Categorie: building

‘transgressive ‘ projects ! 2/3

A building is usually assessed sec, as a building. Or as a complex of buildings, within the project development boundary, both energetically and financially. See previous contribution. But that is often at the expense of effects outside the project boundary. A few examples can clarify this. Some years ago I…

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Building evaluation should change 1/2

There is a lot of discussion in the Netherlands about how to assess buildings, if you integrate material impacts in addition to energy, as well as to somehow include CO2 budgets. There is already an instrument for this, the MPG, (materials performance Buildings) but it is under discussion. Besides, in…

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Europe: looking for a climate proof housing location

Of course, it makes some sense, improving our house with some insulation, a heat pump and so on (or not, I’ll come back to that soon!) , but if you could choose where to live or build, or move, where would you go, given that you want to be prepared…

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Where to build, and where not to build (in NL)

I was asked that question last year by Thomas van Belzen of Cobouw,[1] and it got me thinking. It was an interview in Dutch, but let me return to it in English and in more detail at the beginning of 2023. The first reaction is of course: why build, we…

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On calculating per m2 living area ½

It is common in construction to normalize per m2 floor: such as e.g. energy, material, ventilation needs, or even costs and investments. But when it comes to the national requirements for housing in fact you should not calculate per m2 floor. Because it’s not about the impact per 1 m2…

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MNB1: 0-CO2 per 2030, MNB2: max 550 kg/m2

Last week, two interesting reports were published analysing how regulations can better support ‘sustainable’ material use. Very esteemed colleagues, united in a Dutch ‘Gideons tribe’ to make the buildings sector move faster, have been working on this. [1] I can agree in general with the contents and analyses ( to…

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The Bionological House

With vegetables, we’ve been doing it for years: most current vegetables never existed, in an autonomous evolutionary process. We as humans have slowly transformed them so that they grow the way we appreciate them, and want them on our plates. (Or the industry has adapted them the way we want…

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Carbon storage in wood-timber 1/2

Storage (binding) of CO2 in wood/timber is a hot issue at the moment*. But how should that be calculated really? Before I go into more detail, a few preliminary remarks: (the part on ‘calculating’ has been later added, and ‘CO2’ has been adapted) Building in wood is always a good…

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There is no ‘end of life’ of a building… 1/2

Life has an end, but is there also an ‘end of life’, for products and buildings? Which is frequently used in science, like in building evaluations calculating with a maximum life span, but seems weird. It is understandable in trade, for product developers, that want things to be replaced at…

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Double dilemma? discussions as Fellow

In recent years I was a Fellow of the Technical University of Eindhoven, more precisely working with the Building Physics department, in particular with Prof. Wim Zeiler, Installation Technology. And we had interesting discussions, because we strive for the same thing, while we come from different backgrounds. Those discussions can…

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