cepezed aims to design buildings that fit within planetary boundaries. That is why we organised Green Week for the fourth time, a week that inspires, educates, keeps us on our toes and shows how serious cepezed is about sustainability. This year, CO₂ reduction was an important theme, but not the only one.
urgency
‘The entire team is aware of the environmental issues we face,’ says cepezed partner Ronald Schleurholts. ‘But it is not always easy to maintain high sustainability ambitions during the design process and during construction. Green Week strengthens us with inspiration and provides information about new tools. With a programme that is broader and more specialised than our daily routine, we emphasise the urgency once again and show that sustainable architecture offers exciting new opportunities. As the development of sustainable construction is not standing still. And the process is also changing – collaboration is essential in sustainable construction.’
varied programme
We kicked off with a presentation on figures: our CO₂ experts calculated the CO₂ performance of eight projects. On Wednesday evening, we watched the film Hacer mucho con poco (Doing a lot with little). On Thursday afternoon, after a keynote speech by Ad Kil of RO&AD Architects, there was a choice of four workshops. And throughout the week, a temporary sustainability library in the hall offered the opportunity to browse each other's books and borrow them.
large green footprint
A building is always part of one or more systems, Ad Kil told us in his lecture. Using examples such as the Tij bird observatory along the Haringvliet, the office of the Deltawind energy cooperative, and the field station in the Hedwige Polder, he showed how his firm designs buildings “with the largest possible green footprint”. In principle, RO&AD does not use new building elements produced with fossil resources. The examples mentioned are circular, biobased and, if possible, geo-based. For example, the observatory was covered with reeds from the surrounding area.
perseverance pays off
If the designs presented by Ad illustrate anything, it is that perseverance pays off. For example, a Dutch structural engineer at first calculated that the egg-shaped wooden frame of Tij could only be realised with steel joints, but two retired Finnish structural engineers proved otherwise. In the end it is completely composed of prefabricated wooden elements that are fastened with wooden pins. At RO&AD, collaboration often means working together on the construction site. “Being there as an architect is crucial,” says Ad, “because so many decisions are still made during construction. We learn a lot from every project.”