Bao Podcast

For episode 29 of the Bao Podcast, we have another dual-guest episode for you, featuring Michael Lefeber and Ken Spranghers, co-founders of KOZO. 

Kozo designs and builds spaces that adapt to the people who buy them. Whenever something changes in their life, their house can change with them. Kozo’s innovative construction method ensures that you can choose to adapt your home. A small starter home can grow into a fully-fledged family home and then even evolve into a care home. On top of this, their unique demountable connection system enables an easier way to recycle the different elements at the end of their life cycle.

Show notes: 

Kozo  

David Gilmour 

Albert Einstein

Lode Janssens: living in a balloon 

Matthew Walker - Why We Sleep     

Get in contact with Kozo: info@kozo.co

Time stamps: 

0:00 Intro

1:42 Where does Kozo originate from? 

13:15 Switching from event to construction

26:40 The start & Kozo concept

41:00 Biggest learnings

43:00 Outro

Episode 28 of the Bao Podcast marks a special occasion as we host our first-ever dual-guest episode featuring Peter Bertels, CTO, and Wim Pieters, CEO of CIRCL. 

CIRCL is reshaping the housing landscape with fixed-price, future-oriented single-family homes. Their unique approach integrates circularity and digitalization throughout the construction process. From digital design to a remarkable six-week construction period post-permit approval, CIRCL is at the forefront of efficiency and sustainability in the industry.

Show notes: 

Circl

Henry van de Velde Award Circl 

Alan Turing

The Imitation Game

Rework (book)

Valve: Handbook for new employees 

Time stamps: 

0:00 Intro

1:50 The start and activities of Circl 

17:25 Biggest challenge

18:45 Where does the interest in construction come from? 

26:40 Where does the circularity of Circl comes in play?

30:50 Pricing

35:40 Where do you see the construction market evolving? 

41:00 Outro

For episode 27 of the Bao Podcast, we invite Regina Zirion. Regina is Head of Sales at Cutr. Regina was born and raised in Mexico, she studied and worked there until she moved to Amsterdam in 2018. She worked for Uber from 2016, first in Mexico-City and from 2018 onwards in Amsterdam until she left the company in 2021 to join Cutr. 

Cutr is an Amsterdam-based company that was founded in 2021. At Cutr, experts from two worlds come together: software engineering and woodworking. As a team, they work on the latest technology to make custom woodworking faster, easier and cheaper. People can upload their designs on the Cutr website and will receive an offer in a maximum of 12 hours.

Show notes:

Cutr

Uber

Two-sided marketplace 

Oprah Winfrey

Billionaire Eric Wittouck steps out of WeightWatchers 

SOMM

Counterfeit wine scandal

Everyday Dharma by Suneel Gupta 

Contact Regina 

Time stamps: 

0:00 Intro

1:45 The start and idea of Cutr

19:00 How did experience at Uber influence Cutr?

21:45 Two-sided marketplace: demand vs supply

24:45 Environmental benefits and ambitions of Cutr

29:40 Rapid growth of Cutr

33:00 HR at Cutr

37:15 Investors

44:15 How far does the service of Cutr go? 

51:50 Outro

For episode 26, we invite Patrick Nijssen. Patrick is Head of Growth Benelux at NORNORM. NORNORM is a Danish company that was founded in 2020 by former IKEA manager Anders Jespen as well as investor and Skype co-creator Jonas Kjellberg. With 10 million tonnes of office furniture ending up in landfills every year in Europe alone, the founders aim to apply the circular economy model to office furniture by having companies subscribe to furniture instead of buying it. The company looks to create a fully recyclable solution for workplaces and reduce some of the burden on the planet caused by office furniture.

Show notes: 

Get in contact with Patrick: patrick.nijssen@nornorm.com

NORNORM

IKEA-backed NORNORM bags €110M to bring the circular economy to workspaces

Andre Agassi – OPEN book

Untold: Breaking Point series 

Reed Hastings & Erin Meyer – No Rules Rules book 

Bao Podcast on YouTube

Time stamps: 

0:00 Intro

1:50 the start and idea of NORNORM

14:10 Pricing 

15:35 Scaling with €100M of funding

20:20 How do they get their furniture?

