Just beyond the Copenhagen city center, Vejlands Quarter is set to be be Denmark's first all-timber neighborhood.
The project transforms a former dumping ground into a model for sustainable living, balancing human priorities with a strong commitment to the natural surroundings. It is a model for collective living with nature at its core, simultaneously crafting a new neighborhood to accommodate the demands of the growing city and increasing local biodiversity.
The neighborhood merges traditional Danish urban and rural typologies to create a hybrid that balances the city and its natural surroundings. Vejlands Quarter (or Vejlands Kvarteret) will develop in phases, growing outward from three distinct "cores" that together frame the neighborhood at large. This diffuse approach will maximize access to nature for residents and will allow the landscape to be organically integrated in the site.
The Vejlands Quarter buildings will be entirely timber construction, with individual structures featuring birdhouses and animal habitats integrated within the building facades. Compared to alternative materials such as steel or concrete, timber captures and stores CO2 during its growth - as a building material, it active removes CO2 from the environment as it is produced. Vejlands Quarter is the latest in a resurgence of timber construction throughout Scandinavia, as the region sets a global example for sustainable contemporary architecture. Additionally, 40% of the site will be dedicated to the landscape, which will first undergo extensive remediation to restore it to its original state.
Once this remediation is complete, vast swaths of greenery will weave in between the three villages to encourage plants and wildlife to inhabit the site.The scheme will be complete with detailing hoped to invite biodiversity, including nests for birds and bats built into the facades of the homes and community gardens to attract butterflies.
Credits:
- Henning Larsen - Partner-in-Charge - Signe Kongebro
- By & Havn - Managing Director - Anne Skovbro
- MOE
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