When the Western world was hit by the first oil crisis in 1973, a gloomy-looking Prime Minister Den Uyl Netherlands announced in a TV speech that “it would never be as it was”. Then his cabinet introduced car-free Sundays and put the petrol on the receipt. Later, the then Minister of Economic Affairs, Ruud Lubbers, called on the population to close the curtains earlier, so that less heat escaped through the single-pane windows of the doorzon homes.
Lubbers’ call was the start of a long series of proposals and measures to make buildings more energy efficient or ‘more sustainable’, such as better insulation through double glazing. All of these were included in the first Building Decree in 1992, which was later followed by a second (2003) and a third (2012), with even more sustainability requirements.
Yet most architects only began to seriously concern themselves with sustainability after An Innovative Truth, 2006 Al Gores film about rising sea levels due to global warming. Since then, many architects have wanted to do more than design buildings that meet the requirements of the Building Decree and let them know that sustainable construction is a spearhead in their work.
In recent years, timber construction has become the magic word in architecture. More and more builders and architects see wood as a sustainable alternative to concrete, which accounts for about 8 percent of the annual CO2 worldwide2emissions. Building with wood, if this wood comes from trees that are replaced by new ones after felling, is virtually climate neutral.
cross-laminated wood
There is even talk of a wood revolution in architecture. This was made possible by Cross Laminated Timber (CLT), a construction product invented in the 1990s that is stronger and more flexible than ordinary wood. Building elements made of cross-laminated timber allow the construction of taller and larger timber buildings.
The Netherlands also has a number of large wooden buildings. This is how architect built Tom Frantzen on the IJ in Amsterdam-Noord Patch 22 and Top Up, two wooden residential buildings with seven and eight storeys respectively. But Patch Up, which was the tallest wooden building in the Netherlands when it was completed in 2017, and Top Up from 2020 are not entirely made of wood and partly of concrete. HAUT, the residential tower in Amsterdam designed by Team V and now almost completed, which at 73 meters will become the tallest wooden building in the Netherlands, also has a core of concrete to which the wooden parts are attached.
During the renovation of the Gare Maritime in Brussels, Neutelings Riedijk Architecten succeeded in constructing the new building entirely from CLT. With new commercial spaces covering 45,000 square meters (nine football fields), this is the largest CLT construction project in Europe to date.
miraculous
For nearly a quarter of a century, the disused Gare Maritime, once the largest freight station in Europe with three high and four lower halls, was languishing in the problem district of Molenbeek. Until five years ago, the owner decided to renovate the station to a design by Neutelings Riedijk into the hopefully bustling heart of Molenbeek. In their design, the Rotterdam architects proposed to leave the middle three halls – two low and one high – empty and to concentrate the new building in the outer halls. This enabled the central part of the station, bordered by gardens with trees, to become a public event square.
The contrast between the fully built outer halls and the empty central part of the immense station has a wonderful effect. Anyone who enters the Gare Maritime through the middle entrances will be misled. There is not much to be seen of the largest wooden building in Europe and for a moment it seems as if the renovation of the station mainly consists of a careful restoration of the imposing halls. This makes for an overwhelming experience: with its mighty iron columns and rafters and partly glass roof, the empty hall, almost three hundred meters long, has an unprecedented grandeur.
With mighty iron columns and glass roof, the nearly three-hundred-meter-long hall has an unprecedented grandeur
If you then walk across the square and explore the parts behind the trees, you will soon see that a lot has been built in the ‘city where it never rains’, as the architects themselves call the renovated station. The spaces for catering, shops, workshops, showrooms and offices appear to be housed in ten pavilions. Eight cross streets run between the buildings, with sky bridges floating above the visitors’ heads in the form of beautiful criss-cross staircases.
The pavilions are almost thirty meters high and although they are built entirely from prefabricated – and demountable – wooden components, they fit perfectly into the magnificent Brussels cathedral of the industrial era. It is as if they have always been there: the quadrangular buildings have facades that are just as robust and elegant as the original station architecture.
