University enters the green building revolution
The Marga Klompé Building at Tilburg University is the first academic building in the Netherlands to be built out of wood. Insulation made from recycled denim jeans is part of the circular design by Powerhouse Company.
Marga Klompé (1912-1986) was the Netherlands’ first female government minister whose achievements included the Social Assistance Act (Algemene Bijstandswet), which was adopted in 1963. She was awarded an honorary doctorate by the then Catholic University of Tilburg in 1982, and now the new university building has been named after her in recognition of her work. Completed in 2023, the Marga Klompé Building offers around 1,000 self-study places for Tilburg University students. What’s more, they can spend time here without needing to worry about their carbon footprint, since the building is (nearly) energy neutral in day-to-day operations and its construction used minimum resources.
This sustainable approach is outlined in the project description by the architects responsible, Powerhouse Company, whose plans for the academic building were implemented in detail. Indeed, there is actually little difference between the photos of the completed project and the original visualizations that showed the intended design.
Lightweight timber construction
Nevertheless, several adaptations were necessary during the construction phase. In particular, the high acoustic demands for the building presented a special challenge in combination with the lightweight timber construction. “Pioneering is not easy, but we managed to keep the design and concept alive,” architect Janneke van der Velden explained in conversation with architecture online magazine Dezeen.
Pioneering is not easy, but we managed to keep the design and concept alive.
Janneke van der Velden, architect at Powerhouse Company
The choice of timber, as a renewable construction material, reflects the circular ambitions of the new university building. Wood is used not just for the basic structure, but also for all the walls, floors, stairs, frames and surfaces.
A lightweight construction using wooden ribbed floors enables large spans without affecting the room acoustics. “Wood is a very important circular component and has a very warm and welcoming appearance – it blends in very well with the trees that surround the building,” remarked van der Velden.
Recycled denim as insulation
As far as the sustainability of the building is concerned, the architects based their concept on the Trias Energetica strategy, which was developed at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. The highest priority of this principle is to use construction measures to reduce the energy needs of a building to a minimum.
The cotton insulation consisting of recycled denim jeans is sustainable and has proven to be an excellent way to improve the building’s acoustic comfort.
Powerhouse Company, architects
The concept envisages a smart use of natural resources, allowing the energy necessary for operations to be provided by renewable supplies. And in the event that fossil fuels are unavoidable, this energy will be used efficiently. It all sounds very logical.
A functional landscape
Besides the importance of climate protection for today’s construction projects, another critical consideration is to include measures that protect against the negative consequences of climate change. While in earlier times, designing green spaces focused purely on aesthetic perspectives, nowadays these features usually meet other needs as well.
With this in mind, the landscape architects commissioned with this work, REDD, designed a concept for a resilient ecosystem that minimizes the risk of flooding. The surrounding area gently slopes away from the very edge of the Marga Klompé Building. A small wadi with planted wildflowers is not just an attractive sight, it also serves as an area where water can seep away in heavy rain. This stops the water draining directly into the sewer system and overloading the infrastructure.
The choice of a timber construction with its virtually net zero, circular design is a clear sign of the commitment by Tilburg University to the green building revolution and climate reversal. Still, one claim in the architects’ description needs to be corrected – the Marga Klompé Building is not actually “the first college building in Europe to be entirely constructed from solid wood”. This was actually the Ilse Wallentin Haus at Vienna’s University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), a four-storey timber construction that opened back in 2020.
Text: Gertraud Gerst
Translation: Rosemary Bridger-Lippe
Photos: Sebastian van Damme
