Sustainable university buildings

Denmark's first CO2 neutral university building, known as the Green Lighthouse, has been inaugurated in October 2009. The vision of the project is to build a house that is entirely CO2 neutral, at the same time reducing the energy needs of the house by 75 per cent. The architectural concept of the house is the sundial, which has given the house its round shape. The house has a floor space of 950 m2 and three storeys.

The project was launched by the Danish Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation in cooperation with the University of Copenhagen, the City of Copenhagen, Velux, and Velfac.

Today buildings consume enormous energy resources and emit large amounts of CO2. But this can and must be changed if we are to have any hope of winning the climate race.

Goal: Energy neutral buildings

Realising this, the Danish Government has set itself an ambitious goal. All government controlled university buildings should be energy neutral. This means that the buildings should be able to function without any supply of energy.

The Green Lighthouse is energy neutral through an innovative energy concept, where energy is drawn from 78 m2 solar cells on the roof and a new heat pump system.

This energy concept is being used in Denmark for the first time and will no doubt be part of the energy supply of the future, which will focus on CO2 neutral buildings.

It is hoped that the Green Lighthouse – and future university buildings – will set a good example of how to use sustainable energy, and that the green construction ideas will spread to many other buildings, thus leading to a sustainable urban space.

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