A version of this article also appeared in NRC in the morning of October 7, 2021
When the Western world was hit by the first oil crisis in 1973, a gloomy-looking Prime Minister Den Uyl Netherlands announced in a TV speech that “it would never be as it was”. Then his cabinet introduced car-free Sundays and put the petrol on the receipt. Later, the then Minister of Economic Affairs, Ruud Lubbers, called on the population to close the curtains earlier, so that less heat escaped through the single-pane windows of the doorzon homes.
Lubbers’ call was the start of a long series of proposals and measures to make buildings more energy efficient or ‘more sustainable’, such as better insulation through double glazing. All of these were included in the first Building Decree in 1992, which was later followed by a second (2003) and a third (2012), with even more sustainability requirements.
Yet most architects only began to seriously concern themselves with sustainability after An Innovative Truth, 2006 Al Gores film about rising sea levels due to global warming. Since then, many architects have wanted to do more than design buildings that meet the requirements of the Building Decree and let them know that sustainable construction is a spearhead in their work.
In recent years, timber construction has become the magic word in architecture. More and more builders and architects see wood as a sustainable alternative to concrete, which accounts for about 8 percent of the annual CO2 worldwide2emissions. Building with wood, if this wood comes from trees that are replaced by new ones after felling, is virtually climate neutral.
cross-laminated wood
There is even talk of a wood revolution in architecture. This was made possible by Cross Laminated Timber (CLT), a construction product invented in the 1990s that is stronger and more flexible than ordinary wood. Building elements made of cross-laminated timber allow the construction of taller and larger timber buildings.
The Netherlands also has a number of large wooden buildings. This is how architect built Tom Frantzen on the IJ in Amsterdam-Noord Patch 22 and Top Up, two wooden residential buildings with seven and eight storeys respectively. But Patch Up, which was the tallest wooden building in the Netherlands when it was completed in 2017, and Top Up from 2020 are not entirely made of wood and partly of concrete. HAUT, the residential tower in Amsterdam designed by Team V and now almost completed, which at 73 meters will become the tallest wooden building in the Netherlands, also has a core of concrete to which the wooden parts are attached.
During the renovation of the Gare Maritime in Brussels, Neutelings Riedijk Architecten succeeded in constructing the new building entirely from CLT. With new commercial spaces covering 45,000 square meters (nine football fields), this is the largest CLT construction project in Europe to date.
miraculous
For nearly a quarter of a century, the disused Gare Maritime, once the largest freight station in Europe with three high and four lower halls, was languishing in the problem district of Molenbeek. Until five years ago, the owner decided to renovate the station to a design by Neutelings Riedijk into the hopefully bustling heart of Molenbeek. In their design, the Rotterdam architects proposed to leave the middle three halls – two low and one high – empty and to concentrate the new building in the outer halls. This enabled the central part of the station, bordered by gardens with trees, to become a public event square.
The contrast between the fully built outer halls and the empty central part of the immense station has a wonderful effect. Anyone who enters the Gare Maritime through the middle entrances will be misled. There is not much to be seen of the largest wooden building in Europe and for a moment it seems as if the renovation of the station mainly consists of a careful restoration of the imposing halls. This makes for an overwhelming experience: with its mighty iron columns and rafters and partly glass roof, the empty hall, almost three hundred meters long, has an unprecedented grandeur.
With mighty iron columns and glass roof, the nearly three-hundred-meter-long hall has an unprecedented grandeur
If you then walk across the square and explore the parts behind the trees, you will soon see that a lot has been built in the ‘city where it never rains’, as the architects themselves call the renovated station. The spaces for catering, shops, workshops, showrooms and offices appear to be housed in ten pavilions. Eight cross streets run between the buildings, with sky bridges floating above the visitors’ heads in the form of beautiful criss-cross staircases.
The pavilions are almost thirty meters high and although they are built entirely from prefabricated – and demountable – wooden components, they fit perfectly into the magnificent Brussels cathedral of the industrial era. It is as if they have always been there: the quadrangular buildings have facades that are just as robust and elegant as the original station architecture.
