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How do buildings impact the quality of our lives?

How do buildings impact the quality of our lives?

And, what role does the green building movement play in tackling the climate crisis? These are some of the underlying questions for a new series of short documentaries produced by BBC StoryWorks, presented by the World Green Building Council (WGBC): the Building For A Better Future series. By shining light on best practices from across the construction and development sector, the series hopes to increase awareness of how our built environment can profoundly impact the planet and quality of our lives. The mission? To ultimatley change the way we design, build and operate buildings.

Below are three of the Skanska projects that are featured in the series: The Kendeda Building at Georgia Tech University, Brattørkaia Powerhouse in Trondheim, Norway and the Spark office building in Warsaw, Poland.

Spark Office in Warsaw, Poland

How can we build for a better society? We start by listening. Spark has been designed and developed not only for the tenants of the building, but for the benefit of the entire neighborhood. The opinions of the local community have resulted in numerous ideas that shaped the building and its surroundings. Certified according to LEED and WELL, Spark is also designed to meet the needs of disabled people and thereby also awarded the “Building without barriers” certification.

 

Spark is the first building in the world to use perovskite solar panel in a large scale. The goal is to make the building self-sufficient.

Learn more about Spark

"We are committed to the Paris agreement and by 2045 we want to deliver carbon neutral buildings"

- Katarzyna Zawodna
Business Unit President, Commercial Development Europe

Powerhouse Brattørkaia in Trondheim, Norway

Tucked away in harbor of Trondheim, Norway lies office development, Powerhouse Brattørkaia, also known as the world's northernmost energy-positive building. A part of the Powerhouse collaboration – a standard for buildings of the future based on the Paris Agreement’s 1.5-degree target – Brattørkaia is designed based on the philosophy of “form follows environment”, versus the more commonly known phrase: “form follows function”.

 

Powerhouse Brattørkaia is certified as a BREEAM-NOR Outstanding building. Less than 1% of all buildings world-wide meet the standards required to be classified as Outstanding.

Learn more about Powerhouse Brattørkaia

“We wanted to prove that there is no reason to delay. Everything that you need in order to create an energy positive building is already on the market”

- Kjetil Trædal Thorsen
Founding Partner, Architect Snøhatta

The Kendeda Building in Atlanta, Georgia

An extension of The Georgia Institute of Technology, The Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design was completed last year and is evaluated by The Living Building Challenge (LVB) – a building certification program and tool that defines the most advanced measure of sustainability in the built environment today. One of the most environmentally advanced educational and research facility of its kind in the Southeast of USA, it educates and transforms future generations of thinkers and doers to reimagine how we interact with our surroundings for a more sustainably built future.

 

Skanska has been involved in the construction of 7 Living Building Challenge buildings that are certified or pursuing certification. As of today there are 24 fully certified buildings around the world.

Learn more about The Kendeda Building

"In selecting the team for a Living Building Challenge you have to make sure that the team is on board with the philosophy- and the philosophy is that we are going to create a building that gives back more than it takes"

- Shan Arora
Director for the Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design, The Georgia Institute of Technology

"The Kendeda Building is a living breathing example of what can be done and therefore a blueprint for a more sustainable world"

- Jimmy Mitchell
Sustainability Engineer, Skanska US Building

Learn more about our journey towards a carbon neutral future.

 

Explore BBCs film series about Better Places films

 

  • Spark office building
  • Powerhouse Brattørkaia
  • The Kendeda Building
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