Marloes:

As I sit in the garden, I realise how happy this office makes me, and the secret happiness factor is the garden. Over the last three months we have been working on the garden and it is hopefully the beginning of a peaceful heaven that can be used as a stress reliever in hectic times. The garden was pretty much hammered by the ongoing construction and, with the main office building now finished, we are finally regenerating the garden. Starting off with taking stock of what was there – an orange tree and plum tree mainly – and reusing some of the potted plants from our old office’s balcony. The main idea was to plan only plants that are either indigenous, medicinal, or edible. We called in help from Ryo to assist with the design and planting of our garden. We might know a lot about green, but we are not so well versed in landscaping.

One of the important things for me was that we could use the garden to relax, reflect, but also to potentially work – how nice would it be if we can take project meetings outside in the garden? In my experience, being outside reduces stress immediately and makes you feel much calmer. I also love the large sliding doors of the office that open onto the garden and offer a connection to nature even in our urban setting.

Ryoko:

Marloes’s request was very much in her style – thoughtful, inclusive, connected, recycled and sustainable. The design brief was to use ‘useful’ or ‘meaningful’ plants which were to the greatest extent possible, indigenous, with a style that is informal, soft and natural. It turns out that even many plants that we commonly see in our built green environment surprisingly do have some kind of medicinal/edible properties according to sources such as Indigenous Healing Plants by Margaret Roberts (Halfway House Publishers), and we were able to source many of them through Random Harvest Nursery in Muldersdrift.

The edible plants were selected by Marloes based on the vegetables that she felt would be useful to her team. She was insistent on including plants that had been suggested by her team members.

What were the biggest challenges?

Ryoko:

After two long years of construction, when we started the garden, the soil was heavily compacted in its worst sections and, in its best areas, ran its own course, as many transition properties must have during lockdown. Another big challenge that we have had is in finding a lawn replacement ground cover that is simultaneously walkable, useful/indigenous and meets the stark sun/shade conditions.

What is your favourite part of the garden?

Marloes:

The veggie and herb patch is my favourite section and we have a good harvest of spinach and kale already, it is growing madly. It also has the necessary garnish ingredients for G&Ts, different types of mint, rosemary and sage – which is crucial for good office parties. We have also added a grapevine, granadilla vine and an almond tree.

We have hung up two bee hotels, and we are taking part in the Jozi Bee Hotel Project, which aims to ensure equitable access to biodiversity for all city residents. Our worm farm is also back in full swing. I cannot believe the worms survived the move after being neglected for a while, but they seem to be happy again in our new home. All their produce from the last couple of years was used to improve the soil quality.

What were the unexpected successes?

Ryoko:

The hardscape and topsoil were sourced from Parkhurst residents as we rang the door bells of homes that had piles of used bricks and topsoil in front of their houses for disposal. The homeowners were often grateful to have the materials removed, and we were able to create a garden path, patio and driveway entirely from free recycled materials.

Marloes had also lovingly saved all the plants from her previous office and, miraculously, they had survived being left outdoors during lockdown. They also had to find space in the new office garden. Connie, a staff member whose ‘adoption’ of the garden was to become critical in its daily care, would often shake her head smiling and say, ‘Marloes loves green too much.’

Any garden that is planted from an empty lot, especially informal in style, is a challenge as it does not have existing mature plants or a geometric pattern to fall back on for ‘structure’ and backbone. However, Marloes and her team have started an exciting living garden process that will take shape and become layered in the passing of time and, hopefully, give great pleasure to everyone who works in the inspiring environment at the new office.

The post Our new office – Chapter 8: The Garden appeared first on Solid Green Consulting.

We left the two structures, converted the main building into the main office space (with kitchen and ablutions) and designed the outbuilding at the back of the property as a multi-purpose space with a large boardroom which could also function as a yoga/exercise or chill space. We started demolition in early 2020 and, when COVID hit, there wasn’t much of the structure left; and it took a while before we were allowed to continue building the structure up again. So, how has COVID made us rethink the spaces we were building?

