MVRDV supports the ambition towards circular construction and the circular economy as stated by the Royal Institute of Dutch Architects (BNA) and the larger ambition of the Netherlands government “Nederland Circulair in 2050”. As a practice devoted to being part to the solution of global issues within the disciplines of architecture, urbanism and landscape design, MVRDV believes that:

1. it is important to be a leader within circular and sustainable construction,
2. that architecture and urbanism as disciplines need to take action to halt climate change
3. that construction and building maintenance is responsible for a large part of the current global emission and that we need to take a leading role in the solution of this problem.

This is a high ambition for a globally working practice subject to currently more than 35 different construction codes and sustainable legislation which vary from strict to non-existent. From our daily practice, we noticed that there are many different ways and many different theories on how to become circular and sustainable. Over the next years we will collect, report and identify best practice within our own portfolio and general construction, based on this research we will develop our own circular principles that will be applied to all projects. As we are dependent on the collaboration of our clients we need time to turn the best practice into an attractive deal for the investors and users of our buildings. We further believe that circular, sustainable and green architecture is not a goal by itself but a fundamental philosophy translated into a construction method that is an additional parameter in the method towards creating great, inspiring, social, inclusive, performing and well-functioning architecture.

Kind regards,

Nathalie de Vries

Founding partner MVRDV and member of MVRDV’s internal Sustainability Task Force

* At Bjørvika Barcode,  part of a larger sustainable strategy, MVRDV maximized the environmental effect of the relatively small urban plan for Greater Oslo by simply not adding any parking spaces inside and around the buildings. This resulted in avoiding 16,000 car rides every single day and the avoidance of 16 ton of CO2 emissions.

Image (c) Jiri Havran