Spor X is one of the most sustainable office buildings.
Photo: Spor-X in Drammen. Photographer: Thomas Mellbye / Zinc
This is a post from DARK Architects. Greenbuilt has reviewed and pre-qualified the environmental documentation prior to publication.
The project in Drammen, Norway has been developed by Vestaksen Eiendom AS, in close collaboration with Betonmast Buskerud-Vestfold, Degree of Freedom, Rambøll and Zinc interior architects, and Dark architects, and is the result of targeted environmental focus and high ambitions regarding sustainability and innovation in timber construction.
Spor X is certified BREEAM-NOR Outstanding, the highest classification. The project was also nominated in the category ‘BREEAM-NOR New Build of the Year’ at the 2024 BREEAM Conference.
Innovative and exciting use of timber Spor X is the latest project to be realised as part of a larger development in the area around Drammen Station.
The building rises a full 10 floors above ground, encompassing approximately 6800 sqm, and has a structural support system entirely constructed from timber from ground level upwards.
The article continues after the photo.
Photographer: Thomas Mellbye / Zinc
The construction system consists of a column and beam structure in glulam, with continuous columns and double beams, and with stabilising solid wood panels in the facade, floors, and stair and lift cores.
Several architectural details such as stairs and technical enclosures are also made of solid wood.
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Photographer: Thomas Mellbye / Zinc
High architectural quality
The main architectural concept consists of a double-height, transparent, and outward-facing base that supports a two-part building structure with a glass connection in between.
The outward-facing base and glass connection link the main volumes together, and in the office floors above, shared and social functions are located here.
The building’s main volumes have varied heights, creating a segmented and vertical silhouette that complements the geometry of the other new buildings along the new street, Dr. Hansteins gate.
The stepped-down main volumes also enable roof terraces where access and the lift overrun are integrated into the building’s main geometry, without the need for separate rooftop structures.
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Photographer: Thomas Mellbye / Zinc
The architectural vision of the building has been to showcase as much exposed timber as possible in the interior, with the timber and its structural system playing the leading role in the architecture.
The building’s base, which contains a restaurant, co-working areas, and meeting rooms, extensively uses double-height spaces. This creates varied spatial sequences and visually as well as physically connects levels 1 and 2 with internal stairs.
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Photographer: Thomas Mellbye / Zinc
The ceiling in the outward-facing base is upgraded pine slatted ceiling, which follows the structural form of the glulam beams and creates a continuous “wave” of wood throughout the areas.
In the office spaces, no suspended ceilings have been used. Instead, technical installations are left exposed and run through openings in the timber structure. This allows the underside of the solid wood slabs to be exposed, while also providing the office spaces with a higher perceived ceiling height.
Directly mounted wood wool panels under the solid wood slabs ensure good room acoustics.
The combination of the exposed wood and the technical conduits creates an exciting spatial contrast between the technical and the natural.
Sustainable and resource-efficient construction
The building has maintained a consistent focus on sustainability from project inception to completion.
Spor X is certified BREEAM Outstanding with a final score of 92 percent, where 85 is the requirement.
It is also mentioned that the building was the only construction project nominated for the Construction Industry’s Climate Prize 2021.
The sustainable aspects can be simplified into three main categories:
Material choice: The building is constructed from timber sourced from the forests around Drammen. The glulam is produced and processed at Splitkon’s factory in Åmot, which is a half-hour drive up the Drammen River from Spor X, making it both very local and low in transport emissions.
In the design of Spor X, there has been a continuous effort to maximise the use of timber and minimise the use of less sustainable materials. Where it has not been possible to use timber, conscious choices have been made regarding detailing with sustainability in mind. For example, on the floor of level 1, where a more robust urban floor surface was needed, a concrete cast with recycled aggregate – crushed glass supplied by Norsk Gjenvinning – has been used.
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Green mobility: The second aspect that is important to mention is the uncompromising focus on green mobility. The building is centrally located right by Drammen Station, which is an important transport hub in the region, making the project highly accessible via public transport.
The project does not include a single parking space for cars. Instead, a generous bicycle parking facility with accompanying support functions, such as washing, maintenance areas, and locker rooms, has been implemented.
