Symbiosis principal Giancarlo Mangone’s PhD research concept integrated into Schmidt Hammer Lassen's design proposal, wins Norway’s ‘Nordic Built Challenge' Design Competition

                                                    Rendering Courtesy of Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects

The 'Urban Mountain', our design team's winning submission, was awarded first place in Norway's Nordic Built Challenge. The jury commented that the 'Urban Mountain' "merges architectural design and environmental strategies in a manner no other entry quite reaches", it "insists on setting a new standard"

In order to achieve a BREEAM Outstanding performance rating, as well as integrate nature into the performance and experience of the project,  Giancarlo Mangone developed an innovative vegetation integrated thermal chimney advanced natural ventilation and air filtration system. This system was developed from strategies and results from his ongoing PhD research at TU Delft, and resulted in the incorporation of plants to filter the interior and exterior air, as well as provide spatial natural environments. This integration of natural environments was developed in a way that improved worker creativity and productivity, energy consumption rates, indoor air quality, interior daylighting potential, occupant thermal comfort, as well as provided high performance work spaces. The project also addressed the local ecosystem's ecological integrity by providing microhabitat patches for various local flora and fauna, and raises occupants ecological awareness through the provision of opportunities for direct interaction between people and a dynamic range of local habitats and biota.  These benefits improved the economic, energy, worker, and ecological performance of the project, and resulted in an innovative, high performance design solution.

The Nordic Built Challenge asked design teams to renovate a 25 story office building in downtown Oslo, Norway. The performance goal of the competition was to develop 'the most environmentally friendly rehabilitated building complex in the Nordic Region', and set 'a new design standard with bases in economy, environmental innovation and life cycle principles, for holistic rehabilitation of an existing, high rise office building. The design proposal must address Cradle to Cradle standards, and work towards being rated as BREEAM Excellent or Outstanding.


The design team included Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects, Symbiosis : Sustainable Design + Consulting, Transsolar Energietechnik GmbH, Cradle to Cradle Denmark, COWI DK, Loop Architects

Symbiosis Principal Giancarlo Mangone's PhD Research published as cover story in Dutch National Mechanical Engineering Magazine - TVVL

Symbiosis Principal Giancarlo Mangone was invited to write an industry article on his PhD research for the Dutch National Mechanical Engineering Organization TVVL's magazine. The article was featured as the cover story of the June 2013 edition of the magazine. The research project is focused on how the design of buildings can improve the performance of building environments, with particular focus on how to design building projects to minimize building energy use and construction and operating costs, as well as improve the space efficiency of the building, occupant creativity and comfort, and the ecological integrity of the local ecosystem. 

 

High performing solutions to these problems are developed and evaluated in this research project through the design of microforests within existing buildings and new construction projects. By integrating natural environments and processes into buildings and building infrastructure systems, previously unachievable performance benefits are achieved. To find out more, read the article here