Our competition entry, the new Bitburg district court building, was not only awarded 1st prize, but according to the evaluation by Werner Sobek Frankfurt GmbH, the project already scored 84 points out of 100 in the competition and thus achieved the BNB (Assessment System for Sustainable Building) certificate in gold! We are delighted and happy to accept the challenge of a holistic approach to sustainability.
Following the guidelines of the Assessment System for Sustainable Building (BNB), the primary construction pursues the objectives of sustainable flexibility and maintenance during the building’s useful life. The three-storey building is designed as a timber frame construction and sits on a shallow-founded reinforced concrete basement. The floor slabs will be timber-concrete composite slabs, which can make a further contribution to the sustainable energy and comfort concept. Local coniferous wood with low transport efforts and a favourable CO2 balance is likely to be used. The aim is to achieve BNB Gold certification.
Nils Krause
Assessment System for Sustainable Building (BNB)
When the Federal Government first introduced the Assessment System for Sustainable Building (BNB) in 2011, it was mandatory for its new public office and administration buildings. Later, laboratory and educational buildings were added. The quality of the sustainability of buildings is assessed, starting with planning, to the construction phase, building use, maintenance and repair, through to deconstruction. For the assessment, a large number of values are collected and evaluated according to a point system. A maximum of 100 points can be achieved; if 80 points are achieved, the BNB inspection bodies award the certificate in gold. The overall assessment is based on 22.5 percent each of the following: ecological quality (protection of climate, water, land, primary energy sources), economic quality (construction costs, projected operating and maintenance costs over a 50-year service life), socio-cultural and functional quality (health, comfort, user satisfaction, barrier-free design, ease of conversion) and technical quality (ease of cleaning and maintenance, deconstruction, recycling). The sustainability of the planning and construction phase itself (process quality) accounts for 10 percent. Federal states and municipalities can also have their buildings certified by BNB inspection bodies. Construction measures in the private sector can voluntarily follow the federal government’s “Guideline for Sustainable Building,” upon which the BNB system is based.
