All rights of this project belong to Fokkema & Partners Architecten. This is used for reference only.
Photography: Lucas van der Wee

Nationale Nederlanden envisioned a renovation that takes existing materials as the starting point for a sustainable, healthy and inspiring environment. With an extensive harvesting plan for the two sites, Delftse Poort and Haagse Poort, we have realised the biggest circular mining pit in the Netherlands.

Nationale Nederlanden is realizing a 100% circular renovation, with Zero Waste and WELL platinum realising a whopping total of 37.000 square meters of office space. Of the existing walls, floors, ceilings, materials and furniture as much as possible is reused on-site, sometimes adapted, extending its service life. Where new materials have been added, they are fully circular, weighing the alternatives with life cycle analysis.

The design then considers standard sizes of the materials to minimize cutting losses and waste upon processing materials. It has been executed to be re-mountable, ensuring that the raw materials remain intact for future harvesting. To realise zero waste during construction, even much of the cuttings and saw dust was captured and re-used elsewhere as raw material, for example, in flooring where filing is combined with a bio-resin, or to create unique mosaic objects. Packaging waste has been eliminated as much as possible. Altogether the environmental impact of the renovation is really kept to a minimum.

But first and foremost, Fokkema & Partners made a spatial design to match user needs and make the most of the building qualities.