Target: Zero Emission - Themen

In general, embassy buildings are regarded as national representative buildings. The German Federal Foreign Office is presently planning to remodel its existing embassy building in Canberra, Australia. In the preparatory stages, Fraunhofer
Institute for Building Physics (IBP) was commissioned to investigate whether and to what extent the German representation in Australia could be turned into a zero-emission building. As the intensive search for new approaches to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the next few years is also going on in Australia, the embassy retrofit could become an exemplary lighthouse project of the Fed. Rep. of Germany, attracting worldwide attention.

Designing and planning high-performance buildings requires profound knowledge of the complex interaction between architecture, building, heating, cooling, air-conditioning, and lighting technologies. With the aim of substantially increasing
the energy performance of buildings, Fraunhofer IBP has been elaborating sophisticated building concepts for more than 25 years now in close collaboration with the construction industry. In the Canberra embassy retrofitting project,
high-tech products of structural and building services engineering 'made in Germany' are to be applied, which will allow to run the building – on the basis of an annual balance – free of any greenhouse gas emissions.

The complete article is available for download below.

Source: Media release Fraunhofer IBP