Reducing the overall environmental Impact

The urgency for healthy, sustainable and resilient buildings is rising. With the building industry accounting for up to 40% of global energy consumption and CO2 emissions - the time for action is now. “We actually have all the knowledge and technology needed to get close to achieve our climate goals with relatively simple solutions. Right now, we are working on Living Places to lower CO2 emissions without compromising on architecture, indoor climate, daylight or fresh air,” says engineer Steffen Maagaard, Technical Director of Energy Design and Indoor Climate at MOE Engineers. As a pioneer target in VELUX sustainability strategy, the Living Places concept was ideated and developed by VELUX, MOE Engineers and EFFEKT Architects in partnership; rethinking how we build today and challenging the building industry to create responsible and regenerative solutions that benefit both people and planet. With an experimental mindset, VELUX, MOE Engineers and EFFEKT Architects have carefully considered each material, design and building technique for Living Places and mapped their projection for emissions against the typical Danish reference house. Throughout the process, evaluations of the total environmental impact of the building through Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) have been conducted.

 

Starting from the ground up – each building component has also been optimized for the best constellation of price, indoor climate and carbon footprint with a special focus given to the envelope of the building where significant CO2 savings can be achieved.

 

 

 

“Knowing the environmental impact of buildings including their impact on the whole lifecycle from design and manufacturing to use, maintenance and demolition is vital to optimizing the way we build,”

said Tina Højgaard, Architect MAA at EFFEKT.

 

 

 

After calculating the scenarios, the partnership has created the concept Living Places, which can be built as a single-family home, emitting only 3.85 kg CO2 eq/m2/year with third party verification from AAU BUILD - Department of the Built Environment. A result which is over 3 times lower than the new Danish building legislation demands for 2023; a maximum of 12 kg CO2 /m2/per year.

 

 

 

“We are very pleased to have the LCA result of 3.85 kg CO2 eq/m2/year verified by AAU BUILD – The Department of the Built Environment at Aalborg University in Denmark. Living Places is elaborated in in an experimental spirit; at VELUX, we believe that one experiment is better than 1000 expert assumptions. Living places is a proof of our concept. You should not just say that buildings must be sustainable - you should show how, and lead the way in partnerships,”

said Lone Feifer, architect and Director of Sustainable Buildings at the VELUX Group.

 

 

 

The first prototype and full-scale manifestation of Living Spaces is built in in Copenhagen, Denmark for 2023 as the city takes on the title of the World Capital of Architecture. The exhibition will contain seven prototypes – five open pavilions and two completed homes, fully functional. Each prototype will have its own specific program, curated with partners to show the synergy between how we live in homes, in communities, and the role of buildings therein.

 

 

Visit Living Places Copenhagen

Living Places Copenhagen will be open to visitors in the spring 2023.

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