THE EDGEAMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS

PRESENTED BY:DIVLEEN NARULA

IV - A

ARCHITECTS- PLP ARCHITECTURE LOCATION -THE ZUIDAS,AMSTERDAM,THE

NETHERLANDS AREA -40000.0 SQM FLOORS - 15 PROJECT YEAR -2015 CLIENT -OVG REAL ESTATE STRUCTURAL ENGINEER -VAN ROSSUM

CONSULTING ENGINEERS MEP CONSULTANT -DEERNS LOCAL ARCHITECT -OEVER,ZAAIJER SUSTAINABILITY CONSULTANT -C2N

BOUWMANAGEMENT BUILDING PHYSICS -LBP SIGHT LANDSCAPE DESIGN -DELTA VORM GROEP CONTRACTOR -G&S BOUW GLASS FAÇADE -ROLLECATE GLASS ROOF -BRAKEL ATMOS INTERIOR DESIGN -FOKKEMA & PARTNERS

One of the people involved in the creation and construction processes of The Edge is architect RON BAKKER.

Born in the Netherlands with a degree in architecture from Delft University of Technology, Bakker moved to London 20 years ago.

There he worked as a partner at architecture firm KPF London for 17 years before co-founding PLP Architecture in 2009.

Bakker led the design and management of building projects and assignments in the Netherlands (World Trade Center Amsterdam and the new town center of Almere Poort), in the UK and Russia.

THE ARCHITECT

RON BAKKER

INTRODUCTIONTHE EDGE

The Edge is home to the Amsterdam HQ of Deloitte.

Not in Tokyo, New York, Delhi, London or Paris, but in Amsterdam you can find the world’s most sustainable office building: The Edge. The sophisticated design, combined with smart and advanced technology, resulted in a 98.36% (BREEAM-NL) sustainability score for the building. The Edge sheds new light on real estate in the future: buildings that generate more energy than they consume.

THE EDGE IN THE PICTUREThe Edge has everything to offer its users a pleasant workplace, in every sense of the word. The sophisticated design creates a comfortable living environment, whilst in addition, it focuses on sustainability and efficient energy consumption.

FIFTEEN-STORY ATRIUMThe atrium is the gravitational center of the Edge’s solar system. Mesh panels between each floor let stale office air spill into open space, where it rises and is exhaled through the roof, creating a loop of natural ventilation. Slight heat variations and air currents make it feel like the outdoors. Even on a stormy day, the building remains opalescent with natural light and angles of glass.

The atrium and its iconic slanted roof, which looks from the outside as if a wedge has been sliced off the building, floods the workspaces with daylight and provides a sound buffer from the adjacent highway and train tracks. Every workspace is within 7 meters (23 feet) of a window.

Form Evolution vs. Daylight Analysis

NEW WAY OF WORKING About 2,500 Deloitte workers share 1,000

desks. The concept is called hot desking, and it’s supposed to encourage new relationships, chance interactions, and, just as important, efficient use of space.

Desks are only used when they're needed. Some tiny rooms at the Edge contain just a lounge chair and a lamp (no desk)—perfect for a phone call.

There are also game rooms and coffee bars with espresso machines that remember how you like your coffee.

Massive flatscreens around every corner can be synced wirelessly with any phone or laptop.

Since workers at the Edge don’t have assigned desks, lockers serve as home base for the day. Find a locker with a green light, flash your badge, and it’s yours.

Employees are discouraged from keeping a single locker for days or weeks, because part of the het nieuwe werken philosophy is to break people away from their fixed locations and rigid ways of thinking.

SITE PLAN

GROUND FLOOR

SECTION

A DASHBOARD TO RULE THEM ALLDeloitte is collecting gigabytes of data on how the Edge and its employees interact. Central dashboards track everything from energy use to when the coffee machines need to be refilled. On days when fewer employees are expected, an entire section might even be shut down, cutting the costs of heating, cooling, lighting, and cleaning.

Deloitte’s general philosophy with the Edge was that anything with a return on investment of less than 10 years is worth a try. The digital ceiling was one of the most expensive innovations; Deloitte wouldn’t disclose the cost, but Erik Ubels, chief information officer for Deloitte in the Netherlands, says it will take 8.3 years to earn it back.

AN EVOLVING APPThe smartphone is your passport to the Edge. Use it to find your colleagues, adjust the heating, or manage your gym routine. You can even order up a dinner recipe, and a bag of fresh ingredients will await you when the workday is over. All desks are equipped with built-in wireless chargers so your phone can keep itself charged.

RELIABLE SOURCES The heating and cooling of The Edge is

regulated in a sustainable way. Therefore, two groundwater sources are

located 130 metres underground: one for cold water and one for warm water. These so-called aquifer thermal energy storage pumps, depending on the inner and outer climate, pump warm or cold water in to or out of the building.

The installation pumps are driven by self-generated solar power. As such, The Edge cleverly and optimally uses all sustainable possibilities.

During summer months, the building pumps warm water more than 400 feet deep in the aquifer beneath the building, where it sits, insulated, until winter, when it's sucked back out for heating.

