Powerhouse Telemark Sustainable Building

Snøhetta

Via Snøhetta:

As part of the Powerhouse series, Powerhouse Telemark sets a new standard for the construction of environmentally sustainable buildings by reducing its yearly net energy consumption by 70% compared to similar new-construction offices. The building produces more energy than it will consume over its entire lifespan. Through standardized interior solutions and co-working spaces, tenants can scale their office spaces as needed, granting much needed flexibility in a global context where remote working solutions continue to increase in demand.

The building’s striking 24° tilted roof gently slopes to surpass the extremities of the building’s volume, expanding the roof’s surface and ensuring a maximum amount of solar energy can be harvested both from the photovoltaic canopy and the building’s PV-cell clad south-facing façade. The south-east facing façade and roof of Powerhouse Telemark will generate 256 000 kWh each year, approximately twenty times the annual energy use of an average Norwegian household, and surplus energy will be sold back to the energy grid. To the west, north-west and north-east the building is clad with wooden balusters over the façades providing natural shading.

A low ex system with water loops in the border zones of each floor, assures that the building is efficiently cooled and heated through geothermal wells dug 350 meters below ground.

CNN’s “Most anticipated buildings to shape the world in 2020”

Snøhetta made international headlines last year when its underwater restaurant — Europe’s first — opened near the southernmost tip of Norway. But the design firm has also gained a reputation for innovative carbon-negative buildings that, over their lifetimes, produce more energy than they consume. Located on the banks of the Porsgrunn River, the practice’s latest “energy-positive” project, Powerhouse Telemark, has been designed to “set a new standard for the construction of the buildings of tomorrow.”