OPEN 336 I SUSTAINABILITY AND WELL-BEING

Speaker: If Open 336 were an athlete, it would have medals to show! The building was in fact designed to be a true champion of sustainability all round, following the standards of the international reference protocol — the most widely used in the world — called LEED, at the platinum level, the highest possible.
Here to talk about it, engineer and architect Francesca Galati Bolognesi, founder and CEO of FGB Studio.
FGB: To achieve this goal, rigorous planning and construction strategies were adopted, with an eye also on the future phase of management. To obtain the LEED certification, it is important to ensure that the work of the construction site is managed in such a way that everything taking place inside the site has no impact on the neighboring areas. Therefore, dust leakage, waste management and attention to air quality during the construction works, had to be controlled. To realize a sustainable building, the choice was made to use materials from controlled renewable resources, such as wood, or with a high recycled content, such as concrete, ceramics, some rock wool and GRC.
GRC, used for outdoor applications, is a composite material containing a high percentage of recycled cement from demolitions, supporting the circularity. The advantages of this material are numerous even from a technical point of view: high resistance and durability, such that it also extends the life of the buildings, as well as ease and speed in prefabrication and assembly.
A multiplicity of materials has been used in the building to contribute to reducing the carbon footprint, and more low emitting chemical products, for example — such as paints, sealants, insulators and plasters — as well as floors and plasterboards et cetera.
None of these materials releases pollutants and toxicants into the indoor environment, that is, VOC volatile organic compounds, thereby helping to ensure that the air is healthy.

Speaker: These are all initiatives that bring back human well-being to the forefront. Well-being itself can be measured with the WELL international certification. In this respect too, Open 336 is exemplary, and gold-level certificate assured.

FGB: Monitoring sensors located in the building and connected to an App, measure the air quality parameters of temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide, VOCs and particulate pollutants. Should any value deviate from the reference scale, an alarm will be sent to the facility’s team to make appropriate adjustments quickly. Furthermore, the WELL certification also evaluates the implementation of strategies with a positive impact on the daily lives of the employees, from the use of different types of desks to the quality of lighting, from provisions for alternative transportation — such as electric cars and car pooling — to the incentive for positive behavior for complete good health and well-being — such as preferring the stairs instead of always using the lift, drinking a lot of water, choosing the right nutrients for meals and learning stress management techniques.
Speaker: Care for the environment and for humanity: this is Open 336!