The idea of a POWERHOUSE is to create a buliding that produces more energy than it uses – based on the assumption that the operation of the building generates more renewable energy than the total amount of energy used to produce building materials, construction, operation and the disposal of the building. Buildings are responsible for 40% of the consumption of energy worldwide. Therefore, the EU has decided that from the year 2020 all new buildings must have a power consumption close to zero, which means that those buildings will have to produce almost as much energy as they consume. It is an ambitious goal. At the same time, it creates new opportunities for those of us who can participate in the development of the new green building standards. The project has been developed within the framework of workshops, conducted jointly with the Norwegian architectural firm SNØHETTA. The aim of the project was to analyze and assess the possibility of building a powerhouse in Krakow, which will be possibly the most cost-effective (during realization and maintenance) and will be a flexible office building, that could meet the needs of the different types of tenants and will enable the implementation of different office space concepts (office types like: ‘cell office ‘,’ open space ‘, activity-based workplace’, etc.) Therefore, during the planning of the room arrangement in the building it is important to focus the attention on the tenant (or, more precisely, its employees, who will be the buildings actual users). Their needs, which determine their comfort of work (and thus the quality of the office space) must be taken into account throughout the planning process, at the same time maintaining a maximum energy efficiency of the building and its equipment installion.

Project: 2015
Area: 55.000 m2

Range of services:
Feasibility study – POWERHOUSE

Project team:

URBA Architects
Anna Knez
Maciej Kronenberg
Piotr Knez
Przemysław Tabor

SNØHETTA
Aleksander Nowak
Camilla Moneta
Falko Müller-Tyl
Morten Ludviksen

SKANSKA
Maria Myrup
Tor Helge Dokka

Visualisation: SNØHETTA