C03 -- The Blue House with Green Ambitions - A Case Study

The Blue House is an office building in the south of Sweden taken in to use in August 2021. The private sector has a strong focus on indoor environment and sustainability. The vision of the project was very clear from the beginning - to build the city’s most modern and energy efficient office building. This case study aims to provide an overview of the findings of this project when it comes to the challenges and solutions from design and early construction phase to handover and operational phase. Focus has been on achieving an advanced level of energy efficiency, to choose sustainable construction materials and long term solutions while securing the best indoor climate in the building. The processes for the total system delivery are explained with the aim of creating operational excellence while minimizing the carbon footprint. The system delivery includes terminal units, DCV (Demand Controlled Ventilation) systems, chillers with water optimization functions and air handling units with systems developed to minimize the energy use and maximize the indoor environmental comfort. This project was run as a partnership model; which started in the earliest phases of the project and continued through installation, commissioning and hand-over. This case study will touch upon different roles and responsibilities when selling a complete system, advantages, disadvantages, risk minimization and the importance of digitalization in creating a common understanding of the buildings systems and energy use. The case study also shares findings from commissioning phase and the operational phase comparing the design and operational data for heating, cooling and energy use. In addition it shows how system knowledge and cooperation in the early project stages when correct product and application selection is important influences the result of the operational carbon footprint and total LCA (Life cycle assessment)/Whole carbon footprint.