Copenhagen,
03
March
2008
|
00:00
Europe/Copenhagen

Copenhagen University to Get Sustainable Building


Vice-Chancellor Lykke Friis today kicked off the project for a new sustainable building on the Tagensvej campus of Copenhagen University - Green Light House.

The building will show the way forward for CO2 reductions in future building, promise the five responsible partners. The building will be finished in March 2009.

Project Green Light House sets high climate ambitions for itself. In the course of a year, an empty parking lot at the Copenhagen University campus on Tagensvej will be transformed into a building that will attract international attention and set new standards for sustainable building. This was the challenge issued by the university's Vice-Chancellor Lykke Friis when the building plans were made public on Monday.

"With Green Light House we are showing the way forward in CO2 reduction. But that doesn't mean we will have to live without windows or huddle together in the kitchen, as many of us remember doing during the energy crisis in the 70ies. In one year from now, a building will stand here that sets new standards for sustainable building, without compromising on design, architecture or well-being," says Lykke Friis

Daylight and fresh air
VELUX and VELFAC are active partners in the project. The two companies wish to show that the climate-friendly building of the future can combine low energy consumption with daylight and fresh air.

"Our ambition with Green Light House is to demonstrate how it is possible to honour building principles with standard building components in order to show a sustainable way forward for buildings of the future. Nowadays we demand daylight, fresh air, a view and interaction with our surroundings," relates VELUX Marketing Director Michael K. Rasmussen.

VELUX and VELFAC are contributing to the project partly with the skills and experience they have acquired from several low-energy projects and demo buildings around the world.

Municipal support
Mayor of Copenhagen Ritt Bjerregaard handed over a green baton to VELUX as a symbolic challenge for the company to take Copenhagen University's climate efforts an important step further.

She also made use of the opportunity to underline that collaboration projects such as Green Light House are an important element in making the City's climate objectives a reality.

"We have set the ambitious goal of reducing CO2 emissions by 20 percent in the Municipality by 2015. And we will only achieve that goal if companies and institutions take an active role," states Ritt Bjerregaard.