Sustainable building at Norra Masthugget

Report, 2009

In 2003 architect Hans Eek, Alingsås, Sweden, and Diploma Engineer Wolfgang Feist, Darmstadt, Germany, received the Gothenburg International Environmental Prize for their devoted work over decades in order to develop sustainable building. Mr Eek immediately made a donation to Chalmers from his award in order to establish a competition for students from Architecture and Civil Engineering. The aim of the competition is that students from these programmes shall cooperate in designing projects that fulfil the goals you can demand from all buildings: Aesthetical qualities, functional qualities, energy and resource efficiency, healthy indoor climate and realism. The intentions behind the competition were that the realisation of sustainability issues in “real life” calls for cooperation early in the design process, and, hence, such cooperation needs to be practiced in the education. The response from Chalmers was to establish the course on the advanced level, and the first competition course was launched in 2005. In Norway, a similar co-operation was established between NTNU and Husbanken, the Norwegian State Housing Bank. NTNU applied for a qualification grant allowing for an interdisciplinary course for architects and engineers in cooperation with Chalmers, a student competition, a professional Scandinavian jury and prizes for the winning student projects. From its start in 2005, this international co-operation has proven to be very successful among students and teachers alike. Over the years the course has been altered several times, mainly due to practical scheduling reasons. When Chalmers introduced the Bologna model in 2007, the course found its place in the masters programmes “Design for Sustainable Development” at Architecture and “Structural Engineering and Building Performance Design” at Civil and Environmental Engineering. From the autumn semester 2009 the course is given during the second year in these programmes. The contents of the course have also developed over the years. In 2005 the goals mostly concerned energy demands that corresponded to a best practice level in the sector. This level has gradually been raised and also the concern about more issues than just energy. Therefore, the aims of the competition have gradually become more innovative. It is interesting to notify, that the students generally also have been more ambitious concerning environmental performance than the stipulated goals in the competition programmes. The selected objects have also gone through a change, from limited building projects to sites in a complex urban context. The competition 2009 has had some new features, both positive and negative. The positive are that for the first time since the start there has been a balance between architects and engineers at Chalmers, which has raised not only the technical but the overall qualities of the contributions. The negative ones are that in very late phase NTNU lost the engineers and also a prize sum from the Norwegian State Housing Bank. The reader should keep these circumstances in mind when going through the entries. Anyway, all students have successfully carried out the task, and given a realistic and inspiring input for further development to our client, Älvstranden Utveckling AB in Göteborg. Angela Sasic Kalagasidis, Building Physics, Chalmers Barbara Rubino, Architecture, Chalmers Jan Gustén, Building Services Engineering, Chalmers Michael Edén, Architecture, Chalmers Annemie Wyckmans, Architecture, NTNU Per Monsen, Architecture, NTNU