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.
For more information please contact:
Copenhagen University:
Principal Jacob Sølling
tel. +45 35322630
mobile +45 28752630
VELUX:
Group Media Manager
Lone Ellersgaard
tel. +34 45164818
mobile +45 40407156
VELFAC:
Marketing Director
Finn Kræfting
tel. +45 70110200
mobile +45 61556682
Managing Director
Jens Winther
tel. +45 70110200
mobile +45 40952122
The Danish University and Property Agency:
Director
Lars Ole Hansen
tel. +45 33951252
Municipality of Copenhagen:
Tine Pind Jørum
mobile +45 27116896
The five building partners
The partners in the building are Copenhagen University, VELUX, VELFAC, the Danish University and Property Agency, and the Municipality of Copenhagen. Below is a brief explanation of why the five partners have joined project Green Light House and the roles they will play.
Copenhagen University
We at Copenhagen University are proud to see the erection of one of the climate-friendly buildings of the future. Sustainability is an important element in our campus planning and Green Light House stands as an innovative example of how we can make further progress. The building will house studies administration, a faculty club, conference rooms and student service. It places great demands on functionality, and the combination of that and the climate-friendly features makes for an exciting project. Green Light House will be completed on 1 March next year, just a few days before the University, together with the IARU alliance (International Alliance of Research Universities), holds an international research congress on climate changes on 10-12 March.
For us at CU, the climate challenge is important. We are contributing with some of the newest research in the area. We are training the specialists of tomorrow and we offer a wide range of climate courses. As one of the largest workplaces in Denmark, with more than 45,000 staff and students, CU has a special obligation to take the lead and ensure sustainable building.
VELUX and VELFAC
The building at Copenhagen University is the first of six that VELFAC and VELUX will erect in Europe. Three of the buildings will be the result of VELFAC-VELUX collaboration, three will be built by VELUX. The intention is for the buildings to represent a genuine proposal for the buildings of tomorrow, combining high energy efficiency with a good indoor climate, good daylight conditions and architectural quality.
VELUX creates better living environments with daylight and fresh air through the roof. Our product programme contains a wide range of roof windows and skylights, along with solutions for flat roofs. In addition, VELUX offers many types of decoration and sun screening, roller shutters, installation products, products for remote control and thermal solar panels for installation in roofs. VELUX, which has manufacturing companies in 10 countries and sales companies in just under 40 countries, is one of the strongest brands in the global building materials sector and its products are sold in most parts of the world. The VELUX Group has around 9,500 employees and is owned by VKR Holding A/S. VKR Holding A/S is a limited company wholly owned by foundations and family. For more details, visit www.velux.com.
VELFAC A/S produces unique window and facade systems for several European markets and employs more than 1,000 motivated employees in six countries. VELFAC turns over more than DKK 1.5 billion, primarily on markets in northern Europe. Our vision is to bring life, light and fresh air to people. We make windows that last a lifetime and therefore place stringent energy and environmental demands at all design and production phases, right through to the finished product. VELFAC products are supplied with an environmental declaration, which means that precise documentation has been produced for the environmental impact of the production, use and disposal of our windows. The environmental declaration can be downloaded from www.VELFAC.dk. The company is part of the VKR Group, of which VELUX A/S is another member. The VKR Group is undergoing continuous growth and currently employs some 15,000 employees in more than 40 countries.
The Danish University and Property Agency
The Danish University and Property Agency comes under the aegis of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation. The Agency was set up to create interesting and attractive educational and research environments by providing the best organisational, legal, physical and financial frameworks. The objective of these frameworks is to enable Denmark to have universities of world class. The Danish University and Property Agency will act as owner during and after the project.
The Municipality of Copenhagen
The Municipality of Copenhagen has a clear objective for the city to be international environmental metropolis. The UN Climate Change Conference in 2009 will give the city a unique opportunity once again to project the image of being one of the environmental beacons of the world – a city at the cutting edge of environmental technology and sustainable urban development.
The City Council has adopted the target of reducing the city’s CO2 emission. This calls for new initiatives by both the Municipality, private building owners, public companies and the University. Projects such as the CO2-neutral building are thus textbook examples and an important lighthouse in our efforts, a lighthouse that will enable Copenhagen to send a clear signal to the rest of the world during the 2009 Conference that we are taking the lead in the struggle to create more sustainable development.
For more information please contact:
Lone Ellersgaard, Communications Manager
VELUX A/S
Ådalsvej 99
2970 Hørsholm
Tlf. +45 45 16 48 18
Fax: +45 45 16 40 02
E-mail: press@velux.com
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(From left)
Lykke Friis: Vice-Chancellor of Copenhagen University,
Lars Ole Hansen: The Danish University and Property Agency,
Ritt Bjerregaard: Mayor of Copenhagen and
Michael Kragh Rasmussen: VELUX Marketing Director signing the contract.
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