The European project "E = 0" launched in mid-2016, is already well under way in Luxembourg under the dual leadership of Fonds du Logement, the Housing Association responsible for social housing development and Neobuild, the cluster of technological innovation in sustainable construction.
To move on towards next steps, the Fonds du Logement launched a call for tenders to Luxembourg architectural offices. The project attracted many architects: as nearly twenty of them responded favorably to the call. After a first review, six were pre-selected, before choosing COEBA architecture office, DAVE LEFÈVRE and Associates.
COEBA’s approach and vision of the project corresponds perfectly to what has to be achieved in the coming years. This is what they say about E=0:
"Given its low insulation, the existing building stock has an enormous potential for energy savings. Unfortunately, refurbishment is not always the most obvious decision and reconstruction is often preferred. This choice results in a reduction of the lifetime of the materials in place in favor of greater productivity and above all, an easier path.
E=0 is the opposite of this trend and attempts to set up pioneering techniques allowing a non-invasive and rapid refurbishment, adaptable to many situations. Indeed, the purpose of the Luxembourgish prototype is to be designed and built in a way that can be replicated and applied to many other future refurbishments, allowing the inhabitants to stay in their building. As a result, we were directly interested in this project. For several years, our office has been fully aware of the paramount issue of developing sustainable habitat. Beyond efficient insulation we want to introduce an additional input: the extensive use of sustainable materials. We believe that insulation that requires more gray energy to be produced and dismantled than it actually saves energy is not a reasonable choice.
For us, a sustainable design in the sense of the integral life cycle of buildings must include healthy materials with low environmental impact and low harmful emissions. This is why, in many of our projects, we insist on the use of materials such as straw, hemp, clay, lime, wood, sheep wool...
This project offers an extraordinary potential and a challenge in the development of a prototype with a sustainable design, paving the way for the renovation of tomorrow. "
