Sustainable Building 2.0 - Maintaining and promoting biodiversity in the built environment
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Sustainable building has become the norm; everyone's talking about it. Preserving and promoting biodiversity in the built environment goes even further and isn't something you can just do overnight. It requires expertise, a long-term plan, creativity, and courage. At Paul de Ruiter Architects, promoting biodiversity is a standard part of our projects.
Architects play a key role in this. We always consider flora and fauna in the design process. How? By minimizing disruption to the existing structures of existing (animal) species, enhancing them, and attracting new species. This can be incorporated into the building's design; compact, stacked construction automatically creates more space for biodiversity. Furthermore, new space can always be created for animals within the design: on the building facades, on roofs, or around the building. We believe it's important to truly integrate this into the building and the architecture. So, you won't necessarily see it immediately.
The examples of creating space for wildlife are endless. For example, bat boxes are installed in many of our designs, where this protected species can roost and nest during the day. This isn't as simple as it might sound. To do this, you need to map the flight paths of these creatures. To do this, you must initiate a study in collaboration with ecologists a year before the building permit application. Our buildings also offer nesting sites for birds, hedgehogs, martens, and bees. Nesting boxes for birds are always hung at different heights. Sparrows, for example, nest lower (approximately 3 meters from the ground) than swifts and swallows (approximately 11 meters from the ground). And for the falcon, you don't place a box but a pole, because the falcon wants to be able to scan the surroundings and enjoy a 360-degree view!
The most common way to create space for animals remains the integration of greenery – a garden or park – into designs. A flowering garden that attracts butterflies, trees, low vegetation, greenery that provides shelter for small mammals, and shrubs where birds can nest. Around a building, on a building, or against the facade of a building. For inspiration, take a look at the wild garden of Lloyd Yard, the gardens of the Cartesiuss and New Roots residential areas, or the park of Park MORE.
