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Cool Threesome

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT

German architects build an Indian research station in the Antarctic. The inauguration of the New Indian Research Station Bharati, designed by bof Architekten based in Hamburg, is planned for 2012. The fa�ade construction that has to withstand abnormally extreme conditions was also made in Germany.

Prototype for the Desert

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT

The Siemens Group is making headlines with a major building project again. New corporate headquarters designed by Henning Larsen are to be built in Munich, while new headquarters designed by the British architects Sheppard Robson are currently also being built in Masdar City. Both new constructions are striving for top sustainability ratings.

Passive house 'plus' - Open House in Hamburg

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT

The IBA (International Building Exhibition) Hamburg 2013 is approaching fast: Completion of the Open House in Hamburg-Wilhelmsburg - a passive house for communal living with a particularly low primary energy demand - is scheduled for this winter.

Breakfast cereal lab

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT

The research and development centre of a breakfast cereal manufacturer is the first building in Switzerland to have been awarded Platinum Certification in the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating system developed in America. The materials used to heat the new building, which is being built by a member of the Nestl� Group, include waste from coffee roasting.

Heating energy from a tunnel

Mon, 26 Dec 2011 00:00:00 GMT

No potential source of heating energy should be left unused if the German energy turnaround is to be successful. A promising pilot project has been realised in Jenbach, Austria: ground source energy from a railway tunnel is used to heat buildings.

50 times 48 metres deep

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 00:00:00 GMT

The biggest seasonal borehole thermal energy storage system in Europe is being built in Braedstrup, Denmark. The aim is to store the energy collected in a gigantic solar thermal energy system in an array of borehole heat exchangers over the winter, thereby significantly increasing the solar component of the local district heating network..

Living in ex-corporate headquarters

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 00:00:00 GMT

The Gerling Insurance Group gave up its former headquarters in the middle of Cologne five years ago. The complex will now be converted for residential use according to plans by the architects kister scheithauer gross. A point of special interest is the energy renovation concept devised for the partly listed buildings.

Demonstration of energy-efficient building

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 00:00:00 GMT

The foundation stone for a new demonstration and research building for the ZAE Bavaria was laid in W�rzburg at the beginning of October 2011. Numerous future technologies developed by the ZAE in the past years are to be tested in the new building designed by the architects Lang Hugger Rampp from Munich.

From forest to city

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 00:00:00 GMT

The recyclability of temporary structures is becoming increasingly important. A particularly radical option is the Zero Emission Pavilion designed by the architects PARTNERUNDPARTNER for the 3rd Climate Week in Hamburg at the end of September.

New dimension in passive housing

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Eisenstadt is the capital of Austria's Burgenland and home to the largest passive housing complex in the state so far. Located in an area called Kirch�cker, the residential complex contains a total of 155 apartments, 71 of which are to be realised in the first construction phase. The complex was designed in line with the specifications of the Austrian sustainability advancing building standard 'klima:aktiv'.

Green Buildings That Build the Future

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Building Green expo is once again opening up for the professionals of Sustainable Building and Energy Management to meet, network, promote and establish their products and services within the Greek Sustainable Building and Energy Market.

A university building as an eco-exhibit

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 00:00:00 GMT

It is particularly important with energy-efficient educational buildings that they transmit their functionality to both users and observers. A joint German-Polish research project is now aiming to establish exactly how a building can most effectively be turned into an 'exhibition piece' for sustainable construction.

Reference for renewable resources

Mon, 10 Oct 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Rammed earth, goat's-hair rugs and recycled oak wood are just some of the natural construction materials used by the Agency for Renewable Resources (FNR - 'Fachagentur Nachwachsende Rohstoffe') in their new offices in the northern German town of G�lzow. The building - designed by matrix architektur (Rostock, Germany) - is now the subject of a detailed FNR publication.

EDUCATE - sustainability in University curricula

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 00:00:00 GMT

An EU project aims to implement environmental design in academic education as the promotion of sustainability in the design of the built environment is a key-factor for addressing the challenges mankind faces in response to finite resource availability, energy consumption and climate change.

Inartificial sustainability

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 00:00:00 GMT

The new Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts building is just as sleek as it is generous. The three-storey building designed by London's SheppardRobson Architects is only the second educational building that has met BREEAM, the highest British sustainability standard.

Triangle of sustainability

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 00:00:00 GMT

In H�rsholm, north of Copenhagen, what may well be Denmark's most environmentally friendly kindergarten has opened its doors. The triangular construction from the architects Christensen & Co. doesn't just generate more energy than it needs, it also offers children optimal conditions with plenty of sunlight throughout.

Passive house XXL in Krems

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 00:00:00 GMT

The largest passive office building in Austria was opened in lower Austria's Krems. The design for the large new building in Krems' little old city comes from the architect offices AllesWirdGut and feld72.

Los Angeles goes green

Mon, 20 Jun 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Growing algae for energy efficiency reasons: this and other exceptional solutions are part of the renovation concept that US design team HOK and Vanderweil used to win the competition "Next Generation Design 2011"for Metropolis magazine.

Vacuum-insulated facade elements made from textile concrete

Sat, 04 Jun 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Slimmer facade cross-sections with a higher insulation effect and an improved environmental impact for concrete construction - this is what the four-man team from HTWK Leipzig aims to achieve with the vakutex facade elements. Key to their performance are two materials: the fibre concrete coating and an insulating core as well as vacuum isolation panels. In this article, Frank H�lsmeier and Alexander Kahnt describe the functionality and advantages of their new development.

Shade seeker

Mon, 30 May 2011 00:00:00 GMT

The new Italian headquarters of the 3M company in Pioltello near Milan is the first part of a new master plan drawn up by Mario Cucinella as long ago as 2005. The 10,300 m� new building accommodates offices, conference rooms and a canteen.

Improving the energy performance of the European housing stock

Sun, 15 May 2011 00:00:00 GMT

In their article for DETAIL Green, Frits Meijer and Lorraine Murphy (TU Delft ) analyse the characteristics and physical quality of the housing stock in selected European countries. A second section of the article analyses the current policies that are undertaken, including barriers and opportunities. In addition to the article, here is a link list with references for further reading.

London 2012: a Games eco-check

Fri, 13 May 2011 00:00:00 GMT

In London the preparations for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games are ramping up. In order to find out what environmental impacts the Games might have and how one can find savings potential, the Games' organisational committee has released the first of three sustainability reports.

ECOWEEK proposals for Thessaloniki

Thu, 12 May 2011 00:00:00 GMT

More than 300 young participants developed ideas at the 6th ECOWEEK "Urban Communities and Green Architecture".

Enlarged building, reduced consumption

Tue, 03 May 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Originally, the architect's office, COBE, were only commissioned to renovate the theatre in Taastrup near Copenhagen in terms of energy consumption. But, as is well known, energy efficiency is defined as the quotient of benefits and expenditure. The architects, therefore, decided to endow the building with a new aesthetic appearance and to increase the amount of available space within it.

Life Cycle Assessment of Infrastructures - Buildings

Fri, 01 Apr 2011 00:00:00 GMT

The Chair of Sustainable Construction at ETH Zurich is conducting a major research study on how comparative Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) of residential buildings may be simplified in the future.