Pien Niehe
Europe Press Office,Amsterdam
Arup joined the Foundation Innovation Programme for the development of the Dutch Windwheel, which was launched on 29 November 2016.
Arup signed the collaboration agreement along with innovation consortium partners Koninklijke BAM Groep, Deltares, Dura Vermeer, ECN, Eneco, Evides, Huawei, Mammoet, Siemens, SPIE, TNO and the Windwheel Corporation (in which BLOC, DoepelStrijkers and Meysters are represented).
The Dutch Windwheel is set to become an iconic building in Rotterdam, which will accommodate a hotel, apartments and an attraction. This game changer for sustainable development is an international advertisement for Dutch design & innovation. Arup is supporting the design team in the current phase through feasibility studies. Arup is carrying out research into the ways in which sustainability ambitions for structures, logistics and fire safety, energy, material and waste, circularity and context can be translated into technical specifications.
Adjustable building
New technologies and business models will be used to develop a building that will be capable of adjusting itself over time. Important factors include the highly differing lifetime of building elements and the ever growing potential for the building to generate energy. The goal is that by 2025, the building will generate more energy than it uses and will be flexible in its use. The innovation programme already anticipates that technologies will become more efficient.