They designed the most beautiful apartments in Amsterdam, and now they are preparing to go to Prague

The Haut apartment building in Amsterdam is unique in many ways. This wooden skyscraper with twenty-one floors is among the tallest wooden constructions in the world. Moreover, it is exceptionally eco-friendly and stands out for its sustainability. Its authors, the Dutch studio Team V, are preparing to come to Prague. They will participate in the Wood Building Salon, a festival and showcase of contemporary wooden architecture.

The seventy-three-meter-high Haut building, with fifty-two apartments, is also the first residential building in the Netherlands to receive the highest sustainability rating, BREEAM Outstanding. Thanks to the new technologies employed, this hybrid building has become a global example of how to incorporate sustainability into urban development.

Wood reduces emissions from construction

The architects' work on the Haut building began in 2016 and significantly helped raise awareness about wood as a beneficial and sustainable building material that offers many advantages. The construction also contributed to a shift away from traditional concrete and steel structures, which is very important as a quarter of all carbon dioxide emissions come from construction. Unlike concrete and steel, using wooden structures in construction minimizes CO2 emissions to the lowest possible level.

The more wood construction uses, the fewer emissions it produces. Studio Team V therefore champions a simple motto: Use wood where possible, and steel or concrete only where necessary. Haut was built with the same philosophy.

However, Haut is an example of sustainability in other respects as well. The building is equipped with solar panels covering an incredible area of 1500 square meters on the roof and façade. Sensors controlled by thermostats adjust low-temperature underfloor heating and cooling that relies on geothermal energy. The building even includes nesting boxes for birds and bats, a rainwater tank, and charging stations for electric cars are already standard features.

Wide possibilities for customization

The advantage of wooden construction also lies in the warm feeling it provides, which is so important in residential buildings. Despite a high degree of prefabrication, the building offers wide possibilities for customizing the individual apartment units according to their future owners' preferences. Unlike most wooden buildings, in Haut, only the inner walls are load-bearing, allowing residents to experiment with the layout of windows and balconies.

Haut has indeed sparked a wave of interest in sustainable wooden architecture, and since then, Team V has been invited to numerous international conferences, workshops, and lectures around the world, from New Zealand to Canada. This year, their representatives will also be the main stars of the wooden architecture festival Wood Building Salon, which begins in Prague on April 17 and will take place for the nineteenth time this year. Team V's presentation focused on the topic of hybrid high-rise buildings will take place during the pre-lecture evening at the CAMP center in Prague on the evening of April 17.

Admission to the opening evening of the Wood Building Salon is free, but a reservation is required via a free ticket: https://goout.net/cs/zahajovaci-vecer-salonu-drevostaveb/szajlbx/