Flux

Flux is compact and energy-efficient, allowing lots of daylight and providing open spaces. It features a large void and plenty of different connections between the two sides of the building. The central hall facilitates interaction and has an open, spatial image, thanks to views through to the floors. Through its spatial structure the building engenders cooperation in the areas of education and research. Flux accommodates the departments of Electrical Engineering and Applied Physics.

The high-rise portion of the building projects over the parking area on the north side. To achieve this a temporary construction had been created, including hydraulic jacks, supporting the overhang. By means of these jacks the builders could lower the upper floors by sixty millimeters before the temporary construction could be removed again.

Also in view of its flexible use in the future, the Flux building was constructed in modules. Practically all the elements were supplied prefabricated.

The façades have a very high insulation value, the roof of the low-rise section has been covered with plants and the roof of the high-rise is covered with 300 square meters of solar panels. The building is exceptionally energy-efficient and is fully heated sustainably, without any gas consumption, by using geothermal heat and cold storage. Since 2002 the TU/e gas consumption has dropped from 7 million m3 per year to 2 million m3 per year, which accounts for a more than 50-percent energy saving. At the time the ambition was to reduce it to 700,000 m3. This means that we would then have achieved a reduction by a factor of 10. The building is a test environment for new sustainable technologies.