23:55 Interest from Ikea?

27:00 Changing the narrative & Belgian culture

32:30 Other markets? 

33:55 Starting during COVID & impact

41:00 Dream future for NORNORM

43:15 Outro

For our anniversary episode, number 25, we do a part 2 with one of our guests for the first time ever. He was our very first guest and now he's back: Idriss Goossens! Idriss has not stood still since the last episode, 2 and a half years ago. Today he's not only co-founder of PropTech Lab Belgium, but  he also founded LuxPropTech, Relevation and RecAp, this last one is a joint venture between PropTech Lab and developer Revive. 

This may be a lot for you to take in, but the most important thing is to know that the main focus of these companies is to connect and accelerate companies (start-ups and investors) in the real estate sector. And we certainly dive deeper in it this episode!

Show notes: 
Bao Podcast on YouTube

Bao Podcast on Spotify 

Podcast on Apple

PropTechLab

LuxPropTech

Relevation

RecAp

Hownvestor

RecAp Summer Summit: Real Estate, Urban Resilience, ESGs 

Margot Machol Bisnow - Raising an entrepreneur

Being Well’s Book Recommendations on Blinkist

Time stamps: 

0:00 Intro

1:50 Changes in the last 2 years

9:20 Switch from buying to renting

14:30 Things that stayed after Covid

19:20 New businesses

31:50 Why not starting a construction company yourself with all this knowledge? 

38:50 Outro

For episode 24 of the Bao Podcast, we welcome Minne Warmenbol. Minne is a master in Architecture and co-founded BUURMAN 3 years ago.

BUURMAN Antwerp is a circular construction market where reused building materials from the region are collected, processed and offered. In this way, they offer a logical and local alternative to burning or low-grade recycling of good materials. The materials come from all kinds of different parties - from museums to demolition companies - that are unable to repurpose them within their organisations. A collaboration with Buurman solves a waste problem and a sustainability issue for them at the same time. Apart from used material, they also repurpose uprooted urban trees. These tree trunks are processed into usable wooden planks, instead of being shredded in the regular, low-grade way.

Show notes: 

Buurman Antwerpen

‘Gerooide bomen van Noordkasteel krijgen tweede leven als meubelstuk’ 

John Muir

Orin Hardy & Maria Farrugia: Bamboo U 

John Muir: books

Time stamps: 

0:00Intro 

3:00The start of Buurman 

13:00 Where does the material come from? 

17:00 Growth of Buurman 

24:00 Biggest learnings 

36:30 Sustainability vs. Profitability 

40:30 Using the architectural experience in Buurman 

43:30 Buurman within 10 years 

48:10 Outro

For episode 23 of the Bao Podcast, we welcome Simon Maillet. Simon is the Group Sustainability Officer of Cordeel Group. He’s originally from Germany and today lives in Belgium since almost 5 years. He did an apprenticeship as an industrial clerk and later studied economics part-time. He is now active at Cordeel for almost one year.

The Cordeel Group, a leading European construction company based in Belgium, offers comprehensive services for the entire construction process. It consists of several highly specialised companies that collectively provide expertise in all aspects of construction, from design and technical support to completion and maintenance. Essentially, Cordeel Group is more than just a construction company, as it provides a one-stop solution for all construction needs.

Show notes: 

Cordeel 

The business units of Cordeel 

The Minimalists 

Marie Kondo

Steve Harris 

Cal Newport – 'Deep Work' book

Time stamps: 

0:00 Intro

2:00 About Cordeel

6:25 Simon’s interest in construction

12:30 Small margins in construction

18:00 Being the sustainability officer of Cordeel

34:45 Trade-off between sustainability and profitability

40:05 Passion for sustainability

47:00 Lessons learned at Cordeel

49:45 Housing market

56:30 Outro

For episode 22 of the Bao Podcast, we welcome Ismaël Ben-Al-Lal. Ismaël is a visionary entrepreneur and innovator who made a name for himself in the world of renewable energy. After he finished his studies at Groep T at the University  of Leuven, Ismaël went on to found his own company, Futech, in 2008. Later on he started another company named iLumen. Both companies work around sustainable energy. 

