Sustainability Report

Environmental strategy

For the Wäschereiquartier, no formal sustainability certification was pursued. Instead, the project can be understood as a context-driven, resource-conscious urban development, in which sustainability is addressed implicitly through the retention and adaptive reuse of historic building fabric. The preservation of the former laundry buildings effectively functioned as the project’s central sustainability principle, even in the absence of a formal assessment framework.

Qualitative assessment

While the project’s sustainability approach is primarily embodied in nature, no quantified data is available regarding embodied carbon or specific energy performance indicators. From a qualitative perspective, however, the preservation of historic building fabric resulted in a significant reduction in embodied energy compared to a complete demolition and rebuild scenario. The project’s primary ecological benefit therefore lies in the avoidance of emissions associated with demolition and new construction, rather than in the deployment of highly optimised technical energy systems.

Reducing environmental impact

Beyond the architectural strategy itself, several measures contributed to reducing the project’s environmental impact: 

• Maximum retention of existing structural fabric, including load-bearing structures and building envelopes.
• Urban densification through development within an established inner-city site rather than land consumption elsewhere. 
• Minimisation of demolition and new construction, thereby significantly reducing the demand for new materials and transport-related emissions. 
• Landscape and open-space design, further supporting environmental performance through the incorporation of permeable surfaces, de-sealed areas, courtyards, and planting to improve the local microclimate.

Material strategy and embodied energy

• The retention and continued use of existing brick and steel structures preserved substantial amounts of embodied energy. 
• Corten steel facade elements, used in selected new interventions, combine durability with low maintenance requirements. Their natural patina eliminates the need for additional surface treatments and allows the new additions to develop a material dialogue with the historic industrial context over time, while offering a long service life. 

The connection between existing structures and vertical extensions was resolved using thermally decoupled structural elements, such as Schöck Isolink and Isokorb systems. These components reduce thermal bridging at the interface between old and new construction, improving energy performance while enabling a precise and structurally efficient integration of additional building volumes.