The Slimline floor system offers substantial environmental benefits in building development. There are several methodologies to measure sustainability. Roughly all methodologies use three categories to rate sustainability aspects. Firstly, the building’s sustainability. Next, material use during construction and the reusability of individual building parts is assessed. Finally, the exploitation costs, and specifically the energy consumption, is measured.
Sustainable building
A high-quality building that meets the demands of both current and future occupants obviously is the best investment in sustainability. The longer the building exists, the lower the environmental impact of the construction phase weighs on the total environmental burden of the structure. The economic lifespan of a building is largely determined by the building installations. With Slimline, it’s possible to create high-quality buildings that offer substantially higher comfort levels to its users. It’s also relatively easy to reroute electrical leads and data cables. An additional benefit of the Slimline floor system over other systems is that a full functional conversion is possible within the existing building. This enables developing a building suitable for both residential and professional use (or a combination of both).
Material use
Slimline is significantly lighter than alternative flooring systems. The total weight of a Slimline floor including subfloor for common spans and loads is approximately 350 kg/m2. This allows achieving weight savings on the entire building of up to 50%. When applying Slimline to high-rises, additional savings are possible on the use of high-grade materials like facades, interior walls and piping. Since the building installations aren’t poured in, Slimline achieves significant savings on the amount of concrete applied. The use of prefabricated elements substantiality reduces the amount of waste and the number of transport movements to the construction site. Lastly, a Slimline floor element and its components are reusable or recyclable once the building reaches the end of its lifespan, which fully aligns with the Cradle2Cradle philosophy.
Energy consumption
Selecting the option to fit Slimline with a system of dual climate pipes results in a more comfortable indoor climate and allows achieving maximum savings on energy consumption. Using water in the concrete ceiling for heating and cooling (thermal activation) leads to a higher level of perceived comfort when compared to systems using air for climate control. Slimline allows cooling with the ceiling and heating from the subfloor, which fits the known comfort principle of ‘warm feet, cool head’.
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