A version of this article also appeared in NRC in the morning of October 7, 2021
When the Western world was hit by the first oil crisis in 1973, a gloomy-looking Prime Minister Den Uyl Netherlands announced in a TV speech that “it would never be as it was”. Then his cabinet introduced car-free Sundays and put the petrol on the receipt. Later, the then Minister of Economic Affairs, Ruud Lubbers, called on the population to close the curtains earlier, so that less heat escaped through the single-pane windows of the doorzon homes.
Lubbers’ call was the start of a long series of proposals and measures to make buildings more energy efficient or ‘more sustainable’, such as better insulation through double glazing. All of these were included in the first Building Decree in 1992, which was later followed by a second (2003) and a third (2012), with even more sustainability requirements.
Yet most architects only began to seriously concern themselves with sustainability after An Innovative Truth, 2006 Al Gores film about rising sea levels due to global warming. Since then, many architects have wanted to do more than design buildings that meet the requirements of the Building Decree and let them know that sustainable construction is a spearhead in their work.
In recent years, timber construction has become the magic word in architecture. More and more builders and architects see wood as a sustainable alternative to concrete, which accounts for about 8 percent of the annual CO2 worldwide2emissions. Building with wood, if this wood comes from trees that are replaced by new ones after felling, is virtually climate neutral.
cross-laminated wood
There is even talk of a wood revolution in architecture. This was made possible by Cross Laminated Timber (CLT), a construction product invented in the 1990s that is stronger and more flexible than ordinary wood. Building elements made of cross-laminated timber allow the construction of taller and larger timber buildings.
The Netherlands also has a number of large wooden buildings. This is how architect built Tom Frantzen on the IJ in Amsterdam-Noord Patch 22 and Top Up, two wooden residential buildings with seven and eight storeys respectively. But Patch Up, which was the tallest wooden building in the Netherlands when it was completed in 2017, and Top Up from 2020 are not entirely made of wood and partly of concrete. HAUT, the residential tower in Amsterdam designed by Team V and now almost completed, which at 73 meters will become the tallest wooden building in the Netherlands, also has a core of concrete to which the wooden parts are attached.
During the renovation of the Gare Maritime in Brussels, Neutelings Riedijk Architecten succeeded in constructing the new building entirely from CLT. With new commercial spaces covering 45,000 square meters (nine football fields), this is the largest CLT construction project in Europe to date.
miraculous
For nearly a quarter of a century, the disused Gare Maritime, once the largest freight station in Europe with three high and four lower halls, was languishing in the problem district of Molenbeek. Until five years ago, the owner decided to renovate the station to a design by Neutelings Riedijk into the hopefully bustling heart of Molenbeek. In their design, the Rotterdam architects proposed to leave the middle three halls – two low and one high – empty and to concentrate the new building in the outer halls. This enabled the central part of the station, bordered by gardens with trees, to become a public event square.
The contrast between the fully built outer halls and the empty central part of the immense station has a wonderful effect. Anyone who enters the Gare Maritime through the middle entrances will be misled. There is not much to be seen of the largest wooden building in Europe and for a moment it seems as if the renovation of the station mainly consists of a careful restoration of the imposing halls. This makes for an overwhelming experience: with its mighty iron columns and rafters and partly glass roof, the empty hall, almost three hundred meters long, has an unprecedented grandeur.
With mighty iron columns and glass roof, the nearly three-hundred-meter-long hall has an unprecedented grandeur
If you then walk across the square and explore the parts behind the trees, you will soon see that a lot has been built in the ‘city where it never rains’, as the architects themselves call the renovated station. The spaces for catering, shops, workshops, showrooms and offices appear to be housed in ten pavilions. Eight cross streets run between the buildings, with sky bridges floating above the visitors’ heads in the form of beautiful criss-cross staircases.
The pavilions are almost thirty meters high and although they are built entirely from prefabricated – and demountable – wooden components, they fit perfectly into the magnificent Brussels cathedral of the industrial era. It is as if they have always been there: the quadrangular buildings have facades that are just as robust and elegant as the original station architecture.
