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. 

Isbjerget // Århus // Denmark

Isbjerget (The Iceberg), is a 2008 project that consists of a group of residential structures, and will be built by a former industrial pier in the Danish city of Århus (the second largest city after the capital, Copenhagen). The architects behind this creation are CEBRA (I wrote a post on another of their older projects today also). 

The group of buildings will contain 155 apartments, that range from 66 m2 to 248 m2. The total space is around 25,000 m2. As you probably have noticed by now, the buildings are inspired from icebergs and form minor ice mountains. For further information on this certain project, check out its official website.

Randers Kunstmuseum // Randers // Denmark

This ladies and gentlemen, is my first post on this blog, and certainly not the last. As the first project, I've decided to present you a Danish project by the Danish architects 3XN. This building is an art Museum, and is, as the name implies, situated in the Danish city of Randers, which is situated on the Jutland isle.

As you can see, the museum has a rather unique roof structure, which actually creates two almost separate museum buildings, which are connected by two wave-like roof structures. The facades are built with large curtain-wall systems, so that natural light flows freely in the structure and so the museum's visitors can enjoy as much as possible of the outside view from the interior. 

The surrounding landscape around the site consists of a pleasant natural environment, which the museum strives to integrate itself into. Its integration with its surroundings is achieved, as earlier mentioned, through the two large curtain-wall systems at both openings from the roof system.