In addition to this, he’s an investor and consultant. This way he can share his expertise and insights on sustainable energy and the importance of entrepreneurship in driving positive change.

Show notes: 

World Solar Challenge 

Lightyear 

Formula Zero 

STEM 

Climate-KIC

Futech 

iLumen 

Podcast Rutger Bregman (De Rudi & Freddie Show) 

U2P Group

Frederic Laloux – Reinventing Organizations

Time stamps: 

0:00 Intro

1:30 World Solar Challenge and other school projects

21:15 First company (Futech)

35:00 Dropping energy prices in the future

45:00 Second company (iLumen)

48:25 U2P Group

53:00 Outro

Lieven is CEO of Lito. He and his team managed to develop the ‘Litobox’: the Litobox combines a heat pump, solar water heater, PV system, battery storage, rainwater filtering, ventilation, electrical equipment and internet network in one unit. All this on 3 square metres and placed on site in less than an hour! We at Bao Living look with admiration at this innovative product and I am happy to talk to Lieven about it. 

Show notes: 

Lito

Vlaio 

Flaminio Bertoni 

Citroën DS 

Ulrich Libbrecht – In arren moede 

Time stamps: 

0:00 Intro

1:35 Why Lito was founded 

11:00 What makes Lito more sustainable than the traditional way? 

19:50 The start and scaling of Lito

32:00 Learnings of scaling

42:10 The future of Lito

51:40 Outro

Filip is the founder of Skilpod. This is a company that builds houses using a prefab system. All parts of the houses are made in the factory, and set on site in an incredibly quick way. With this, Skilpod wants to disrupt the traditional construction industry where the duration of a project takes a huge amount of time. And all this without compromising on quality!

Show notes: 

Skilpod 

Skilpod in the newspaper 

Katerra 

The Boring Company 

Mark Manson – The subtle art of not giving a f*ck 

Time stamps:

0:00 Intro

2:30 Start of Skilpod

14:30 Key learnings

19:30 Choices when you build with Skilpod

29:30 Future 

37:45 Filip’s role in Skilpod

39:20 Business in China

43:00 Ultimate goal with Skilpod

45:35 What Filip would change about the construction industry

47:30 Living as a service model

49:25 Outro

Sarah is founder and CEO at Go Forest. Go Forest is a young company, established in 2020 that plants trees all over the world for companies and individuals who want to work towards a greener environment. Go Forest aims to restore nature by planting the right kind of trees in environments where they have positive effects on biodiversity, carbon storage, employment, livelihood, and local economy. 

With more than 200 companies having become clients in only 2 years time, they have had tremendously rapid growth. Therefore, I thought it would be nice to invite Sarah to discuss the past 2 years and also look ahead to the future together. 

Show notes: 

Go Forest 

CO2logic 

South Pole 

Wim Vermeulen books 

Peter Wohlleben – The Hidden Life of Trees 

Sarah’s LinkedIn 

Time stamps: 

0:00 Intro

1:45 Start of Go Forest

6:40 Personal motivation for planting trees 

8:15 The idea behind Go Forest

13:55 The tree planting process 

28:30 The Go Forest organization

31:25 Work-life balance

36:30 Future of Go Forest

39:55 Use of blockchain 

46:15 Final remarks on Go Forest

47:15 Outroc

For our Christmas Special of the Bao Podcast, we welcomed someone very special: Axel van der Donk! Axel is CTO and co-founder at Bao Living. We thought it would be fun to dedicate an episode to what we do here at Bao Living and the learnings of the past 5 years. So I invited my partner in crime Axel to discuss it together. 

Show notes: 

Bao Living 

Antwerp Management School 

Studio Dott 

Vanhout.pro 

Climate Kic 

Luma 

Bao Living for Urbicoon 

Urbicoon 

Ray Dalio: The changing world order 

Candice Millard: River of the gods 

Time stamps: 

0:00 Intro

2:00 The beginning of Bao Living

34:30 Lessons learned

49:45 Future of Bao Living

57:00 One thing that Axel would change about the construction industry

59:50 Outro

For episode 17 of the Bao Podcast, we had the honour to welcome Kristof De Jaeger. Kristof is the director of Inhout, a company specialising in timber frame construction. Here they focus on sustainable business using bio-ecological materials. Since 2020, they have also been making modular homes, under the name of Mobble. This is the result of a collaboration with the University of Ghent. These houses, 'Mobbles', are also made from sustainable materials (wood frame with bio-ecological insulation materials) and are flexible and adaptable according to the needs of the moment. 

