The Danes are going through a green building frenzy as of late and it doesn’t look like they’ll be slowing down or stopping any time soon. Yet another eco-architecture project is being planned for Denmark’s second largest city, Aarhus.
Århus inner city in 1998, from the South Harbor side (Image source: Wikipedia Commons)
Designed by 3xn and Nord Architects, a new cultural center shall make way for those interested in visual arts, literature and scenography—the practice of making things like theatre sets and costumes. In particular, the Northern Goods Railway center will serve to inspire and provide interaction between artists, businesses and education.
The green specifications of this design will actually involve greens—and lots of them. A number of the buildings will be triangular in structure, containing open and transparent ground floors, roof gardens and terraced houses. You can thank 3xn for bringing nature into the fold, adding a number of green spaces to the structure that was once used for rail freight. The use of natural elements will also allow for: reducing heat gain, eliminating water runoff, better ventilation and lighting systems and reducing overall energy demands.
To go that extra green mile, rather than demolish the railway buildings that are already there and build everything from the ground up, this project will allow them to simply renovate the structures. All they will end up actually adding is one new building—complete with a large scale auditorium—the roof of which will appear as a green carpet, given the amount of flora that will be placed up there.
The project—which is a collaboration between the municipality of Aarhus and the Realdania Foundation—is expected to be completed by 2012.
By Heidi Marshall