‘A workplace so pleasant that you might like to live there’ “That premise used interior architect Jeroen de Nijs to design a showroom-cum-office for De Klimaatbeheerser. This company specializes in sustainable climate control in offices and homes.
The interior of a showroom is normally characterized by a display of products.
Interior architect Jeroen de Nijs wanted to deviate from this standard as we know it. De Nijs: “ Most customers do not like to see a climate system. The installations should be properly concealed. Beside that mostly people are not that interested in the actual technique, so why shouldn’t we use the room better?”Experience center
The interior architect designed an interior where you can actually feel the physical impact of the climate system, the experience center. To stimulate this De Nijs created a comfortable environment in which living and working smoothly flows over into one another. People’s daily rhythm exists of working, eating, bathing and relaxing. These acts, in the design, are linked to a climate system technique. For instance, when you are sitting on the conference table you will notice the warmth or cold that the ceiling radiates.
Warm coat
The routing is well thought out. De Nijs: ”customer can experience in every zone what affect the technique has on their condition. For instance in the lounge area, the climate mats that are concealed in the wall embrace you as a warm coat. In summer the same wall will provide cooling. In the De Klimaatbeheerser building you cannot see the product in all its facets, as you would expect, but you see nicely concealed installations.’’ ‘’ For the techies among us there obviously is a technical room where you can see the installations in their full facets.” De Nijs tells.
Recycled art
The showroom annex office has become a stimulating environment that encourages conscious living and working wherein our senses are stimulated. Therefor the interior architect thought of two artworks made of recycled materials. De Nijs: “ The ribs of an antique folding canoe stand as a metaphor for the ‘lungs’ of the building. Such ass the installations from De Klimaatbeheerder that you can see as the lungs of a room. The other piece is an old lead gutter that is changed to art and is placed in a new context.”
Good feeling
The building has been awarded a nZEB-award, (nearly-zero-energy-building), an EU- standard that by 2019 all new buildings must comply. It is an energy-zero-building, a building of which the energy consumption on a yearly basis is almost equal to the amount of energy that the building generates from local sources. The building is cooled or heated with an 8 kW heat pump, which also provides hot water. The heat pump operates on electricity which is compensated by the solar panels on the roof.
With the combination of comfort and durability the interior designer of the building wants to give the visitors a good feeling. De Nijs: “ The building is actually helping us to a more sustainable world, and that has a positive impact on the customers.”
