Triodos Bank Headquarter
Driebergen
Architects: RAU architects // Project size: 13.000 m² GFA // Completion: 2019 // Awards: National Timber Construction Prize of Netherlands 2021 – Commercial Timber Construction, National Timber Construction Prize of Netherlands 2021 – Audience Award, BREEAM Award 2021 - Post Construction, Gouden Kikker 2020 – Most Sustainable Project, Architectenweb Award 2019 - Office Building of the Year
Triodos Bank's new sustainable and circular office was completed in 2019. 12.500 m² of office space with a restaurant is available to the employees of Triodos Bank Netherlands and Triodos Investment Management within walking distance of Driebergen-Zeist station.
The building complex consists of three transparent towers of different heights, which emerge from a common base to which they are connected at different levels. The "wooden cathedral" as it has been called is a symbol of a dynamic balance between nature, culture and economy. The design by architect Thomas Rau, with its form inspired by nature and the flight paths of bats, explicitly refers to the circular economy and the core business of the bank, which is committed to ethical financing.
Technically, Triodos Bank's new headquarters is a remountable building that can be dismantled and rebuilt, a temporary combination of materials that do not lose value when dismantled, but set in motion a virtuous, circular process of reuse. The entire building is composed of five standard elements. The prefabricated wooden walls of the three-storey tower form the core and are about 3.50 m wide and 15 m high. These walls are made of cross laminated timber from PEFC-certified spruce. The floors are suspended from the wooden core, and on the outside of the core a steel structure supports the curtain facade with large window frames.
Lüning, one of ABT's sister companies, designed the structural design and made the structural calculations for all the timber structures used.
To achieve BREEAM Outstanding, all sustainable solution approaches and all steps of the process were documented. Most of the non-visible materials are second-hand. All materials used are recorded in Madaster (online register for materials and products). As a result, a complete material passport of the building will be available soon. As the building is being mocked up in 3D BIM, features such as dimensions, weight, type and material of each component can be recorded.
The design received the BREEAM NL certificate Outstanding with a rare high score of over 94 %.
With lots of glass and daylight, optimal solar shading, LED lighting and 100 % sustainable energy generation, the entire building is energy and CO2 neutral. Underground heat and cold storage tanks with a heat pump and solar collectors on the green roof cover the entire energy demand.
Scope of services: Structural engineering, wood engineering
Photos: Bert Rietberg
