Low-energy design for Energinet.dk

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The new office building of Energinet.dk covers 4,000 m2. The simple architectural design has resulted in a flexible and easily comprehensible building consisting of three elements: meeting facilities on the ground floor, a uniting atrium and workstations on the top floor, which floats above the sloping landscape. The atrium is identity-creating, open and active.

The building has an annual energy consumption of only 47,7 kWh/m2. Incorporating solar panels, ground water cooling and heat pumps in the project would further reduce the annual energy consumption to only 35 kWh/m2.

”We have optimised the energy efficiency of the building by simply focusing on an overall energy reduction”, explains architect Anders Sælan, Henning Larsen Architects. “In this way, the building meets the requirements for low-energy class 1 according to Danish building regulations without the use of a lot of technology. Introducing solar panels to produce energy would further reduce the energy consumption of the building.”

Henning Larsen Architects won the competition over a number of other Danish architecture companies. In the jury’s statement, it says about the winning proposal of Henning Larsen Architects: “The proposal has a functional and beautiful location on the site, it is thoroughly prepared and meets the architectural wishes of the client.”

”Daylight is decisive in terms of how people experience architecture. It is one of the most important tools of architecture but at the same time, we need to control the light and heat of the sun if we want to reduce the energy consumption of a building”, says architect Anders Sælan. “Therefore, it is important to optimise the design in terms of daylight in the design process. A proper balance between daylight and indoor climate is achieved by simulating the light and adjust the design accordingly.”

A significant part of the environmental objective has been to ensure a high degree of flexibility. The open layout of the first floor as well as the light walls and simple, reusable elements will make it easy and problem-free to change the interior layout in the future.

The building process is expected to begin in September and be completed in 2011.

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Low-energi Class 1

The design of the new office building of Energinet.dk has been based on three overall environmental objectives:

Local disposal of rainwater (LAR) resulting in a reduced load on the sewage system and reduced water consumption.
Making use exclusively of materials that ensure a good indoor climate, small environmental impact and a minimum of maintenance.
Low energy consumption and reduction of CO2 emissions.

Henning Larsen Architects has designed a low-energy building solely by means of optimising the design and an geometry - resulting in an office building in the lowest energy class possible. The building has an energy consumption of only 47,7 kWh/m2 a year. Incorporating solar panels, ground water cooling and heat pumps in the project would further reduce the annual energy consumption to only 35 kWh/m2. The building meets the requirements for low-energy class 1 according to Danish building regulations without the use of energy producing technologies.

The design is based on the integrated energy design concept where the building is designed to achieve the lowest energy class possible - and thus the lowest possible maintenance and operation costs. In order to reduce the energy consumption of the building, the design team has focused on:

Shape and orientation: A compact building (large volume compared to surface area) reduces the heat loss and use of materials

Functional positioning: The energy consumption can be reduced significantly by means of a proper positioning of the various functions of the building. Permanent workstations are placed to the north-west and north-east to avoid overheating and blinding.

Daylight optimisation: By testing different daylight scenarios, the use of light and heat from the sun is optimised and the use of artificial lighting is reduced. Tailoring the light to the specific needs further optimises the use of artificial lighting. In the design process, light simulations have been applied to optimise the design and reduce the energy consumption for artificial lighting and cooling.

In the design process, a comfortable inflow of daylight has been ensured by means of the following:

Permanent sunlight protection on the facades to avoid a direct inflow of daylight and overheating.
Indirect inflow of daylight from overhead lights in the atrium.
Direct sunlight from the west in summer in the cafeteria and conference rooms. During the rest of the year, the rooms are in shadow.

The offices feature three-layer low-energy windows and, in some places, north-facing overhead lights. The offices only have direct sun from the west in summer. For the rest of the year, the rooms are in shadow.

The building has a green roof serving several sustainable purposes: It reduces the load on the public sewage system by means of slow percolation and evaporation. In addition, the collected rainwater is used for flushing the toilets and watering the garden, which contributes to reducing the overall energy consumption for cooling.

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Low-energy design for new office building

The new office building of Energinet.dk in Ballerup is a low-energy building. The lowest energy class possible has been achieved exclusively by means of optimising the design and geometry.