Building heroes

Freiburg Town hall | Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany

The world’s first public energy positive building is also the largest of its kind in all of Europe – producing more energy than it uses ⚡

The town hall in Freiburg im Breisgau, with its administration centre and day nursery, accommodates the 840 employees of the city administration under one roof. The administration centre was designed to provide a stimulus for upgrading the urban design of the Stühlinger area of Freiburg 🇩🇪

In line with the the PassivHaus standard, its primary energy demand for heating, cooling, ventilation and hot water supply is as low as 45 kWh per square meter per year – only 40% of the primary energy demand of similar modern office buildings.

The visual appearance is impressive, with the facades featuring locally sourced larch wood elements. The roof and areas of the facade exposed to direct sunlight are also fitted with high-performance PV panels, shielding the building from the sun. The building also reacts to network requirements, so it can feed surplus electricity back into the grid ☀️

Inspiring building! 

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