Recap: RoyalHaskoningDHV Sustainable Design Challenge

I was asked to write the recap of the Sustainable Design Challenge of Royal HaskoningDHV as one of the team members of the winning team, so here it is. The adventure started around a month ago, where Ola, Marc, Meghana, Kim and I went to the RHDHV office in Eindhoven. We got a small introduction to the challenge, where the main question was how to make the PSV stadium more sustainable. In principle, everything was possible, in the end, we were going to be rated on creativity, innovativeness, sustainability, feasibility, and presentation by a jury consisting of RHDHV employees and someone from the Municipality of Eindhoven. After the presentation, we were assigned a team consisting of four RHDHV employees and one TU/e BPS student. The start shot was fired and the competition started. Immediately all the teams started analyzing the stadium and were brainstorming on what to do with the building and the surrounding area. Because of the different interests and backgrounds we had some nice inputs after which we had two weeks to make our presentation and pitch.

The presentation day arrived where everyone had to show what they have done. Because of the BPS Retrofit conference, I went suited up to the RHDHV office for the presentation (although some of the competition said I did it to charm the female jury members). Every team presented their ideas where some were more extreme than the other. From a total design to more abstract concepts. Most of the ideas were based on adding more functionality to the building, using energy saving or producing technologies showing everything that was possible. Ideas included algae producing facades, TU/e classrooms in the stadium and the standard solution adding PV-panels on the roof. In the end, my team won by showing several ideas in a conceptual way (and some nice renders) where adding technology, design, ecology, and social aspects were the main change to the building. After the presentations, there was a nice drink where everyone could talk about their experiences. All in all it was a really nice afternoon.

In the end, since I was in the winning team, I ate together last Wednesday with my team at “De Verlenging”, one of the restaurants in the PSV stadium. Hopefully, some of the ideas that were suggested by the different teams will one day be implemented, in that way making sustainability a part of the PSV vibe!