Description

At the unattractive site of highly chemically contaminated land that lies on the northern edge of the university town of Wageningen, the Institute for Forest and Nature Research saw a chance to demonstrate its own principles. By replanting the landscape and building a low-energy building for their own institute they demonstrate exemplary ecological sensitivity with regard to the natural environment. The research and laboratory wings on the northern side of the three-storey building form the boundary of the adjoining newly developed biotope, while the three office wings on the southern side reach out into the landscape. Between the wings, the biotope is continued as a garden with opulent planting and a variety of waterways.

Encased by a glass structure, the interstitial spaces become interior spaces and can therefore be used in the breaks as well as for meetings. Steel walkways provide access to the offices inside while terraces on the different floors and open stairways create direct links between the courtyards and the offices, thereby encouraging people to linger. For concentrated work, the scientists withdraw into their private offices, which are arranged in rows on either side of a central corridor. The rigidity of this spatial structure is softened at the southern end of the building by the cafeteria, the conference room and the library. With extensive façade openings onto terraces, and comfortable seating areas, the rooms extend into the green courtyards, blurring the boundaries between inside and outside. The contrast between the serial office structure and the flowing, partially public spaces is the distinguishing characteristic of the building; it has been met with enthusiastic acceptance by the staff.

It is not only due to the opulent planting that the glazed courtyards are reminiscent of greenhouses: the roof construction, a row of saddleback roofs with foil on the inside serving as solar protection in summer and insulation in winter, draws on greenhouse construction principles. The point of departure for the building’s climate control concept was a reduction of the need for supplementary heating, thereby reducing the burden on the environment. The thermal glazing of the office façade, the superglazing system (high-grade thermal insulation) of the north-facing rooms of the institute, and the buffer effect of the atriums reduce heat loss to a minimum. In summer, the heat stored in the exposed concrete ceilings is given up to the cool night air through the opened glass roofs. The evaporation of the pond water has an additional cooling effect, as do the unsealed planted courtyard areas. The combination of the glazed planted courtyard areas and the thermal storage mass of the concrete elements made it possible to dispense with air conditioning. Only a few special areas and one or two laboratories have their fresh air supply supplemented by an individually regulable ventilation system.

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