There is no question that climate protection and consideration for resources are among the most important objectives for our future. So there is a crucial need for information for architects, planners and engineers because only those with the necessary knowledge in the various spheres of sustainable building will be able to survive in the future market. This was sufficient reason for DETAIL to expand its portfolio to incorporate two issues of DETAIL Green a year.

DETAIL Green sees itself as a specialised journal dealing with all aspects of sustainable planning and building. Its aim is to focus on the current state of technology as well as to help in providing direction in the perplexing variety of concepts and approaches to solutions, materials and products, support services, laws and standards. In this issue – and in those to come – special emphasis is placed on international certificates that are becoming increasingly important, in particular, the new DGNB certification; as well as energy balancing of construction materials, life-cycle costs, and questions of recycling and disposal.

The main focus will be on concrete examples of buildings integrating various technologies to develop a holistic concept from the point of view of the participants. In this issue, we show sustainable office buildings ranging from a small wooden company headquarters building to a glass investment bank. In the manifesto “Reason for the World” that was signed at the end of March, German architects, engineers and city planners called for: “A new mindset, new determination, and a new solidarity crossing all borders” as well as “ideas, utopias and perspectives, determination, curiosity and daring, in order to limit the threatening changes to the world” and, at the same time, committed themselves to providing “a fundamental contribution to the necessary change in the use of our natural resources through sustainable architecture and engineering talent”. DETAIL Green will accompany them along this path.

Content in Issue 1/2009

Additional Online-Content of Issue 1/2009

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