Royal Honor for Ben Bronsema
On January 28, 90-year-old resident Ben Bronsema received a royal honor. Mayor Nadine Stemerdink presented the award in recognition of his contributions to renewable energy and climate control. Mr. Bronsema was named a Knight in the Order of Orange-Nassau.
Mayor Stemerdink and Mr. Bronsema (photo: Voorschotense Krant)
During his working life, Mr. Bronsema served as a technical consultant. In 1972, he joined Ketel, a small consulting firm in Delft. After several years, he became a member of the executive board, a position he held until his retirement in 1998.
A few years before his retirement, Mr. Bronsema was asked by the Faculty of Architecture at Delft University of Technology to serve as a part-time practice instructor and mentor graduating students. His close collaboration with architecture and civil engineering students changed his perspective on climate engineering. Challenged and inspired by his students and faculty, he devoted himself increasingly to developing these ideas.
Natural Air Conditioning
A few years after his retirement, Mr. Bronsema began his doctoral research in 2005 on a climate control process that utilizes the sun (fire), soil (earth), and wind, without requiring traditional fossil-fuel-based technologies. In 2013, at the age of 78, he received his Ph.D. from Delft University of Technology for his dissertation titled “Earth, Wind & Fire: Natural Air Conditioning.”
After earning his Ph.D., Mr. Bronsema continued to dedicate himself to the development of the “EWF concept” and sought ways to actually implement the concept in buildings. This resulted in the completion of the Breeze Hotel in Amsterdam in 2019 (now the Four Elements Hotel) and the Langeveld building at Erasmus University Rotterdam in 2022. In both buildings, climate control has been implemented according to the EWF concept.
In 2023, Mr. Bronsema, serving as an unpaid consultant for Halmos Adviseurs, became involved in the development and implementation of the EWF concept for two buildings—one to be newly constructed for Hasselt University in Belgium and one to be renovated for the Ministry of Justice—on behalf of the Central Government Real Estate Agency.
Encouraging New Generations
In 2020, Mr. Bronsema founded the EWF-Lab Foundation with the goal of accelerating innovations in the field of natural climate control in buildings. The foundation promotes technical and scientific research and development in the field of natural climate control in buildings. In addition, the foundation awards a certificate and a cash prize to young talent each year. The establishment of this “Ben Bronsema EWF Prize” encourages new generations of architects, installers, builders, and consultants to adopt a more integrated approach in their studies.
To fund the research into and further development of the EWF concept, Mr. Bronsema secured various grants in collaboration with companies and organizations. In addition, he has received various awards and honors, both in his personal capacity and for the EWF concept he developed. Mr. Bronsema is the author of several scientific and professional articles. As a speaker, he has given presentations at various conferences both in the Netherlands and abroad, and has been interviewed on multiple occasions.