Smart by Design at Mitsubishi Electric, Ratingen Germany

The building brings together the company’s many different divisions in spacious offices that include places for meeting, collaboration, and presentation. However, what adds real value to the design is the integration of Mitsubishi Electric’s energy management technology with green building materials and concepts. This includes Mitsubishi’s latest control signal technology as well as innovative visualisation software that collects live data from all over the building to effectively manage the interior environment. The building was initially targeted to achieve a Gold status in accordance with LEED, the internationally recognized certification system for the design, construction and use of green buildings. Interestingly, the implementation of Mitsubishi technology, along with the selection of sustainable materials and products, led to the building ultimately being certified with the superior Platinum classification. and use of green buildings.

Customers and employees are able to experience the benefit from fully integrated building solutions, while Mitsubishi Electric is able to demonstrate how these technologies are able to interact virtually unnoticed, placing emphasis on the office’s spacious interior design scheme and careful specification of modern materials.

Designed by arctum Architecten, the building’s interior is simple yet striking, featuring vast glazing expanses, stark white walls and Mosa Solids tiles as a unifying element sweeping throughout the building’s impressively expansive floor area. In addition to this, the tiles fall in line with Mitsubishi’s ambitious standards of green building and environmental sustainability. Mosa is the world’s first ceramic tile company to gain full Cradle to Cradle Silver certification for its entire collection. Many times more stringent than current environmental legislation, products in the Cradle to Cradle program are evaluated according to five aspects: purity of raw materials, recycling, energy, water management and social conditions. These tiles have been certified to the new 3.0 standard, in which the requirement for all five criteria have been expanded and heightened even further.

Central to Mosa’s Silver Cradle to Cradle certification is the use of pure and raw materials that do not harm the environment of human health. The main components of these tiles are natural, being clay and sand. Analysis down to the ppm level (parts per million) shows that Mosa tiles contain no toxic substances nor will they emit any toxins during the lifespan of the tile. These tiles are thus considered ‘VOC-free,’ certainly desirable quality in creating healthy workplaces for the future. In addition to the use of natural materials, Mosa tiles also contain recycled pre-consumer waste and can therefore enter the circular production cycle at the end of the their lifespan.

The completed building effectively acts as a live showcase for Mitsubishi Electric and their commitment to green building principles. “We are using this new building to create a single corporate image in Germany and to expand our business further,” says Yuji Suwa, President of the German subsidiary of Mitsubishi Electric Europe.

All images © Mosa