Urban Climate Architects

Urban Climate Architects stands for a future where everyone can live, work and play healthily and safely together. We create a stage where young, old, rich and poor (and everyone in between) can build, develop and grow a quality life.

URBAN To achieve this, we give shape to urbanization, in a responsible way. We intensify the city and thereby relieve the burden on nature. In this way we leave nature alone in its element and create opportunities within the existing city limits. We have devoted ourselves to the principles of a circular and inclusive society. This does not only concern materials and products we make use of, but also applies to our world view that level playing fields must be created.

CLIMATE The climate is an undeniable force which must be recognized and understood, and for us, this is done so through sustainability. Energy is generated locally as much as possible. When feasible, we are in favour of Urban Climate Architects Spoorsingel 23, Delft 085-2735411 www.ucarchitects.com info@ucarchitects.com

applying natural biomass materials instead of concrete and steel to try and reduce the environmental impact of the latter. Wood is renewable, functions as carbon dioxide storage and can be reused easily. It is also lightweight and quick and simple to assemble.

ARCHITECTS Quality is timeless and will outlive trends. It adds tranquility to otherwise complex situations. Quality is always the starting point from which we design. It is our way to add an extra dimension to sustainability. Highquality designed products have a long life-span and will therefore get to be used longer. This, combined with a feeling for human scale and proportions and having an eye for detail, leads to a social and soft kind of sustainability that surpasses numbers and graphs. This sustainability is reflected by perceiving the world through our senses, by the way we view cities, by sensing how a wall that is made of wood feels, by being sensitive to the sound of autumn leaves rustling in the wind.

Redevelopment and extension Thureborg, Dordrecht

DESIGNING AND BUILDING SUSTAINABLY IN SOLID WOOD Even though building in solid wood is definitely in the spotlight, in practice we see a different situation. In the Netherlands, buildings are still rarely realized in solid wood. This is in contrast to countries around us like Belgium, Great Britain and Scandinavia that have been building with cross laminated timber (CLT) on a large scale for years. What will it take to make steps in that direction in the Netherlands? During the last years, Urban Climate Architects has specialized in this field and has become leader in designing and building sustainably in solid wood.

Building in wood is not a new development. Urban Climate Architects has worked on many projects in wood for some years now, starting with wood frame constructions, and moving to CLT since 2019.

Urban Climate Architects focusses on building in existing cities. This involves the redevelopment of complex areas, extensions/conversions of existing buildings like, for example building living spaces on top of existing shops. Building light-weight is preferable to avoid having to make expensive adjustments to the foundations, and therefore these buildings are mainly designed in wood.

For our first CLT project we realized 12 apartments in the centre of Delft. We wanted the aesthetic quality of CLT to be felt inside while making very sure we met the fire and acoustic requirements.

The most significant optimization here was reducing the construction to a single-bladed system while still meeting the fire and acoustic requirements. Working together with CLT builder JM Concepten, their wood adviser and DGMR, we reached a solution that involved placing an acoustic plate on one side of the wall separating the flats. It meant that one wall was finished off while the other three walls and the ceiling retained wood.

We can appreciate the advantages CLT shows, both on a sustainable and an aesthetic level. Smart designing using the properties of the material sees to it that we build in line with the prevailing market and that building time can be shortened to half the time it would take to build a traditional structure. Given these advantages, the next step for our office is to scale up. We are currently working on numerous CLT projects while searching for optimilizations to be able to build higher structures in CLT.

All images are projects built in wood that were designed by Urban Climate Architects.

Curious about wood? Please contact us. //

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CHARLOTTE MEIJSSEN | WORDS & LAYOUT BREAKTHEORDERTEARTHEORDERCRUSH T H E O R D E R S P L I T T H E O R D E R C H A N G E T H T H E O R D E R BREAKTHEORDERTEARTHEORDERCRUSH T H E O R D E R S P L I T T H E O R D E R C H A N G E T H T H E O R D E R The image on the left follows the perfect order of the rainbow. Everything in the image makes sense and is soothing for the eyes. We challenge you, as a designer, to break that perfect order. Tear out the left page, rip it up and create something new with the pieces in the blank space below. Be creative, be bold, be out of order! Tag @d.b.s.g.stylos on Instagram to show us your piece of art!//