European Patent Office, Austria

Near the Belvedere Palace in Vienna, the European Patent Office (EPO) has undergone a 21st century facelift. Its goal: to make the building one of the most sustainable in Austria.

Holcim helped make it happen, providing its sustainable building solutions throughout the project. ECOPact low-carbon concrete with ECOCycle® inside helped reduce the building’s renovation emissions, while Elevate Isoguard™ insulation improved its energy efficiency.

The building’s renovation makes it fit for today’s modern workforce. A new atrium creates an open space with an inviting public area on the ground floor. The layout of the office spaces optimizes natural light, creating a better working environment and reducing energy demand.

In 2019, a feasibility study recommended that the EPO redevelop its Vienna campus with an entirely new building. Instead, the EPO opted for a more sustainable approach: stripping the building back to its original concrete skeleton and rebuilding from the ground up.

This approach underlines a key lever that we can use to decarbonize the built environment. About 80% of Europe’s existing building stock is projected to still be in use by 2050, so renovating these buildings with green retrofit systems will be critical in enabling the European Union to reach its net-zero targets.

On-site resources and energy-efficient design

The EPO building’s redesign brings a new level of sustainability to the site through its use of renewable energy and energy recycling. Solar collectors generate more energy than the building consumes and surplus energy is fed back into the electricity grid. Geothermal probes connected to a heat pump provide heating to the building, which further improves energy efficiency. Additional energy demand will be met by the large-scale photovoltaic system and storage batteries.