Arup designed the Echo interfaculty building to house seven new teaching rooms, which can be further divided based on teaching methods for maximum flexibility. Daylight is controlled by glass façades with aluminum awnings and a climbing plants, while an innovative, ductless displacement ventilation system keeps the air fresh year-round. 

Echo is the first energy-positive university building in the Netherlands. Its solar roof generates more energy than the building consumes, including all user electricity from lighting systems to laptop charging. It is also health-conscious, with the systems for ventilation and lighting maintaining fresh air and natural daylight inside the building as much as possible. 

Facilitating an inviting, adaptable education facility

The Echo interfaculty building houses seven new teaching rooms, many of which can be divided into separate spaces to reflect a range of education methods and study styles. Each of these spaces have been designed with the current and future needs of the university’s lecturers and students in mind, enabling maximum flexibility for the constantly changing world of learning. This is achieved through column-free floor plans and adaptable education spaces, which can be reconfigured to meet user demand.

The continuous glass façades are interrupted horizontally by deep aluminum awnings that keep out excess solar heat, while climbing plants along the cables connecting these canopies form a subtle green façade that filters daylight. To prevent excess sunlight penetration, a dynamic light barrier is used to provide indoor sun protection, and overheating is prevented by a combination of sun protection and the low solar penetration factor of the glass.

The future university building: energy positive and health conscious

Echo is the first energy positive university building in the Netherlands featuring a solar roof that generates more energy than the building consumes – including all user electricity from lighting systems as well as laptop charging. To help achieve this, we’ve introduced an innovative displacement ventilation system, which uses a slow-moving stream of fresh air from the floor to displace the waste air in combination with specific climatic zones differentiating between areas of work and areas of transit.

In conventional buildings, hallways and other areas typically feature the same heating as working spaces, allowing for massive amounts of unused energy to leak. With our work on Echo, we’re focusing on heating those areas where people are actually sitting down to study, learn, collaborate or drink and eat.