sustainable new fugro headquarters in use

Geo data specialist Fugro now operates from its new international headquarters. The shared high sustainability ambition resulted in a striking design. The new building in Nootdorp is connected to the existing Fugro TechCenter and to a new parking facility, also designed by cepezed, as well as to a large biodiverse garden. The building conveys what Fugro stands for: innovation in a sustainable world in which we look after one another.

Activity is concentrated in the heart of the headquarters. At this intersection of axes, you find a feature stair, walkways, internal balconies, roof lights and full size trees planted in recessed planters. More than 600 people work in the new headquarters. Across 57 countries, Fugro employs around 10 thousand people in total. They collect and interpret data about the earth’s surface and the sea floor to advise on matters such as the placement of offshore wind turbines.

biophilic
The new headquarters in Nootdorp accommodates workspaces, meeting rooms, laboratories and workshops. It includes a restaurant with terrace, a large garden and a separate parking facility in the corner of the site. To create an exceptionally pleasant working environment, biophilic design principles were applied. The interior combines timber and natural stone with plants. The building has long sight lines that support orientation, as well as numerous roof lights and glazed façade sections with views of the garden. The colour palette varies per floor, subtly referring to the standard contour lines used in geo data.

garden and façade
The garden is designed to be climate resilient, with a linear zoning that refers to the surrounding polder landscape. Each zone includes seating areas and elements for informal play. The main route from the parking facility to the entrance continues into the longitudinal axis of the new building. The façades are clad in low maintenance corten steel. Its raw reddish brown tone refers to the colour of soil and matches the terracotta coloured façade of the adjacent Fugro TechCenter. Vertical fins provide solar shading and are fitted with pv panels.

special rainwater filtration
Besides offering a biophilic working environment, the new Fugro headquarters is also highly sustainable. The design achieved a BREEAM NL Outstanding certification, the highest sustainability level of the Dutch Green Building Council. The building is energy neutral, demountable and composed of reusable components. All rainwater from the roofs and the garden is collected, filtered and either reused or infiltrated into the deeper soil layers. Fugro’s hydrologists developed an ingenious water system that uses a shell layer beneath the parking facility. This structure has timber façade elements and is also demountable, including the concrete double tee slabs.

Thank you Fugro, cepezedinterieur, BoschSlabbers Landscape Architects, 4Building, Van Rossum, Multical, De Vries and Verburg, Cauberg Huygen, Deerns, Haskoning, Vijverborgh, Den Doorn, EWB and MMEK for the excellent collaboration and the strong final result.