At MOR Studio, the architecture firm that Margot Holländer and Anna Tsagkalou founded with five partners, everything revolves around Net Positivity. Margot and Anna closed cepezed’s Green Week today with a call for collaboration, based on the idea that sharing ‘performance data’ can encourage climate-adaptive building.
purpose
Like the other four speakers who spoke at cepezed this week, Margot Holländer and Anna Tsagkalou concluded that sustainability is quite a catch-all term. Their own definition, "Net Positivity," differs from the definitions the other four lecturers articulated, because it includes a purpose: construction should leave something positive behind, instead of consume something. In order to arrive at Net Positivity, MOR Studio measures designs against materials, air, energy, biomass and water.
holistic
With the concept of Net Positivity, MOR Studio approaches sustainability holistically: it is about optimizing all five aspects. MOR Studio originates from a team of TU Delft students, including Anna and Margot, who came up with Net Positivity in 2019 and even developed a prototype. This prototype involved the transition of an existing building and proved that Net Positivity was a workable premise. Margot adds that the reuse of existing buildings is obvious in the Netherlands given the large number of vacant buildings and the huge shortage of housing.
reused data center
MOR Studio's first major assignment is also a transition task: the reuse of a data center in Utrecht for student housing. Client SSH had ‘pretty high sustainability goals’, which was a challenge given the closed and massive concrete structure. But the large storey height offered opportunities for split levels, and the existing façade panels of perforated steel proved very suitable for climbing plants. They were combined with PV panels, windows and balconies. And although surveying the data center ‘did take some time’, as Margot puts it, the students' prototype was eventually translated successfully.
text continues below the photos
purpose
Like the other four speakers who spoke at cepezed this week, Margot Holländer and Anna Tsagkalou concluded that sustainability is quite a catch-all term. Their own definition, "Net Positivity," differs from the definitions the other four lecturers articulated, because it includes a purpose: construction should leave something positive behind, instead of consume something. In order to arrive at Net Positivity, MOR Studio measures designs against materials, air, energy, biomass and water.
holistic
With the concept of Net Positivity, MOR Studio approaches sustainability holistically: it is about optimizing all five aspects. MOR Studio originates from a team of TU Delft students, including Anna and Margot, who came up with Net Positivity in 2019 and even developed a prototype. This prototype involved the transition of an existing building and proved that Net Positivity was a workable premise. Margot adds that the reuse of existing buildings is obvious in the Netherlands given the large number of vacant buildings and the huge shortage of housing.
reused data center
MOR Studio's first major assignment is also a transition task: the reuse of a data center in Utrecht for student housing. Client SSH had ‘pretty high sustainability goals’, which was a challenge given the closed and massive concrete structure. But the large storey height offered opportunities for split levels, and the existing façade panels of perforated steel proved very suitable for climbing plants. They were combined with PV panels, windows and balconies. And although surveying the data center ‘did take some time’, as Margot puts it, the students' prototype was eventually translated successfully.
text continues below the photos