Some buildings last longer than others do. Nowadays office buildings
have a life span of approximately twenty years, after that they are demolished
or drastically rebuilt. After the demolition or renovation a mountain
of unusable waste remains. However the materials and construction methods
that are being used assume a much longer life span. They are (therefore)
not chosen on the grounds of possible reuse. Office XX offers an alternative
for this needless usage of raw materials and this destruction of capital.
The office is built for a period of twenty years and will disappear after
that time without a trace.
 The interior with its construction of laminated wooden collumns and beams |
 Climate-facade with fabric (instead of the usual glass layer) inside |
The materials chosen for the office will either be decayed in twenty years, or can be reused or recycled. The ground plans have an open structure, so during the lifetime of the office changes in the layout can easily be carried out. The used assembly techniques are in such a way that disassembly in separate building materials after twenty years is relatively easy. The two-story office has a simple, rectangular ground plan. The carrying construction consists of rectangular, laminated wooden columns and beams. These are joined together by steel hooks and bolts. To limit the height of the main beams they are completed with a steel understrain. The floors consist of multiplex cassettes that are filled with sand and covered with cement bonded slabs. The façades consist of wooden frames with a simple, rectangular diameter. The windowpanes are made as large as possible and contain triple glass.
All parts of the carrying construction and the façade can easily
be disassembled and reused.
The glass façades are covered on the inside with a perforated, transparent
fabric. The air between the fabric is being ventilated analogue to a climate-façade
construction. A similar construction was used before in the Mercator building
by Paul de Ruiter. The fabric itself has been improved; the fabric has
a smoothly changeable grade of translucency, which allows the user to
control the transparency and the amount of sun entrance. The ventilation
channels are made out of cardboard.
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