About the Building

Jonas is a new concept for collective and sustainable living, containing a mix of different types of rental and owner-occupied apartments, wrapped around beautiful designed public spaces. It is a mixed use residential building situated at the central port of the IJburg neighbourhood; a residential area on the outskirts of Amsterdam comprised of a series of artificial islands developed over the last two decades to address the growing need for housing and lack of available land near the city centre.

As the final part of the larger IJburg area development, Jonas is designed to be its new centrepiece and aims to facilitate social interaction by providing a sustainable, inviting heart for the neighbourhood. It is set to become one of the Netherlands’ most sustainable residential projects.

The project seeks to not only provide its inhabitants with a highly enjoyable place to live, but also to grow into a vibrant hotspot for local residents to meet (something the area is currently missing). Jonas is a six-storey building of 29,950 m2 consisting of 190 compact rental studios and 83 owner-occupied apartments of various types and sizes. In addition to the dwellings the building hosts a variety of amenities including a rooftop terrace for its inhabitants, two guestrooms for visitors, six rentable office units for local entrepreneurs, a small auditorium and a public ‘living room’ which will serve as a community centre for the residents of IJburg. In front of the building a public square with playground is created, providing the area with the necessary space and a prime location to host outdoor events.

In short, the main project goals can be summarized as:

• Promote social cohesion by the creation of a building that offers space for the residents of IJburg to get together;
• Deliver quality sustainable housing at a reasonable price point, which is both energy-efficient and provides high levels of user comfort;
• Develop a plan with a broad support base that addresses the needs of the local community and will stand the test of time in doing so.

Key technologies and environmental features implemented are as follows:

• Jonas is engineered to be an energy neutral building with a high degree of thermal comfort. The application of triple glazing and external sun shading mitigates excessive solar gain. Energy generated by roof mounted photovoltaics covers the entire regulated electrical energy demand;
• Cooling of all spaces, including dwellings, takes place by means of a cold thermal energy storage system which is regenerated by surface water during the winter. No refrigerants – other than water – are utilized;
• All apartments will be fitted with an energy monitoring device allowing occupants to view, register and, if necessary, adjust their energy consumption;
• Each apartment can be converted during its lifetime to be fully wheelchair accessible without the need to change its layout;
• The basement houses a bicycle storage with space for over 600 bicycles and includes cyclist facilities such as showers and dressing rooms. Car sharing will be made available exclusively to residents and public transport is within walking distance from the project site (a direct tramway connection to the city centre);
• Construction materials are responsibly sourced. The load-bearing structure will be constructed utilizing CSC-certified concrete only. To further optimize material efficiency, over 25% of the total high grade aggregate specified for the project is provided by recycled aggregate from construction waste;
• A rainwater harvesting system will be installed to reduce the consumption of potable water for sanitary use in all public spaces and office units;
• Jonas also boasts a nature-inclusive landscape design aimed at enhancing ecological values of the region. The habitat requirements of several vulnerable animal species are taken into account. Indigenous riparian vegetation is planted and mussel reefs are created in the water as a natural way to improve the water quality and increase marine biodiversity.
• A community manager will be present in the building acting as a host, providing services to the residents and helping to organize events.

Why did the building undergo BREEAM assessment?

Jonas was the winning entry in the tender for ‘plot 42a’ in IJburg. In its invitation to tender the City of Amsterdam asked for the development of a sculptural, iconic building. We give substance to this in a way that responds to the needs of the local community. With sustainability and plan quality being the key award criteria, the project team chose to undergo certification to make the sustainability credentials evident. The promise to achieve BREEAM Outstanding has proved vital to our winning bid.

An integral part from the outset
The BREEAM assessment formed an integral part of our design and management process from the outset. As a result, several feasibility studies and analyses were carried out early on, which would otherwise have been performed at a later stage, in a less extensive fashion or be excluded from the process altogether. Examples are included in the summary below.

The project has achieved an ‘Outstanding’ rating with a record-breaking score of 95.47% under the BREEAM-NL New Construction scheme. All available credits in the categories Energy, Waste and Pollution were achieved (100% category score). The building also performs exceptionally well in the categories Transport and Water (+98% category score).

Green Strategy

In the current context of economic upturn in the Netherlands, the Dutch construction industry has experienced strong growth in recent years. With rising demand in the building sector, construction costs have risen dramatically while our design process was ongoing. To be able to offer housing within a reasonable price range and affordable rental rates for the middle sector, the investment costs were limited. Consequently, the design had to be optimized to be able to fulfil the sustainability ambitions while maintaining a healthy return on investment. BREEAM provided a clear guideline on where to save or not to save costs and preserve our sustainability objectives.

Delivering healthy and comfortable homes
Jonas aims to deliver homes that are both highly comfortable and energy-efficient. As such, the dwellings are engineered to meet a wide range of technical requirements for different comfort aspects, with BREEAM providing the performance targets. Combining a high level of façade soundproofing with increased natural ventilation supply rates proved to be challenging. To solve this conundrum large acoustic ventilation grilles have been carefully integrated into the façade, hidden from view, which simultaneously provide the necessary amounts of fresh air and adequate soundproofing. Additionally, our thermal models showed that the dwellings posed a risk to overheating. To ensure thermal comfort is maintained on hot days a sustainable and renewable cooling solution is thus needed (traditional air conditioning systems not being an option for obvious reasons). Our cooling system is comprised of a water-filled cooling grid in the building, connected to a cold thermal energy storage system which is regenerated by the thermal energy from surface water during the winter. The system in its totality contains no environmentally harmful refrigerants and only requires electrical energy to operate, which in turn is fully compensated by photovoltaics.

Off-site renewable energy production
One of Jonas’ major features is its large rooftop terrace, designed to be an attractive outside space to enhance social cohesion and provide connection with the outdoor environment. This rooftop terrace, however, reduces the roof area available for the placement of PV panels. To ensure our entire electrical energy demand is covered, more space was needed than available on the roof, forcing us to look elsewhere. BREEAM provided guidance on how to implement off site renewable energy production. Amvest performed an analysis of their building portfolio to map the potential for renewable energy production for each of their buildings in the vicinity of the project site. Subsequently, suitable buildings nearby with available roof space have been selected, the roofs of which will be leased by Jonas to install additional PV panels.

Effective stakeholder participation
The conception of the Jonas project is characterised by a close collaboration, not only between the partners of the project team, but perhaps more importantly, with members of the local community. Residents and other relevant stakeholders were surveyed during the tender stage to collect their ideas, wishes and tips for the development of the plot. From the preliminary design onward, they were invited to share their thoughts on our proposals in a series of public consultation events, where they had the opportunity to provide direct input to the client and the designers. Following the outlines listed by BREEAM, a wide range of topics related to the design, construction and operation of the project were covered during these sessions. The consultations provided the project team with valuable information, as the feedback we received from locals helped shape the way in which the public facilities (such as the ‘living room’) are incorporated within the project boundaries. The inclusion of these facilities will serve to enhance the quality of living and vibrancy of the area.

Benefits of assessing to BREEAM

Jonas is proud to be BREEAM Outstanding. BREEAM proved to be the ideal benchmark to monitor, realize and communicate the abundant sustainable ambitions of Jonas. During the design process BREEAM helps to make integral design decisions within the team for all forms of sustainability.-Jeroen Schipper & Patrick Meijers, Architect Partners, Orange Architects