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From meadows to larger scale interventions, cities everywhere are looking for nature positive initiatives to mitigate biodiversity loss and become more resilient - although embedding biodiversity into the fabric of a building remains a complex undertaking. How do you design a biodiversity positive residential building at the heart of a bustling European city?
The Amsterdam Green Infrastructure Vision 2050 is targeting a liveable city for people, plants and animals. In line with this vision, the Municipality issued a competition for the design of a 15,000m2 residential building attuned to its green surroundings.
Real estate developer KondorWessels Vastgoed and architect Mecanoo, in collaboration with Arup, BOOM Landscape and Tenderboost created the winning building design and named it Habitat Royale, a biodiversity-positive residential building which will help nature to bloom in the city.
Standing next to Amsterdam’s Zuidas business district, the building takes the first steps towards creating a nature corridor connecting the site with the green open spaces of Beatrixpark.
Housing 94 apartments, the nature-first building design will create microhabitats, doubling the amount of biodiversity on site. The nature weaved into the fabric of the building and the use of sustainable materials like timber will act as a ‘carbon sink’, allowing for the capture of CO2 emissions out of the atmosphere.
As well as leading on the sustainability consultancy, Arup is responsible for structural engineering, drawing on our previous experience designing high performance buildings like Milan’s Bosco Verticale, Haut and Elements.
Project Summary
113 species of flora and fauna
Doublesvegetation on site
94apartments
A nature positive building
Designed for biodiversity net gain, Habitat Royale uses green landscaping to foster the connection with nature and offer a home to vegetation and animal species. The nature-inclusive design festoons the building façade with vegetation on all levels, including garden rooftops and a green atrium as the centre point of the development.
Habitat Royale will host 94 apartments spread across four towers linked via an atrium. The towers, with a maximum height of eight storeys, will include a nursery, an orangery with an exhibition area, and an underground car and bicycle park. The building is spacious in every aspect, both in terms of living spaces and communal areas where residents can socialise. But what truly sets Habitat Royale apart is the space it provides for nature.
Habitat Royale is designed as an organic building that adds more biodiversity than it removes. The high ceilings and large overhangs will help to create space for people, animals and vegetation to live in harmony. The design will double the amount of nature currently present on site to include 113 more species of flora and fauna – birds, hedgehogs, bats, squirrels, and insects.
The undulating shape of the building will diversify the city landscape and connect the imposing architecture of Zuidas and Beethoven square with the nearby restful Beatrixpark.
“Nature-inclusive design adds value, biodiversity and resilience to every neighbourhood and city. With Habitat Royale, we not only succeeded in designing an energy-efficient building with an extremely low environmental impact, we have allowed it to emerge from nature to enhance urban biodiversity. ”
Mathew Vola Director
Sustainable building design
Habitat Royale boasts a very low score under the Almost Energy-Neutral Building Dutch requirement (in Dutch, Bijna EnergieNeutraal Gebouw or BENG), partly due to favourable daylight conditions and a significant share of renewable energy.
The building design is rated with a Dutch environmental performance rating (milieuprestatie van gebouwen or MPG) of 0.24; almost half a point lower than the maximum allowed rating of 0.8 under local regulation.
The design of Habitat Royale, expected to be completed in 2026, appeals to the tradition of biophilic design and focuses on ecology to create a habitat where humans, animals and vegetation can co-exist.
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