Building Structure

Early on in the specification process, we decided to pioneer a Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) structure for the roof, instead of using a concrete coffer slab. This was done to reduce the building’s embodied energy, and because it is much lighter and therefore helped to reduce the amount of strengthening and modification that the foundations required.

However, a CLT roof is quite expensive and it was a considerable cost in our budget. Lockdown hit and we were all working from home for a number of weeks. Our successful transition to remote working helped us to realise that a phased approach might work. So, we decided against constructing the CLT roof immediately. We installed the glulam timber beams for a future CLT roof, but opted a more economical roofing solution. When we eventually get the rights for a second floor, and if we need it, we will close the office for a couple of weeks and make the adjustment in the future.

Need for smaller meeting rooms/phone booths

With the move to online and remote working, the space planning allows for maximum flexibility and churn in terms of how power is supplied, and the old ablutions have been transformed into phone/meeting booths to meet the need for video conferencing.

Initially the kitchen and the ablutions were located within the main office building, and we planned a mostly open space office plan. During COVID we realised that we need smaller meeting rooms where staff can take a video call with their project teams. So, we transformed the toilet rooms and the kitchen into smaller meeting rooms, and the ablutions and kitchen moved to the multi-purpose room in the back of the building.

Working from home to the max

Solid Green has always had a “working from home” policy and staff were working from home 2 to 3 days a week. The idea with the new office was that we wanted to create an office environment for flexible working with no allocated desks/workspaces. We had 20 workstations in our old office and decided to only take 8 desks to the new office. The remainder of the desks were donated to Streetlight Schools. This was good forward thinking!

Energy Neutral Building

We always had the goal that our office would be extremely energy efficient, while still thermally comfortable. Over the December holidays, most of the things lying on site were taken away by more needy people. Then, in early January, our Distribution Board was stolen from the site. And, as if that was not enough, a week later the municipal electricity meter was also taken! We quickly installed the solar system with inverter and battery system, and we are up and running. In fact, we ran all the construction activities (including grinders) with solar power and we are now running on 100% solar in the office and are no longer connected to the municipal supply.

Flooring options

We researched the most sustainable flooring option for the office. Due to a height difference, this would have required putting in a raised floor system and we wanted to have a linoleum floor on top of that. Most people will pull up their nose at Linoleum as it is seen as a “hospital product”. However, the product has evolved over time and it is really a beautiful product in different finishes. And now linoleum is made from all-natural materials, including wood flour, rosins, ground limestone, powdered cork, pigments, jute and linseed oil. It really is one of the most sustainable flooring options available.

Linoleum is still our preferred flooring option, but due to COVID we had to look for a more economical option. We are currently investigating upcycling used carpet tiles (more about this in the next newsletter) as a temporary solution.

Recycling – Upcycling

During demolition, we aimed to ensure that there was limited waste going to landfill. Most of the materials, including timber and bricks, were reused or recycled somewhere. The old Oregon pine roof timbers which were cleaned up, inspected and reused as the outside decking. And the interior fitout is going to be put together from mainly recycled, reused or upcycled materials.

A renovation always takes more time than you think and never progresses according to the planned schedule, especially when it is interrupted by a global pandemic! There is still some work to be done on our dream office. The back buildings still need to be renovated and transformed, and we intend to build an attenuation pond/wetland system so that we do not have to release any stormwater into the municipal system. And, over the coming months, we are going to upgrade the landscaping, plant a veggie garden, create an outdoor seating area, and make our space comfortable with fitting and soft furnishings. That being said, we are already loving our new home and are looking forward to developing it further this year!

The post OUR NEW OFFICE: CHAPTER 6! appeared first on Solid Green Consulting.

