The jury highly valued the sustainability of the building. Jury chairman Karla Peijs commented: “The entirely renewed building is a wonderful beacon in the complex urban architectural environment. The building stands for progress and transparency”.

Office building revitalised
The old office tower used to be a so-called ‘sick building’ and dealt with problems such as a bad indoor climate and a leaking facade. The office tower has now been completely revitalised and is surrounded by new construction of low building wings. This visionary architectural concept was designed by architect’s firm Cepezed and required an innovative approach to installation. Grontmij designed the technical installations whereby it applied sustainable techniques and achieved an optimal work climate.

A passive intelligent building
The goal of this building was to build an intelligent building that can adapt to different uses and different external influences. Examples of this built-in intelligence are:

• Cooling and heating via ‘concrete core activation’. This means that pipes cool or heat the building mass (floors).
• Energy storage in the ground and the utilization of heat pumps.
• The building front which keeps most of the wind and sun out without completely shutting them out.
• Conservatories which dampen the climate influences from outside and have a useful function.
• Industrial Flexible (IFD) design
• Biodynamic lighting