Nordhavn // Copenhagen // Denmark

Now this project isn't merely any architectural project. It is the planning of an entire city. This city planning competition was won by the Danish architects COBE and Sleth (two separate architectural firms) in association with the Danish engineering firm, Rambøll. You may recall my article on Hamburg's EcoCity in Germany, but this project is on a much, much larger scale. As a matter of fact, this is literally the planning of an entire city, and the most impressive about this project, is that despite its enormous scale (40 hectares!), Copenhagen's Nordhavn will be an extremely sustainable EcoCity (thanks to careful planning, the city is expected to be able to completely cover all of its electrical and heating consumption when complete!). As a matter of fact, this is the largest city development project ever witnessed in Scandinavian history! The construction of the city is expected to take about 40-50 years. 

Now if you look at the above map, the size of the artificial-island plot of Nordhavn (located in the northern area of the map - it's easy to spot) is about the same as the entire city center area of Copenhagen (located in the middle of the map and characterized by the artificial lakes and the clear fortress system). In other words, the plot of the Nordhavn city is nothing less than enormous!

 

So how do you cover all of the city's power demand? Well the city has been planned in such a way, that every possible green technology is applied wherever possible, to harvest as much energy as possible. Technologies such as wind generators, thermal plants, strongly isolated structures, saltwater cooling systems, etc. Furthermore, to underline the city's sustainability, all cars and other motorized personal vehicles are forbidden to enter the Nordhavn area, and the city area itself consists of bicycle lanes and one longer road, which is built for public transportation and for other vehicles which need necessary access to the eco-city area.