Fine-tuning the details of the CLT structure and the steel supports and brackets turned into a very involved and complicated process as we kept finding new aspects of the old building that we had to work around. However, we have now placed the orders for the timber beams, CLT slab, steel supports, and performance glazing facade. The wet works on site are proceeding well, so everything should be ready for when all the other elements arrive.

Design concepts have been underway with regards to the layout, look and feel of the new office interior. We have taken the information from our biophilia workshop and how we want to use the new offices spaces, to inform how we use the furniture we already have from the old office, and to decide what we want to add. The ideal would be to reuse as much as possible from the old office with some clever design solutions that will make the space functional, adaptable and ergonomically efficient. Natural lighting, glare, acoustics and multiple workspace options – including sit desks, standing desks and couches – have been identified as the main interior design challenges that we want to address.

In terms of waste management, we have been working with our contractor to ensure that we don’t have materials going to a landfill. All the old fittings – doors, windows, roof tiles, HVAC etc – that had some value have been collected by salvagers so they can be used on other sites. A special effort was also made to capture the gasses from the old HVAC units and not just let them be released into the atmosphere as they are powerful greenhouse gasses. They were removed by the HVAC contractor to be reused elsewhere.

Most of the original brickwork is being saved and cleaned so we can reuse it onsite. The old Oregon pine roof timbers will also be cleaned up, inspected and reused. The rubble from the section of the old building that needed to be removed was a little trickier. Most of the smaller waste haulers do not really offer a recycling service and the larger contractors were not interested in our little project. We eventually found a company that would take the rubble and crush it to be used as aggregate in new bricks as long as we delivered the material to them. We also found a few other construction sites near us that needed fill material and where happy to take the rubble off our hands. One waste skip was mistakenly taken to be used as a fill stabilisation at a landfill in the beginning of the process, as the contractor thought that it was an acceptable use. Ironically, the site supervisor, was quite taken with the idea of reusing or recycling materials and has taken to the process wholeheartedly!

We are looking forward to moving into our new home soon. Watch this space for more updates!

The post Our New Office: Chapter 3 appeared first on Solid Green Consulting.

According to ‘The Practice of Biophilic Design’ (Stephen R. Kellert, Elizabeth F. Calabrese):

Biophilic design is about creating good habitat for people as biological organisms in the built environment. Like all species, humans evolved in adaptive response to natural rather than artificial forces, and these adaptations became embedded in our species biology over evolutionary time. Biophilic design seeks to satisfy these inherent adaptations to nature in the modern built environment and, in doing so, enhance people’s physical and mental health and fitness.

This can be achieved through three kinds of experience of nature – the direct experience of nature (e,g natural light and air, plants, fountains); the indirect experience of nature (images, natural materials and geometries); and the experience of space and place (mobility, wayfinding, prospect and refuge).

“People naturally respond better to spaces that integrate biophilia features in their design,” explains Marloes Reinink.

These design qualities are experienced through sight, sound, touch, smell, taste, and movement. We believe that these multisensory encounters with nature, which we have also incorporated as much as possible into our existing office, not only contribute towards health and wellbeing, but also significantly improve productivity and cognitive performance.

And so, as part of our intention to pursue an ILFI CORE Certification, we held a Biophilia workshop with all people involved in the design process of the new office, and all our staff. We explained the intention of the workshop and we did a series of exercises to get the creative juices flowing. This included brainstorming the qualities that we would like our new home to embody, and the experience that we would like to enjoy in our new space.

The elements that we focussed on are fundamental to human health and wellbeing, as well as comfort and productivity. They also stimulate our senses and creativity and, very importantly, nourish our souls. They include:

• Natural light and air;
• Plants and animals;
• Ecosystems;
• Fire;
• Images of nature;
• Natural materials, geometries and colours;
• Naturalistic shapes and forms; Information richness;
• Biomimicry;
• the ideas of Prospect and Refuge;
• the consideration of Transitional Spaces;
• clear Mobility and Wayfinding;
• and Cultural and Ecological attachment to place.

