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Lendager Architects announced their first prize win in the competition to build the first DGNB-certified housing project in Denmark in Næstved. DGNB is a new green building certification system expected to become the scale for sustainability in Europe. DGNB-Certification focuses on three equally weighted parameters: Environmental-, Social- and economical sustainability, for a holistic evaluation of built projects. In total, the project will have 24 single family homes, built around a shared courtyard to encourage community and shared resources. Passive solar design with optimized window and shade placement allows for passive cooling and heating. Energy efficient design, including a tight thermal envelope with energy saving systems reduces power consumption, while rooftop photovoltaics produce electricity. Green roofs protect the home and provide further insulation. A close connection with nature and gardens encourages residents to live off the land. As Lendager Architects told us about the project, “We wanted to answer the questions of how we can build without affecting the environment, how we can build without using new materials, how we can build houses that produce more energy than they use, and how sharing becomes a natural part of the daily life.”
Via Lauren Moss
Facebook is building a new 300,000-square-foot data center in Lulea, Sweden to achieve LEED Gold certification. In a joint venture with Fortis Construction, Portland, Ore., and NCC Construction Sweden, Stockholm, DPR Construction was awarded a $121-million contract to construct the data-center complex. This project will be the Redwood City, Calif., general contractor’s first foray outside North America.
Via Lauren Moss
Giovanni Traverso and Paola Vighy inserted a new skeleton of laminated wood into a building in the historic center of Vicenza... Traverso Vighy's approach to a renovation is to try to tread lightly, to create as little disturbance on their sites as possible, whether in environmental or, as in this case, architectural ones. These projects are therefore careful orchestrations, where many parts consist of pre-assembled elements, architectural objects maintain a marked structural independence, and whose details interact with their surroundings.
Via Lauren Moss
‘Blok k’ is part of a masterplan for 500 dwellings, between the historic center and the recently redeveloped harbor area in the east of Amsterdam. The building is neither crooked, nor dancing. The architects wanted to allow natural light and free access from outside to all the apartments. Utilities, storage spaces, and other structural elements of the building are located in the center of the building. Access to each apartment is reached by a central walkway, or ‘mini canyon’ in the center of the block.
Via Lauren Moss
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The Minimum House was designed by studio Scheidt Kasprusch Architekten and is located in Klausdorf, Germany. The 1,615 square foot contemporary home, structured on two levels, is a prototype for a serial holiday residence. According to the architects, the project is offered under the label “minimumhouse” , all furniture and fittings included: “The concept was developed by the ideal of a house with maximum outdoor impressions and also by making full use of the solar yields for the building. The reflections of glass and light make the three-side glassed building shells appear immaterial. The team consisting of architects, engineers, building physicists and executing companies developed a modular building concept, that allows a contemporary open-plan living with high ecological and economic standards“. Some of the sustainable features of this home include a solar system placed on the extensively vegetated flat roof, a soil sensor, ceiling-mounted radiation heating and controlled ventilation.
Via Lauren Moss
Obsession for the proper adaptation of the project with the topography+the use of durable materials and clear geometries=a simple and useful architecture. mmdm arquitectes is an architecture office founded in 2003 by Frans Masana and Joan Dalmases, based on previous collaborations. The projects that come out of the office have points in common that are the main features of our architecture. On one side, the proper adaptation with the topography to avoid great earthworks and, consequently, an excessive environmental impact. On the other side, the use of durable and not expensive materials that influence both the constructive solutions and the same image of the buildings that we project. Finally, the use of clear geometries in the design of the floor plan and of the volume. The result of this way of projecting is a simple and useful architecture.
Via Lauren Moss
Italian studio JM Architecture has designed the Lake Lugano House, a 3,700 square foot polygonal glass house built around the lake in the south-east of Switzerland, at the border between Switzerland and Italy. Great attention is given to the environmental aspects, as the use of geothermal energy, roof gardens, the rain-water collection system, the choice of highly efficient low-emittance glass insulated with argon gas, to optimize the thermal efficiency of the shell and the use of natural sun shading as the placement of deciduous trees in the south-west area of the building.
Via Lauren Moss
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