Carbon counting systems in the construction industry are slowly becoming the norm. For many years, certifications such as BREEAM and LEED have been improved and developed. For interior design, however, such solutions are not yet popular. Thedesigners from theFruit Orchad studio faced the challenge of creating an interior with limited emissions.
The project office of the team from the Fruit Orchad studio is intended for the Wroclaw-based game-development company Ten Square Games (the contractor for the project was InstalOne). The company's growth necessitated a change to a larger office. An important aspect of the new arrangement was to monitor the carbon footprint - from the issue of furniture selection, technological solutions to limiting the changes made in favor of existing elements. The result? Calculations by the think tank Greensite Consulting indicate a reduction in carbon dioxide equivalent of about 38.8 tons. This was achieved, among other things, by using recycled materials.
The idea to create a low-carbon arrangement came about when decisions were made to relocate Ten Square Games.
© Fruit Orchad / Ten Square Games
Radoslaw Stojek, Dorota Mogielnicka and Katarzyna Miastkowska talk about how the design of the low-carbon interior arrangement began, what was most important during the work, and what was most satisfying
Wiktor Bochenek: Tracking and reducing the carbon footprint was important in this project. How did this influence the design process?
Radoslaw Stojek (InstalOne): In the course of the work, someone joked that the difference between a "classic" project and a low-carbon project is like the difference between a colony and a sports camp. And we agreed that this was an adequate comparison. Low-carbon projects require discipline and great teamwork.
Victor: Given your desire to reduce carbon dioxide, what solutions did you opt for?
Dorota Mogielnicka (Greensite): We acted on two levels: reducing the embedded carbon footprint through material selection and decisions to partially use already existing components. On the other hand, we strongly optimized the work process itself: a great part of the work was carried out in daylight, we ventilated the rooms naturally. At every stage of the work we looked for solutions to reduce emissions.
there is no lack of greenery in the interior
© Fruit Orchad / Ten Square Games
Wiktor: Do you think the issue of carbon offsetting will become an increasingly common element of interior design?
Katarzyna Miastkowska (Fruit Orchard): Definitely yes. Smart implementations require a lot of changes in companies. Managers should be sensitized and held accountable for the company's development in a 10,15-year horizon, rather than focusing solely on the KPIs [Key Performance Indicators - ed. note] of the current ones. Then we have a chance that they will start to choose more economical and environmentally friendly solutions long-term.
Betting on low-carbon solutions reduced the equivalent of 38.8 tons of CO2.
© Fruit Orchad / Ten Square Games
Victor: What was the most challenging and rewarding part of this implementation?
Radoslaw: In this project, the source of the greatest satisfaction was what was also the biggest problem: the lack of external benchmarks! The implementation for Ten Square Games was one of the first of its kind in Poland. Fortunately, we had procedures based on our experience and optimized them on an ongoing basis as the project progressed to achieve even better results.
Catherine: An additional complication was the lack of data on product emissivity. So we made the decision to choose only products with carbon footprints known from environmental declarations, or those for which we could estimate the footprint based on reference materials. And since data is scarce, I'm afraid that many dilemmas today are unsolvable: for many products, such as glass, we don't know whether in the long run durability and recyclability compensate for the dismal manufacturing performance.
Wiktor: Thank you for the interview.
Ten Square Games headquarters in Wroclaw
© Fruit Orchad / Ten Square Games