We at Bao Living have already had the honour to work together with Mobble when they just started. We love the idea behind it and Kristof is one of the guests that have been on our list of podcast guests for a long time.

For more information about Inhout and Mobble, please visit https://inhout.be/ and https://www.mobble.be/. 

Show notes: 

Inhout

Mobble

Bekaert

Steward Brand Model

Wouter Torfs

Jill Peeters – Wat houdt ons tegen? 

Jill Peeters – 40 graden in de schaduw

Time stamps: 

0:00 Intro

4:40 Circular and environmental approach of Mobble

11:30 Market evolution

20:50 Collaboration with UGent

23:30 Biggest hurdles

32:45 Kristofs interest in circular construction and Mobble

42:40 Future of Mobble

46:55 Outro

Özturk Taspinar works at KPMG as Digital Innovation Consultant and is very passionate about entrepreneurship, innovation and anything that’s digital such as AI, Blockchain, robotics et cetera. With the ever-growing PropTech industry that's closing the gap between construction and the digital world, he’s the perfect guest for our Bao Podcast to tell us more about this interesting industry. 

For more information about Özturk, please visit https://www.linkedin.com/in/taspinar/. 

Show notes: 

KPMG

Linkedin Özturk

WTCB / BBRI 

WEB3 - Metaverse

Deliverect

RecAp Accelerator Program

Apple VR Headset

McKinsey Great attrition, great attraction 2022 report  

Signals Repository: trend radar: Technology  

Signals Repository: trend radar: Startups

Air Taxi Readiness Index 2022

Suyin Aerts - Tijd voor de creatieve generalist! 

Time stamps: 

00:00 Intro 

01:14 Özturk’s activities 

05:10 Views on the construction industry 

34:30 Digitalisation and VR 

42:30 Changing the work environment 

46:45 Drones

51:30 Outro

For the last episode of this season, our guest is Margaux Lespagnard. Margaux is a PhD researcher at VUB - Vrije Universiteit Brussel - in architectural engineering. In her research, she aims to develop circular design guidance for architects when designing circular affordable housing. She does this under supervision of engineer-architects Niels De Temmerman and Waldo Galle. Her research obviously leans very closely to what we want to achieve at Bao Living, so we thought it would be interesting to have a conversation with her about this. 

For more information about Margaux, please visit https://www.vub.be/arch/people/margaux-lespagnard.

Show notes: 

About Margaux 

Architectural engineering @ VUB 

Building a circular economy: Design qualities to guide and inspire building designers and clients (VUB)

Facadeclick

Clickbrick 

McKinsey: The next normal in construction 

Kate Raworth – Doughnut Economy

Roman Krznaric – The Good Ancestor 

Time stamps: 

00:00 Intro

02:40 Affordability

15:25 Circular construction

20:10 Goal of the research

31:20 Main breakthroughs so far

42:30 Translation of the outcome of the PhD to reality

47:40 Goals after the PhD

50:00 Outro

Johan is director of Madaster Belgium. This Dutch company developed a digital materials passport for buildings. This passport is a crucial link to make circular building possible. It’s a digital platform where users can list all the materials that are in a building. This information is enriched, among other things, with product data and commodity prices, and related to regulations and certification methods.

For more information, please visit https://madaster.com/.

