Sustainable Energy, Water and Building System Design
Rest in peace - and complete harmony with nature
- Client: Natuurbegraven Nederland
- Date completed: 31-08-2022
Sustainable system design for a circular cemetary building
We successfully completed a system concept for a fully circular energy and water system for a cemetary building in the forests near Enschede. The sustainable system design complements the natural building style, the combination of which will lead to a very pleasant environment for people to commemorate their loved ones.
Blending in with nature
Connectedness to nature is a core value of the cemetaries from NatuurBegraven. The design of its new cemetary building therefore had to be fully sustainable. Careful consideration was therefore given to the selection of materials. A wooden frame functions as the skeleton of the composition, while materials such as sheep wool, limestone plaster and locally sourced rock tiles are used for the other components. An eye-catching green roof finishes off the design, nicely blending the building with its surroundings.
Achieving energy neutrality
Since the surrounding forest area leaves no space for solar PV, it was not possible to generate energy using this standard route. We therefore had to come up with alternate solutions to provide the necessary energy for a net-zero building. Apart from installing efficient systems such as underfloor heating, an earth tube and heat recovery ventilation, we came up with the idea of installing a 4th-gen biomeiler system hooked up to a hybrid heat pump to provide a reliable source of heating, even during winter.
Introducing the Biomeiler
Ever seen the vapour clouds rising from a compost heap in winter? That is valuable heat and biogas going to waste. Fortunately, this heat can be captured by running some heat exchanger tubing through the compost heap. This concept is called a biomeiler, and as simple as it may sound, there are still some challenges to overcome to make it into a mature technology. For NatuurBegraven, we will be working on demonstrating a working prototype.
