World Wildlife Fund

The Dutch Headquarters of the WWF moves into its new premises: a former agricultural laboratory dating from 1954 has been transformed into a energy-efficient building. It was a ‘frozen’ building: austere, impersonal and grim. A decision was made to ‘reanimate’ it: to maintain the frame of the building, to reuse the rubble and to add a warm, pulsating heart in the middle, while simultaneously returning the grounds to nature. Little glass tubes in the moisture-balancing mud ceilings transport water and spreads human and mechanical warmth, and – even more importantly – cools the building. Horizontal wooden blinds help to reduce the sunlight entering the work floor. All materials are screened for environment friendliness as well as child labour. And wildlife gets its space: ‘bird-friendly roofing tiles’ and ‘bat basements’. Now it is self sufficient and produces no CO2 at all. The WWF proves that it is possible - even by simple means - to realise an energy and nature saving world.