strong cost-reduction potential as you repeatedly undertake projects with similar requirements with VAULTED. Increasing repetition in design, fabrication, and logistics enables efficiency gains that are expected to translate into lower costs over time.
Whole-project perspective
Focusing only on the floor system itself overlooks much of the economic upside. Thanks to its significantly lower weight, the RFS reduces material requirements for walls, columns, and foundations, resulting in significant cost savings throughout the building.
In addition, prefabrication and reduced on-site complexity lead to faster construction schedules and lower risk of delays. Over the long term, the ability to disassemble and reuse floor elements further enhances value by enabling future projects to reuse existing systems rather than purchase new ones.
How the RFS delivers smarter project economics
Higher cost certainty
The Rippmann Floor System requires significantly less concrete and steel than conventional floor systems. By reducing the volume of volatile raw materials early in the design phase, projects become less exposed to price fluctuations and supply risks. Because the structural material demand is largely fixed up front, this also increases cost predictability throughout the project lifecycle.
System-wide cost savings
The substantially lower self-weight of the RFS not only reduces costs at the floor level. Lighter floor systems lead to reduced requirements for foundations, columns, and load-bearing walls, unlocking savings across the entire load-bearing structure. These secondary effects make the overall building more material- and cost-efficient, beyond the floor system itself.
Faster delivery
The RFS is designed for prefabrication and efficient on-site assembly. This reduces construction time, limits on-site complexity, and minimises coordination risks between trades. Faster installation not only shortens construction schedules but also lowers the risk of delays and associated indirect costs.
Access to sustainability incentives and funding
By significantly reducing embodied carbon and enabling circular construction, projects using the RFS can be better positioned to qualify for sustainability-linked incentives and funding. This can include grants, tax benefits, or access to green financing instruments, further strengthening the economic case for structurally efficient and low-carbon construction.
Circular floors and retained material value
The RFS is designed for disassembly and reuse at the end of a building's life. Instead of being demolished, floor elements can be recovered and integrated into new projects. This preserves material value over multiple building cycles and reduces the need for new material production, creating both environmental benefits and long-term cost savings.
Future-ready construction
The RFS is fully compatible with prefabrication and digital planning processes. This makes it well suited for industrialised construction and evolving building practices. As construction methods continue to shift toward standardisation, prefabrication, and digital workflows, the system remains adaptable and scalable over time.
Increased long-term asset value
By significantly reducing embodied carbon and enabling circular reuse, buildings using the RFS are better aligned with regulations. This helps protect assets from the risk of a “brown discount” and supports long-term value preservation. As regulations continue to tighten, projects are already designed to remain attractive, compliant, and competitive over decades.
Visible sustainability leadership for your brand
Using an innovative and materially efficient structural system makes sustainability tangible at the asset level. Projects can credibly demonstrate forward-looking design choices, supporting clear communication toward investors, tenants, employees, and the public. This enables differentiation through measurable, built sustainability rather than claims alone.
Safer, more predictable execution
By shifting complex formwork and reinforcement work from the construction site into a controlled factory environment, the RFS streamlines on-site execution. Projects benefit from faster installation, fewer weather-related delays, and reduced reliance on large specialised crews. Fewer workers and simpler on-site activities create safer, cleaner sites, while factory-controlled production ensures consistent quality and reduces execution risk.