Integral Design Methodology Within Industrial Collaboration

Sustainable building will be the major guiding principle for renewal of building and spatial planning practice. Kropman being one of the major Dutch building services contractors is aware of this trend. It is because of this rowing awareness of sustainability that the company puts effort towards knowledge transfer and research with the Dutch knowledge and research institutes. The principles of sustainable building within the IFD (Industrial Flexible Dismountable) concept are applied in the planning of a new building for the Kropman Utrecht department. Aim was an integrated approach within the design process to reach a maximum level of integration between building elements and climate conditioning elements. A newly developed methodology for structuring and documenting integral design processes enables verification and reproduction of decisions made during designing. Its conscious use by professionals results in iteration cycles within and between their own domains. The gradual emergence of a design language that helps structuring design tasks and solutions further stimulates the multidisciplinary exchange of ideas and concepts. This approach of structuring tasks and solutions is tested within a professional context of a building design project. Investigated is if the approach improves and supports the building design process. Besides its added value for building design process, the integral design methodology directly stimulates application of sustainable energy in the built environment