Building a Circular Future
The newly build hotel and conference center ”Green Solution House” on the Danish island of Bornholm was conceived as a continuous exploration of the concept ”circular sustainability”. How can the everchanging daylight of the north act as a design driver for an experimental sustainable architecture was one of the questions we had to find an answer for. The exploration was rooted in three sustainability strategies and constantly informed by local conditions and pragmatic use of resources. Thus, Green Solution House is certified to the standards of the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB).
The ambition was to construct the best building possible for the times, one that would contribute to the health of both people and nature. Achieving this meant exploring innovative systems and materials plus developing strategies for how to live up to the high ambitions.
One of the most important design parameters was daylight and the effect on human comfort. The cycle of natural light is fundamental to our wellbeing, and ability to maintain a healthy circadian rhythm. Daylight improves our productivity and ability to focus, and furthermore it reduces energy consumption for artificial lighting.
Designing with daylight as a key parameter meant a close collaboration between the design team and Velux, where several daylight analysis tools where utilized and new products where developed during early design and development. Today, after the building is completed, the experiment continuous, as the design team and Velux are engaged in monitoring and documenting the effects of the building on human comfort parameters.
L.L.
Lasse Lind, born 1982. He is an architect and head of consultancy at 3XN architect’s independent innovation unit GXN. He is involved in various cross-disciplinary research projects as well as in many of the 3XN’s most important architectural works, advising on sustainability and new materials in design and architecture.
Green Solution House, Bornholm, Dänemark, 2015
Turn On Partner: Velux Österreich
Foto: Adam Mørk