A version of this article also appeared in NRC in the morning of October 7, 2021
When the Western world was hit by the first oil crisis in 1973, a gloomy-looking Prime Minister Den Uyl Netherlands announced in a TV speech that “it would never be as it was”. Then his cabinet introduced car-free Sundays and put the petrol on the receipt. Later, the then Minister of Economic Affairs, Ruud Lubbers, called on the population to close the curtains earlier, so that less heat escaped through the single-pane windows of the doorzon homes.
Lubbers’ call was the start of a long series of proposals and measures to make buildings more energy efficient or ‘more sustainable’, such as better insulation through double glazing. All of these were included in the first Building Decree in 1992, which was later followed by a second (2003) and a third (2012), with even more sustainability requirements.
Yet most architects only began to seriously concern themselves with sustainability after An Innovative Truth, 2006 Al Gores film about rising sea levels due to global warming. Since then, many architects have wanted to do more than design buildings that meet the requirements of the Building Decree and let them know that sustainable construction is a spearhead in their work.
In recent years, timber construction has become the magic word in architecture. More and more builders and architects see wood as a sustainable alternative to concrete, which accounts for about 8 percent of the annual CO2 worldwide2emissions. Building with wood, if this wood comes from trees that are replaced by new ones after felling, is virtually climate neutral.
cross-laminated wood
There is even talk of a wood revolution in architecture. This was made possible by Cross Laminated Timber (CLT), a construction product invented in the 1990s that is stronger and more flexible than ordinary wood. Building elements made of cross-laminated timber allow the construction of taller and larger timber buildings.
The Netherlands also has a number of large wooden buildings. This is how architect built Tom Frantzen on the IJ in Amsterdam-Noord Patch 22 and Top Up, two wooden residential buildings with seven and eight storeys respectively. But Patch Up, which was the tallest wooden building in the Netherlands when it was completed in 2017, and Top Up from 2020 are not entirely made of wood and partly of concrete. HAUT, the residential tower in Amsterdam designed by Team V and now almost completed, which at 73 meters will become the tallest wooden building in the Netherlands, also has a core of concrete to which the wooden parts are attached.
During the renovation of the Gare Maritime in Brussels, Neutelings Riedijk Architecten succeeded in constructing the new building entirely from CLT. With new commercial spaces covering 45,000 square meters (nine football fields), this is the largest CLT construction project in Europe to date.
miraculous
For nearly a quarter of a century, the disused Gare Maritime, once the largest freight station in Europe with three high and four lower halls, was languishing in the problem district of Molenbeek. Until five years ago, the owner decided to renovate the station to a design by Neutelings Riedijk into the hopefully bustling heart of Molenbeek. In their design, the Rotterdam architects proposed to leave the middle three halls – two low and one high – empty and to concentrate the new building in the outer halls. This enabled the central part of the station, bordered by gardens with trees, to become a public event square.
The contrast between the fully built outer halls and the empty central part of the immense station has a wonderful effect. Anyone who enters the Gare Maritime through the middle entrances will be misled. There is not much to be seen of the largest wooden building in Europe and for a moment it seems as if the renovation of the station mainly consists of a careful restoration of the imposing halls. This makes for an overwhelming experience: with its mighty iron columns and rafters and partly glass roof, the empty hall, almost three hundred meters long, has an unprecedented grandeur.
With mighty iron columns and glass roof, the nearly three-hundred-meter-long hall has an unprecedented grandeur
If you then walk across the square and explore the parts behind the trees, you will soon see that a lot has been built in the ‘city where it never rains’, as the architects themselves call the renovated station. The spaces for catering, shops, workshops, showrooms and offices appear to be housed in ten pavilions. Eight cross streets run between the buildings, with sky bridges floating above the visitors’ heads in the form of beautiful criss-cross staircases.
The pavilions are almost thirty meters high and although they are built entirely from prefabricated – and demountable – wooden components, they fit perfectly into the magnificent Brussels cathedral of the industrial era. It is as if they have always been there: the quadrangular buildings have facades that are just as robust and elegant as the original station architecture.
A version of this article also appeared in NRC in the morning of October 7, 2021