Show notes: 

Thomas Rau

Madaster

Madaster Belgium

BPD (Bouwfonds Gebiedsontwikkeling)

Asbestos in KBC tower

Johan Klaps (N-VA)

Thomas Rau - Material Matters book

Time stamps: 

00:00 About Madaster and Thomas Rau

34:30 Life before Madaster

47:40 Start of Madaster Belgium

51:20 Politics

1:01:50 Hurdles for Madaster

1:03:20 Outro

In the 13th episode of the Bao Podcast, we welcome Xavier Leclair. Xavier is founder and CEO of Slow Cabins. This is a Belgian company that allows guests to rent cabins placed in secret locations across the countryside, and has plans to soon expand the concept throughout Belgium and Europe. These Slow Cabins are temporary eco houses that are completely self-sufficient when it comes to water and electricity provisions. In a Slow Cabin there is no internet as well, which means that you can slow down and break free from the stress of everyday life.

For more information, please visit https://www.slowcabins.be/en/.

Show notes: 

BASF 

Verbund at BASF 

The Blog of Tim Ferriss 

Lean startup 

Steve Jobs 2005 Speech 

Dalai Lama Art of Happiness 

Slow Cabins 

Time stamps: 

0:00 Life before Slow Cabins

6:35 Start of Slow Cabins

30:00 How renting a Slow Cabin works

31:40 Covid impact

36:00 How renting a Slow Cabin works 2

38:00 Ambitions

42:20 Lessons learned

47:45 Market competition

49:20 Outro

In episode 12 of the Bao Podcast, we welcome Sven Grooten. Sven is one of the founders of B-architecten. Throughout the years, he started two spin-offs named B-bis and B-city. Today, B-architecten, B-bis, and B-city have grown into a combined office of more than 75 people. Each B-team has its particular focus and way of functioning, yet they all share a distinct innovative view on the variety of projects the B-platforms stand for.

For more information, please visit https://b-architecten.be/.

Show notes: 

B-architecten

B-bis

B-city

The Berlage Institute

How Singapore solved housing

Time stamps: 

0:00 Start of B-Architecten

10:10 Why everybody should have an architecture course at school

20:25 Mission and vision of B (-Architecten, -Bis, -City)

34:00 Architects that inspire Sven

38:00 Personal and professional goals

42:10 What Sven would change about the construction industry

46:00 Influence of the pandemic

52:30 Outro

For our podcast episode for the month of March, our guest is Jérôme Constant. Jérôme is managing partner at Rise PropTech Fund, a venture capital fund dedicated to Late-Seed and Series A startups active in the PropTech sector. They invest in companies that have the ambition and potential to change the construction & real estate industry in Europe. Recently, they made their first investment in the company LEKO Labs.

For more information, please visit https://riseproptech.eu/.

Show notes: 

LEKO Labs (https://lekolabs.com/) 

Rise PropTech Fund (https://riseproptech.eu/) 

Bill Gates: How to Avoid a Climate Disaster (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Avoid_a_Climate_Disaster) 

Peter Thiel: Zero to One (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero_to_One) 

MIPIM (https://www.mipim.com/)

0:00 Start of Rise PropTech 

4:55 LEKO Labs 

9:25 Investment strategy 

13:20 Challenges 

16:15 MIPIM 

19:20 Innovation in construction 

26:22 Other big challenges 

28:25 Lack of women in construction 

31:00 Outro

After a short winter break, we’re back with a bang! For our tenth podcast episode, our guest is Jan Kriekels. Jan is the owner of Jaga Climate Designers, a radiator manufacturer using innovative heating and cooling technologies. Jaga employs over 600 people and operates in over 35 countries across the globe. Under his leadership, the company has won a great many international design and export awards. Among many other big projects, they are the company behind the innovative heating technology installed in the residence of Russian President Putin and at the Telefónica headquarters in Madrid.

For more information, please visit https://www.jaga.com/benl/.

Show notes:

Jan Kriekels op Burning Man (https://www.standaard.be/cnt/g7m169rs3)

Fanger’s model of thermal comfort (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320482118_Fanger's_model_of_thermal_comfort_a_model_suitable_just_for_men)

Sir David Attenborough's Address to World Leaders at COP26 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjq4VWdZhq8)

Jaga Klimaatconferentie Kopenhagen (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAodm5_izDc&ab_channel=JagaKonvektco)

Jaga Coollab – Opening (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSGXORlDymE&ab_channel=JagaClimateDesigners)

Jaga (https://www.jaga.com/benl/over-ons/jaga-climate-designers.html)