Business as usual cannot continue if we are to strive towards a more sustainable building industry. Our methods and strategies must transform and adapt to an entirely new way of thinking.
This is why the Living Places concept was developed by the VELUX Group, in partnership with EFFEKT Architects and Artelia. It highlights how rethinking building principles can address global climate and health challenges. Powered by this idea, Living Places Copenhagen, the concept's first prototype, presents a physical example that shows how to build more sustainably while maximizing indoor comfort.
Partnering Up for People and Planet
Achieving the vision of Living Places requires teamwork, but not just any kind of teamwork.
Transformative partnering drives the concept’s mission to rethink how we build homes. This form of partnering shifts away from the usual linear approach that can complicate the building and sharing of ideas.
As Kasper Benjamin Reimer, Head of Innovation at EFFEKT Architects, describes it, "We are all given a voice" throughout the whole collaborative process. But perhaps even more importantly, "everyone is willing to listen" to each other and recognize that others "have knowledge that we don’t have."
To collaborate in this way "democratizes the knowledge stream" and as a result, creates a "ripple effect" that extends beyond building a house to prompt a wider movement – a new way of thinking about building design.
The Transformative Partnership Approach pairs with the People & Planet Methodology. The complexities of sustainable buildings call for robust methods, so the Living Places concept uses a holistic benchmarking framework called the Active House Radar to measure the well-being of people and the environmental impacts of buildings on the planet. Through its amalgamation of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Indoor Climate Class evaluations, the Active House Radar systematically combines environmental sustainability considerations with healthy indoor principles.
Ambra Guglietti, Senior Partnering Manager, explains that the LCA covers "how the materials are produced, where they come from, and how much CO2 they release in the production phase." It then moves step by step, all the way to the "second life" of a building, beyond its use phase.
Finding New Answers
How do we innovate sustainable buildings? As Lone Feifer, Sustainable Buildings Director at VELUX, reflected: "Where will it take us in the end if buildings can only get higher, bigger, and cheaper?"
"That is not going to get us closer to minimizing the footprint and optimizing buildings for people in terms of indoor climate. But also, how they feel connected and have a sense of homeliness.’’
Living Places strives to reconnect our buildings with the environment, and by extension, reconnect ourselves with nature. Founding Partner of EFFEKT Architects Sinus Lynge emphasized that Living Places Copenhagen shows how to build with "at least 2/3 lower CO2 emissions while we still make super healthy and super liveable homes that can be socially attractive."
Living Places Case Study
A full Living Places Case Study that delves into every aspect of the concept is now available for free download.
The Case Study details, among other ideas and principles, the Transformative Partnership Approach and how the People & Planet Methodology creates a framework to evaluate healthy living spaces and sustainable building practices.
