Energy Campus Leeuwarden

This environmentally sustainable and circular office is more than just a building. It is a meeting place and platform for renovation and innovation in today’s energy issues. The Energy Knowledge Center is located on a former landfill site, in the middle of the new Energy Campus Leeuwarden. This building is part of the campus and works as a knowledge center for development and innovation in the sustainable energy field.

One of the conceptual pillars of this project was circularity. The construction is placed on 108 individually adjustable columns. For one, this prevents damage to the building if the former garbage dump were to move or subside, reduces the footprint surface and makes the building dismountable. Having it elevated 1,5m from the floor additionally gives it a pleasant pavilion-like aesthetic. Keeping circularity in mind, materials were carefully selected putting special attention to re-use. Thanks to the use of solar panels and heat pumps, the building is completely energy neutral, and the polluting gasses emitted from the former garbage dump inside the hill are collected and used for heating. Other features that have been taken into account to further reduce environmental impact, are the flexible indoor layout and the simple expandability if it were to be expanded in the future.

The Energy Knowledge Center is the first of its kind and shows how buildings can not only aim for low environmental impact but can also help regenerate environments that have been depleted by mankind.

Architecture: Achterbosch Architecten

Images: Tristan Fopma

Year: 2017

Anna Delgove
Anna Delgove

You may also like

LCA Series: Not All Carbon Is The Same

Wait — did that emission even count? When you run a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), the results often arrive with a satisfying number in kilograms or tons of CO₂ emitted. But here’s the catch: that number might be misleading. Not all CO₂ emissions are the same, and treating them as interchangeable can lead to misleading conclusions about your building’s impact. In fact, the source of carbon emissions is just as important as the amount. To make truly informed decisions, we need to understand the three main types of

Read More »

LCA Series: The Fundamentals

Constructing and using buildings significantly impacts the environment and human health. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is an evolving science that helps us understand and quantify these impacts throughout a building’s lifecycle. This article explores the fundamentals of LCA, explaining its stages, the types of environmental impacts it assesses, and its application in the building industry. What is Life Cycle Assessment? LCA is a method used to evaluate the environmental impacts of a building over its entire life cycle. This process includes the following stages: In LCA terminology, the

Read More »

Can AI and Sustainable Construction Truly Coexist?

The rise of artificial intelligence in architecture is being a fascinating journey, filled with promise but also with pressing questions about sustainability. AI has the potential to reshape how we design, model, and plan our built environments. Yet, there’s still an unsettling issue to be resolved: the immense energy demand of AI systems. Can we truly integrate AI into sustainable construction, or are these two concepts fundamentally at odds? A couple of months ago I came across a post by Patric Hellermann on Linkedin, and learned about a

Read More »

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top