Enery saving in progress! City-zen @ seminar Smart Buildings in a Smart City Prague.

“Save water: share your shower” /  “This designer bag is yours to use during your stay (and much cooler than disposable plastic bags)”

These were just some of the nudges in my room at the Mosaic House in Prague, a  former office building that has been turned into a BREEAM excellent hotel, where I was invited to tell a bit more about the projects in City-zen. The Mosaic House – with heat recovery from showers and reuse of purified grey water to clean the floors and flush the toilets but above all a great atmosphere – shows us that such a sustainable building can both very comfortable ánd funky. A concept they even extend into their installation room.

Czech Green Building Council

Mosaic House is one of the members of the Czech Green Building Council. All of their members work in the field of building super sustainable buildings and making the existing building stock more energy efficient. The CGBC for instance promotes an integrated vision on healthy and energy saving buildings, which is necessary to guarantee a comfortable temperature, fresh air and thus active pupils in schools.

So why does CGBC wants to learn more about City-zen when there are interesting examples in Prague?

Not just the buildings but the whole system

We all know buildings are a key element in cities when it comes to energy. I shared that in City-zen we do not only look at buildings themselves, but also look at how they interact with the cities electricity grid or heating system. How a nearby drinking water pipe or lake might serve as a source of cold or that sewage water may contain just the energy you need to heat your home. That a battery at home or in an electrical car can help to balance the system. And that you can now download a game to nudge young people to change their energy routines. Not only the buildings need to be energy proof, but the whole system and we ourselves – the citizens – needs to adapt to a future with more sustainable, flexible and distributed energy production.

 Source photos: https://www.justapack.com/mosaic-house-responsible-travel-in-prague/