Everything conceived as sustainability, circularity and ecology

The architecture of the Aeres University of Applied Sciences in Almere is of a new order. It demonstrates more and more what buildings will look like in the future, so it would be reasonable to call it “ecofuturistic”. Features that immediately catch the eye include a façade with solar panels, another façade and an overhang both clad with plants, and a canopy of solar panels floating above the roof terrace. At least as important for this orientation towards the future, however, are the techniques now being used in the building as regards sustainability, circularity and green energy. These have been integrated into a process by which the architects Gert Jan Samsom and Wilco Scheffer of the Dutch firm BDG Architecten have managed to combine all these techniques into a harmonious and spatially functional whole.

The building can be understood as a machine that produces a green, healthy and stimulating learning environment. More than aesthetics, it is the minimisation of the ecological impact, the optimisation of the indoor climate and the alternative forms of education advocated by the university that are at the forefront of the design.

The new education building is located on the former site of the Floriade, where an arboretum was located. Connection with that arboretum was one of the starting points for the design, because the exhibition and the college had the same theme. By letting the arboretum extend to the roof and planting trees there, the modest plot allocated for building could be used to maximum effect. Consequently the relatively tall educational building could make do with one less storey, not six but five. The largely plant-covered façade faces the arboretum, forming a vertical continuation of it. With the trees and dozens of native plant species, the roof garden in turn connected to the overgrown façade. This blending of arboretum, façade and roof has also benefited insects and birds. A single ecological continuum was thus created for them.

When teaching is not taking place, the lecture hall is also part of that green route, an innovation that makes the space one of multiple uses. Such diverse and thus efficient use of space recurs throughout the building. Corridors and classrooms with a classic classroom layout, traditionally the standard recipe of educational institutions, is no longer to be found here. There are still classrooms but the arrangements in them are unusual. In colleges, teaching also often takes a different form from the classroom. Here the teacher is more of a coach in the learning process, and students work independently, together or alone, in project groups or online. Precisely for such activity-oriented teaching, there are facilities in the “green lung” such as the grandstand staircases, work stations and study niches, each with different furniture tailored to different uses.

The cells of the panel are spaced apart so that you can look through them from the inside and see the still empty space around the building, the expansive lake on which it is located and the city centre skyline in the distance. At the same time, those panels act as sunshades, protecting the rooms behind them from getting too hot. As to the other two facades, there is insufficient sunlight for solar cells. Instead, the cladding consists in this case of a biocomposite, a material that is eminently recyclable and effective as insulation.

In other respects, too, the building was constructed with the best possible environment-friendliness. The list of circular materials used is impressive. To give a few examples: concrete granulate was used for the floors, the cast concrete consists partly of recirculated concrete, the flooring was laid for the stairways with circular Marmoleum (made by Forbo Flooring), scrap wood was used for the grandstand stairs as well as for the decking and round benches on the roof terrace, recycled metal studs were inserted in the internal walls, and many pieces of furniture were refurbished. As to material use, however, the architects had a critical stance. Wood for the construction seems an obvious choice from an environmental point of view, for example, but large quantities would have to be applied.