Description

The Bundesstiftung Umwelt [Federal Endowment for the Environment] established by the federal government in 1990 and headquartered in Osnabrück supports exemplary environmental protection projects. In addition to the organisation of exhibitions and symposiums, the principal task of the foundation lies in carefully scru­tinising the projects submitted. In order to concentrate on this, those responsible for reviewing the projects, who are assigned to the various special departments, require quiet individual workplaces. The offices are grouped around corridor zones with circular holes cut in the floor slabs creating small spatial units, fostering the sense of community. At the same time, in the middle zone, multi-storey spatial connections – with natural lighting from above through the glazed covers of slanting cylinders – are thereby created, providing inviting places to linger for a short time. In addition, staff use the library, the conference room and the cafeteria on the ground floor to exchange professional opinions, but also to chat in a relaxed atmosphere out in the open. Thanks to the extensive storey-height glazing, the private offices appear spacious and translucent. This effect is heightened by the use of floor-level radiators supported by the thermal mass of the raw concrete ceilings.

Pollution control, as the focus of the foundation’s work, was essential for the new building project. The top priority was to minimise the energy requirement and to use environmentally friendly materials. In addition to recycled concrete, glass floors and insulation of the interior walls with waste paper, only natural colours and carpets of natural fibre were used.

The building mass, a ring of cylinders, results in a more or less optimal relation of volume to surface and thereby reduces heating losses. Clad in a gracefully built glass skin with a surrounding steel structure of emergency exit balconies and vine trellises in front of it, the new building appears to dissolve into the park landscape. Both the façade and the vine trellises are part of the climate control system: the storey-height glazing enables the greatest possible exploitation of the daylight, while the triple-glazing provides the necessary insulation. In summer, the trees and the vines on the trellises give natural shadow and ensure sufficient solar protection. Only on the side facing towards the park were external solar protection louvres necessary.

An “intelligent” computer-controlled system verifies the need for heating and controls the radiators. The computer registers windows being open and people leaving the building and throttles down the heating power accordingly. If required, the computer can ascertain individual heating need and establish a regime for reducing it. The new building links high technology and ecology in an unspectacular, self-evident fashion.

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Originally published in: Rainer Hascher, Simone Jeska, Birgit Klauck, Office Buildings: A Design Manual, Birkhäuser, 2002.