The bicycle parking is located in the basement with a dedicated bicycle lift connected directly to the cycle path outside the building.
Flexibility: The third main aspect is that the building is designed with a pervasive flexibility mindset.
In the office floors, where the technical installations are exposed, everything is placed within a strict grid, making it easy to change the layout of the different floors without extensive renovations. This ensures that the building is adaptable and can easily accommodate future workplace requirements.
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Photographer: Einar Aslaksen/ Pudder Agency
Extensive shared use of meeting rooms has also been planned to ensure that spaces are used as efficiently as possible.
Skills enhancement and Digital Twin
Digital twin Skills development for involved stakeholders: The contractor and design team had very high BIM requirements to realise the building with its associated high ambitions.
A cross-disciplinary
Digital Twin was created before the building was constructed. This ensures complete control over the whole project, reduces construction errors, and shortens the building time. During construction, the building was scanned with point cloud technology several times a week to ensure 100% alignment between the plans and the actual site.
The forward-thinking implementation method of the building ensured high precision at all stages and enhanced the skills of both the designers and the executors.
Contributing to supplier development
The project encountered several major challenges along the way and sought to solve these in new and innovative ways to ensure that the level of ambition was met.
Raised floors
A specific example is the creative use of raised flooring from the supplier Granab. Using this system, step sound insulation, one-sided fire protection of CLT slabs, and a significant amount of technical installations related to the floor construction have been achieved. The solution allows for exposed wooden ceilings, further enhancing the experience of being in a timber building.
Photographer: Einar Aslaksen/ Pudder Agency Floor construction
The entire floor construction consists only of CLT slabs and the raised floor system with a single layer of boards, without additional components such as sprinklers, screed, gravel, or multi-layered construction with non-combustible materials.
Systematic grid system for water, electrical, and data transmissions
Along with a systematic grid system for water, electrical, and data conduits, extensive adjustments to the spaces can be made by creating and closing openings with just simple hand tools.
Prefabricated construction
All components in the construction are prefabricated, resulting in minimal waste production and a high degree of disassembly for recycling/reuse.
Sound measurements well within requirements
After conducting sound measurements, results have been documented to be well within requirements and expectations for the finished building.
The experiences from this project are now being applied to new projects by contractors, consultants, and suppliers.
Revolutionary innovation with a fire wall in solid wood
The most revolutionary example of innovation and supplier development in the project is the development of a solution that enables a fire wall to be constructed from solid wood.
Photographer: Einar Aslaksen/ Pudder Agency
Since SporX is located on the property boundary, it is required that the building ensures fire protection towards the neighbour. In practice, this means a wall with an REIM120 requirement. In most projects, this would mean that the wall would have to be built in concrete for the entire height of the building, but this was not in line with the project group’s overall goal of building a timber structure with a focus on sustainability.
In the project, the functional requirement was challenged by collaborating with the fire technology research community at NTNU, SINTEF, and RISE.
Through the research project FRIC, which aims to encourage evidence-based documentation of fire safety solutions, a full-scale fire test of an insulated solid wood panel functioning as an REIM120 fire wall was initiated.
The test wall consisted of the load-bearing solid wood wall with the external insulation system Rockwool RedAir, in combination with non-combustible facade panels from Cembrit.
Suppliers Splitkon and Rockwool were central to the construction and financing of the test. The test was conducted at the fire laboratory at RISE in Trondheim, and the insulation system passed the test.
As a result of the test, the solution has been commercialised by Rockwool, which has developed a specific installation guide for the RedAir wall with 120 minutes fire resistance, based on the exact configuration of the test wall used. Previously, this product was intended solely as an insulation product, but following the test, it has been proven to withstand a standardised 120-minute fire.
A report will also be produced in collaboration with SINTEF to make the knowledge about the solution available to the entire industry. Through the project, we have contributed to a new use of a supplier’s product, which can promote the use of timber in places where it was previously unthinkable.
Can the dense and sustainable cities of the future now perhaps be built in timber?
DARK Architects are certified as Environmental Lighthouse – the Norwegian certification of environmental management approved by EU.
CONTACT DARK ARKITECTS Kontakt – DARK Arkitekter
CONTACT ZINC INTERIORARCHITECTS Menneskene – Zinc’
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