In October we also received SDP approval, and we are planning to start work in the New Year. As part of our ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’ ethos, we have also managed to source reclaimed parquet flooring that we will use in the new office to avoid using virgin material. We are also exploring a new timber technology for the structure of our office, called CLT or Cross Laminated Timber. This will have a significant lower embodied energy than a standard concrete slab and as such would be more sustainable. It will also contribute to our Biophilia Goals.

Watch this space for more updates on our new space!

The post Our New Office: Chapter 2 appeared first on Solid Green Consulting.

 Marloes, who is herself a Living Building Challenge Ambassador, says:

As we are not able to demolish the existing building and are obliged to work with the existing structure in order to avoid a lengthy rezoning process, we are busy assessing the possibilities of an ILFI CORE certification, which outlines the ten best practice achievements that a building must obtain to be considered a green or sustainable building, putting the connection to nature, equity and the need for a building to be loved on par with the typical water, energy and materials concerns.

Our brief to Activate is for flexible, open plan workspaces to accommodate 20 people. Formal and informal meeting spaces, shower and changing facilities, an outside seating area and vegetable garden, and a bicycle storage area are also included.

Key Health & Well Being requirements that are being addressed are:

• Air Quality, which is being addressed through openable windows, natural ventilation, and sensors for air quality control (CO, CO2 and VOC);
• Drinking Water promotion and filtration;
• Nourishment, through the availability of fruits and vegetables, food production in the garden, and mindful eating;
• Light quality, with sufficient daylight, views to nature and glare control;
• Movement, with the inclusion of ergonomic workstations, a good Walk Score for the area, and a multi-use space where yoga can be practiced;
• Thermal comfort and control, with comfort monitoring
• Sound mapping and good acoustics, which requires an acoustic plan that identifies and addresses internal and external noise sources;
• Mind, through access to nature; spaces exclusively for contemplation, relaxation and restoration; and sleep support.

Says Michael Magner of Activate:

The decision was made to reuse the existing structure as much as possible without compromising on the function of the new office space. The key idea is to accommodate as much open plan flexible office space as the original walls of house will allow, with a new facade, doors and windows to deal with the performance criteria that the client is setting. This includes a multifunctional space that spills out into the garden on the north side of the site

We are replacing the existing roof with a new concrete slab which will be used as the platform for a photovoltaic installation and can also become the floor slab for a second story should Solid Green need to expand in future. We are planning to reuse the existing timber trusses in the new build. There is also an existing pool on site that we want to repurpose as a stormwater retention system to supply grey water for toilet flushing and irrigation.

Michael adds that the architecture of the front façade will respond to the busy Parkhurst commercial street with a solid but interesting boundary that includes a living wall as well as a planter and bench as a gesture to the public edge, with two new indigenous trees shading the off-street parking.

As with all our activities, our staff have been included in the process from the outset. “We held a session asking people what they want in the new office, which informed the brief,” Marloes says.

We have also presented the new design to them. Our staff is responsible for the energy and comfort modelling, which is being used as an integrated tool in determining the design of the building envelope. And they are helping to research materials for flooring and other components.

She adds that simplicity in the project’s design will not only save on cost but also reduce the unnecessary use of materials. The choice of materials will centre around those with a very low embodied energy and the focus will be on healthy materials where toxins are eliminated as far as possible. Choices will be guided by the Living Building Challenge principles for the Materials Petal – Red List free materials where possible, local sourcing, responsible sourcing (for example, FSC or reclaimed timber), and the reuse of materials where possible.

Sustainable water and waste management principles are also being embraced, with the possibilities around water harvesting, water recycling and water reuse currently being scrutinised; together with waste minimisation during both the construction and operational phases of the project.

Our intention is to break ground in October this year, with occupation of our new space planned for April next year. We will be sharing the story of our new home as we progress, so keep watching this space!

The post Solid Green’s New Offices in Parkhurst! appeared first on Solid Green Consulting.