HEALTHY LIFEThe Edge is not only good for the environment; it also offers a healthy inner climate for users. For instance, the heat recovery ventilation system contributes to that: an intelligent ventilation system. Furthermore, the building offers facilities to have a healthy meal at home after a long working day. Via an app and an interactive screen, users can select a dish in the daytime, which they want in the evening

LIGHTING FOR EVERYONE Everyone in The Edge with a

smartphone or tablet may itself regulate the light and the "climate" of his workplace with the special Philips app.

The 6,000 low-energy LEDs are connected to a daylight, temperature, infrared & motion detector. They are only active when necessary. The LEDs save energy, because they offer 300 Lux, instead of the standard 500 Lux. As a result 3.9 Watts/m² is used instead of the usual 8 Watts/m².

SUNNY PROSPECTS The Edge is orientated and shaped in such a way

that the power of the sun is optimally utilised. The glass facade ensures that daylight can be

benefited from as long as possible, without the heat of the sun influencing the temperature inside.

The south side of the building is equipped with super efficient solar panels, keeping the heat out and the radiation absorbed when it’s at its strongest.

The southern wall is a checkerboard of solar panels and windows. Thick load-bearing concrete helps regulate heat, and deeply recessed windows reduce the need for shades, despite direct exposure to the sun.

The roof is also covered with panels. The Edge uses 7 0 percent less electricity than the

typical office building , but it wasn’t until OVG installed panels on the rooftops of some neighbouring university buildings that the Edge was able to boast that it produces more energy than it consumes.

SOLAR PANELS ON ROOF

SOLAR PANELS ON FACADE

LIGHTING-THE EDGE

ELECTRIC CAR AND BIKE PARKING When you arrive at the Edge, garage

entry is automated. A camera snaps a photo of your license

plate, matches it with your employment record, and raises the gate.

Even the garage uses sensor-equipped LED lights, which brighten as you approach and dim as you leave.

It’s the Netherlands, so a separate garage for bicycles and free chargers for electric vehicles aren’t surprising.

BICYCLE PARKING

CAR PARKING

LONG BLUE TUBESThe Edge is wired with a vast network of two different kinds of tubes: one that holds data (ethernet cables) and another that holds water. Behind each ceiling tile is a massive coil of thin blue piping that delivers water to and from the building’s subterranean water storage for radiant heating and cooling.

TRICKLE-DOWN TOILET WATER

A massive concrete tub in the back of the parking garage gathers the rainwater used to flush the building’s toilets and water the gardens. It’s a loud room on a rainy day. The water rushes down from collection systems on the roof and outdoor balcony.

NOT JUST A TOWEL DISPENSER

The Edge watches you in the bathroom, too (but not in a creepy way). A normal-looking towel dispenser provides a spool of cloth for hand-drying. Unlike a typical hand dryer, though, this one is connected to the Internet. It lets the cleaning staff know when a busy bathroom is probably ready for a cleanup.

ROBOCOP AND THE VACUUM This little robot comes out at night to

patrol the grounds. If an alarm goes off, the camera-

equipped automaton can identify the culprit or let security know it was a false alarm.

It cruises around automatically or can be commandeered by remote control.

For smarter cleaning, activity is tracked by sensors built into light panels, so at the end of the day, the people and robots responsible for cleaning can focus on the areas that have been used most heavily that day.

HUMAN POWERThe on-site gym encourages employees to break for a midday workout. Flash your phone at the check-in station and the gym’s app automatically tracks your progress. Some of the exercise stations here will actually harness the energy from your workout, sending hard-earned watts back to the grid—as if you didn’t already feel like a hamster in a wheel.

ECOLOGICAL CORRIDORBirds, bats, bees, and bugs. These are the building’s neighbours on the north-facing terrace. OVG worked with Amsterdam officials to establish a continuous path of vegetation that supports beneficial insects throughout the city. Birdhouses and bat boxes are tucked discreetly into the landscaping. These pockmarked towers support various species of solitary bees, which buzz about the flowers on the public terrace.

CONCLUSION The Edge is the first building to make use of Philips' connected lighting system for offices

The Edge's atrium is designed as a meeting space

Ventilation is controlled in The Edge's atrium 

SELF-SUSTAINING ARCHITECTURE The Edge is not just a pretty face – a modern facade: it is designed to be as energy neutral and self-sustaining as

possible. Its Atrium is 15 floors high, making not only the work environment open and thus more inspiring, but also serving

as a part of the ventilation system, ensuring that the used air from the offices gets sucked off at the top. The form and orientation of the building brings natural daylight to most of its workspaces. At the same time, the

shade will fall on the sunny parts of the structure for natural cooling. As for electricity, the whole southern gable is equipped with solar panels. Additionally another 4000+ square

meters of panels have been placed on the roofs of neighbouring buildings of the University of Amsterdam and the Hogeschool of Amsterdam.

But this is not all: an aquifer thermal energy storage, located about 130 meters underground, generates all energy required for heating and cooling of the building. Rainwater is also collected and reused.

You could nearly think of The Edge as its own planet. If electricity fails across Amsterdam, people working in The Edge can continue working in their own little haven.