Eero Nigumann, project manager at Timbeco (one of Drastic’s Estonian project partners) was awarded the the Young Civil Engineer 2024 prize by the Estonian Civil Engineers Union at the Ehitus 2025+: "New or Old?" Conference on 27 November 2024.

At the conference, Eero gave an overview of his experience with prefabricated circular design including solutions developed in Drive 0 EU H2020 and work done in Drastic so far.

Exemplified by his work on the  Drastic Project, Eero has made significant contributions towards developing and increasing circularity in the built environment, via product and process development and by writing research articles on the circular renovation of apartment buildings using additional prefabricated insulation elements. 

A scientific article written by Eero; ‘Circular renovation of an apartment building with prefabricated additional insulation elements to nearly zero energy building’, was published earlier this year in the Journal of Sustainable Architecture and Civil Engineering.

Eero has shared his results and experience at various international conferences and trainings, and participates in several European co-funded projects, including Drastic, that aim to reduce the carbon footprint of a building's life cycle.

Additionally, Eero has also been a guest lecturer at Tallinn University of Technology (a further Estonian Drastic project partner) for the last  seven years, where he has contributed to the education of civil engineers and encouraged students to continue their higher education in the field of construction.

Eero also played a key role in Timbeco being recognised as the most sustainable company in Estonia in 2022. Timbeco is a modern factory based in Tallinn, Estonia, specialising in the customised production of energy-efficient timber frame elements, element buildings and modular houses.

On behalf of Drastic, Eero oversees all day-to-day project management of the Estonian Demonstrator’s mission to validate a complete deep energy renovation of an apartment building in Rapla, Estonia, using innovative circular principles to reduce the building’s overall energy consumption.

Via new methods of disassembly and reassembly of wall and roof panels, comprised of prefabricated insulation elements (including high-quality recycled materials such as finger-jointed wood and PV panels) the Estonian Demonstrator hopes that it’s circular solution will be commercially exploited as a viable offering for the renovation of Northern-European apartment buildings.

Learn more about the Drastic Estonian Demonstrator project below: