CIRCULAR SUSTAINABILITY

LIFE CYCLE DESIGN

MICRO DESIGN

EXPLORING CIRCULAR SUSTAINABILITY

TRIPLE STRATEGY

Holistic Sustainability

MATERIALS

The design of Green Solution House is based on several parameters to show a holistic approach to sustainability. The building is certified to the standards of the recognised German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB), based on the criteria of the Active House vision and inspired by the Cradle to Cradle life cycle concept. The building and landscape present the latest developments in the field of sustainable architecture; we show that sustainability involves more than aspiring to green certification, and that it is possible to quantify our project’s high quality on the basis of several parameters.

ENERGY LIGHT NATURE WATER AIR

MORE THAN A BUILDING

Co-Creation Strategic Partnerships Focus On People

COLLABORATION AND INNOVATION

WATER AND SOIL BALANCE

Rainwater Landscaping

Who’s behind it: SLA

NATURE WATER

The high water table on the site poses a challenge, but instead of fighting nature and treating this as a problem, the landscape was designed around the element of water. The soil excavated for the foundation of the new building was retained on site and used to sculpt the land. Various watershed designs guide rainwater to seasonal ponds, creating an easy to maintain landscape, which increases biodiversity, provides natural irrigation, has a cooling effect in the summer months.

BITUMEN FREE LANDSCAPE

BITUMEN FREE LANDSCAPE

Natural Hardscape Design

Who’s behind it: SLA and GXN

NATURE

Bitumen is a waste product from crude oil processing, and the binder of asphalt. Green Footprints Park is a bitumen free landscape, and the parking lot at Green Solution House demonstrates that it is possible to make a robust paving surface for driving, without asphalt. Where needed a plant-based binder, called Vegecol, is used as an environmentally friendly alternative to bitumen – elsewhere aggregate surfaces are simply compacted fill.

MATERIALS

INTELLIENT INDOOR CLIMATE

SMART ROOM

The Hotel Room of Tomorrow

Who’s behind it: GXN Innovation, Autodesk Research, Strategic Innovation, Rambøll

MATERIALS ENERGY LIGHT AIR WATER

Two guest rooms were retrofitted with intelligent climate systems and a focus on quality interiors. The rooms are controlled by our custom mobile app, which tracks the impact of your stay, monitoring consumption and indoor environment. Air cleaning carpets, recyclable tiles, recycled plastic fixtures and low energy lighting demonstrate our focus on recyclability and sustainability certifications. Plus the rooms are delightfully daylit with skylights and Sun Tunnels.

INTELLIGENT INDOOR CLIMATE

Smart Room App

Who’s behind it: GXN Innovation, Autodesk Research, Strategic Innovation, Rambøll

ENERGY LIGHT AIR WATER

Interact with your room! At Green Solution House we custom-built a mobile app to track resource consumption and easily control the indoor environment in our Smart Rooms. Energy, light, air and water are the four themes on which live feedback is provided to our guests, helping to inform behaviour by increasing awareness at a personal level.

Green Solution House first goal is

‘To enable knowledge sharing’

LIVING DEMONSTATORIUM

LIGHT WATER NATURE AIR ENERGY MATERIALS

Focus On Regenerative Solutions

MATERIAL UPCYCLING

MATERIAL UPCYCLING

MATERIAL UPCYCLING

DESIGN FOR DISASSEMBLY

BIOLOGICAL WATER PURIFICATION

WATER CYCLE

Biological Water Purification

Who’s behind it: Rambøll, The Last Straw, SLA, GXN Innovation

WATER

Water from the sinks and toilets in the main building is collected and flows through anaerobic, clarifying, and biological filtering stages to enable on-site reuse. The first stages of purification are hidden below ground, after which the system emerges into view and is assisted by sunlight and LED lighting. Here, the water flows through algae tubes that absorb CO2 and continue the water cleansing process. The ambition for the system is to obtain drinking water quality through the biological purification process.

RENEWABLE ENERGY DESIGN

RENEWABLE ENERGY

On-Site Energy Production

ENERGY

At Green Solution House we produce energy. Solar cells generate electricity and our on-site pyrolysis plant converts organic waste to electricity and heat. Hot water comes from a solar thermal plant integrated into the landscape. We converted our 30 year old swimming pool into a thermal energy storage system. To keep an eye on operations, we display our energy consumption and on-site production with a custom visualisation and any excess energy is sold back to the Bornholm grid.

SOLAR BALCONIES

Gaia Solar Cells

Who’s behind it: Gaia Solar

ENERGY LIGHT

During the retrofit of the main building, all balconies were changed from concrete to glass and those on the south façade were equipped with photovoltaic cells. Now the solar balconies produce an extra 5000 kWh of energy per year for the building. In addition, the glass balcony railings let significantly more daylight into the hotel rooms than before.

ON-SITE HOT WATER

Solar Thermal Plant

Who’s behind it: Sunmark, Rambøll

ENERGY WATER

Solar thermal collectors generate hot water from the sun to offset the operational requirements from the local heat plant. The energy generated can be used for heating potable water - what goes to the sinks and showers - or for general heating needs such as radiators, in floor heating, or ventilation heating. We have 150 m2 of high efficiency solar collectors. In the case that excess heat is produced by our solar thermal plant it can be stored in our thermal energy storage for later use, such as overnight heating.

ENERGY VISUALISATION

Correlating Use to Supply

ENERGY

Our interactive energy visualisation lets us know where our energy comes from and where it goes. Aligned with our goal of continuous improvement we want an ongoing and thorough understanding of the resource mix used to produce our power – this means understanding the fluctuations between highly renewable energy and highly resource dependent energy. With this understanding, we correlate our operational practices to best mitigate environmental impacts.

Who’s behind it: GXN Innovation, Autodesk Research, Strategic Innovation, Rambøll

ELIMINATING THE CONCEPT OF WASTE

ELIMINATING WASTE

Waste Equals Food

MATERIALS

Waste? What waste? Reuse, upcycling, recyclability, and the use of local material resources are always prioritised at Green Solution House. All new constructions and renovations considered principles of Design for Disassembly, maintaining material value into the future. Existing furniture was reupholstered, glass offcuts from local industry became a landscaping material. As long as materials can be separated and cleaned, they remain nutrients for other cycles and support our goal of zero waste.

ENERGY FROM WASTE

Pyrolysis Plant

Who’s behind it: Frichs A/S, GXN Innovation

MATERIALS ENERGY NATURE

All food scraps and organic materials from the main building are fed into our own stationary pyrolysis plant. The process heats the waste, breaking it down to produce natural gas and biochar, which is valuable as a soil additive for the gardens. The gas is combusted in a combined heat and power engine, generating heat and electricity for the building. Excess heat is stored onsite as hot water in a swimming pool, repurposed as a thermal energy storage system.

Green Solution House second goal is

‘To demonstrate green solutions’

CIRCULAR BUSINESS MODEL

REDEFINE REVENUE

BUILT OF HEALTHY MATERIALS

DESIGNED WITH DAYLIGHT

WITH SPACE FOR INSPIRATION

Green Solution House third goal is

‘To promote continuous improvement’

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