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About this project
The Institute for the Environment and Sustainability (IES) and the Institute for Health and Consumer Protection (IHCP) are located within the Joint Research Center (JRC) site of the European Commission in Ispra (Varese province) in Italy. JRC, Ispra is the biggest European Commission site after Brussels and Luxembourg. It is a multi-store building with a gross overall surface area of approximately 26.000 m2.
The building’s two wings have the same volumes and surface areas. The buildings are labeled as „class A“, which means they have a winter thermal index that is below 30 kWh/m2 per year.
The new building has the capacity to accommodate around 240 employees in both buildings.
The large courtyards have roofs in a metal shed structure with a span of 28m on one side and in a laminated wood structure with a span of 18m on the other. The construction is based on reinforced concrete pillars and brace walls, with prefabricated concrete floors. An overhead metal walkway and a series of underground tunnels connect the two buildings and the other neighboring buildings on the site.
The conceptual design of the building started in 2008. An LCA and LCC evaluation was conducted during the early design stage to assess the buildings‘ ecological and economic performance. The building was completed in 2013.
IES and IHCP were explored during the beta testing phase of Level(s). Our current objective is to increase our understanding by concentrating on the performance of in-use within the Level(s) scheme.
JRC is poised to enhance its sustainability efforts by achieving Level 3 in the future, which involves monitoring and surveying current activities and consequently comparing their impacts on the assessments made in previous stages.