Build4 Sustainable Construction Demo Centre: Back from the Monkey House

As I mentioned before, last week we had a project meeting in Apeldorn in the Netherlands. Aside from the fact that the Netherlands is a splendid country to visit, our Dutch partners, Agrodome, laid on a brilliant meeting venue at Apenheul/Natuurhuis De St@art.

Apenheul is home to 200 free ranging primates and is a conservation project started in the 1970s. As a visitor, you can wander round the carefully created habitat and observe the monkeys going about their daily business.

In 2011, Apenheul was augmented by the construction of a beautiful eco-building called DeSt@art which houses the offices of the Apenheul Foundation and Natuurhuis. A well equipped educational centre is set up for visiting groups and part of that centre is one of Agrodome's demonstration centres.

Designed by the Dutch architects RAU,

'De St@art is designed to look like a gigantic wooden skeleton that forms a binding element between the Apenheul and Park Berg en Bos. The arrival of the building will introduce a new trail that runs through the park to the entrance of the Apenheul. To emphasise the perception of nature, parts of the building, such as the auditorium, have been constructed underground as much as possible'.

For more information and professional images of the building go here

These are just a couple of the images that I captured on our tour:

Their underground auditorium had fantastic acuostics because of the specially designed timber walls:

And Agrodome's demonstration centre, which is located on the ground floor with a lovely view of the grounds is set up for visitors to have access to all materials on display.