The "Sustainable Energy Office" is a dynamic collaboration of a variety of innovation, expertise-, and trade organisations for renewable energy such as solar and wind energy. They moved to a larger and more accessible space in the centre of Utrecht.
In the relocation, the focus is on merging and redesigning two spaces into a shared new space.

Circular design
Unlike the traditional economy where raw materials are extracted, processed into products and discarded after use, the circular economy aims to reduce, reuse, repair, recycle and renew materials and products as much as possible. Designers can play a big role in this with the right design approach.

We took a circular approach to the design and layout of the Sustainable Energy Office. To fulfil their sustainability ambitions and reduce their impact on the environment. We designed their new office from a simplified R-ladder of circularity strategies, consisting of re-use, refurbish, repurpose and recycle.

In doing so, we reconsidered the layout of the office (in particular to minimize the current problem of noise pollution). The brasserie and large(er) meeting rooms were moved to the entrance area and, as a large acoustic buffer, to the center of the space. Individual flexible open-plan workstations are positioned precisely for the purpose of quietness, towards the bright sides and back.
Within this "ring" of different workplace islands, enclosed call and conference rooms have also been placed to create an optimal balance between different functions.
Furthermore, optimal sight-lines make it clear whether a particular space is occupied.

Demountable and Remountable
For future reuse, in addition to a layered and prioritised choice of materials and products according to the R-ladder, demountable and remountable designs play an important role. Demountable means that materials can be easily disassembled for individual reuse. Remountable goes one step further and assumes that an object or a building is designed in such a way that, after it has been built, it can be disassembled and reassembled in its entirety somewhere else.

Harvesting
Is a term for searching and finding reusable materials. We first looked as locally as possible: what do we leave behind at the old premises and what is still usable at the new location? Then we looked for sources in the proximity of the project.

The circular strategies applied

Re-use System walls or partitions are often modularly designed and perfectly re-usable. In the sustainable energy office, two large conference rooms were built from walls that were already at the new location (and therefore suitable for reuse). For the small conference and phone spaces, windows and doors were reused from the old location. The pantry and much of the free standing furniture were also taken from the old location.

Refurbish An old counter was given a new front made of harvested wooden boards. These are not glued but screwed to allow for future reuse. The existing stand-alone furniture has been supplemented with refurbished furniture.

Repurpose For the conference rooms, by means of a box-in-box principle, a remountable self-supporting construction was designed from reused concrete plywood panels. To show the circular nature of the office, the concrete plywood sheets have not been processed.

Recycle Acoustic walls were constructed from unused system walls already present at the new location, combined with harvested wooden board material. Filled with a bio-based sound-absorbing material and covered on the outside with stretched fabrics made from recycled textiles.

New Where new materials were required, we chose the most sustainable alternative. For acoustic reasons, the work floor and conference rooms were given carpet tiles with as much recycled content as possible. Primeval, bio-based linoleum was used in the reception and lunch areas. Clay stucco and clay paint were used on the walls.

A few learnings

Hire with a circular perspective

An office space is contractually delivered mostly as casco and you have to leave it casco again. So it is best to look at the prospective location when the departing tenant is still in it and, in consultation with the architect, see what can be reused. Make clear agreements about this with the departing party and the landlord.

Start on time, harvesting takes time

Harvesting materials requires you to get on the road. Besides the existing place, future location, harvesting halls and other sources. You need to see them to assess whether they are usable. This takes time.

Pretty pictures will not be the end result

In the end, we all like to look at fancy 3D pictures that perfectly represent the final result, but the availability of materials largely determines the final design. Pretty pictures are sometimes outdated the same day.

Everything starts with, good commissioning

A circular approach needs to be secured in the organisation and means more uncertainty in planning, budget and the end result. This requires trust and flexibility.

Don't give up...

For reasons of time or budget, the choice of a conventional approach is quickly made.