THE RESOURCE ROWS

Introduction

Urbanization is a current trend that brings with it both potentials as well as challenges. As more and more people move away from rural areas and towards big cities, we witness an expansion of urban settlements. New exciting residential areas develop around big cities, but what happens to the vacated homes? When the abandoned homes are not resold, they are often left empty and eventually demolished, resulting in large amounts of material being wasted.

When moving to the city we see a huge potential to bring with us the intact materials that can be reused for the construction of new homes. This means that newly built homes could reduce their CO2 footprints by up to 70% in the construction phase, since the building materials have already had a life in another context.

The Resource Rows will become Denmark’s first residential area built out of materials from abandoned homes!

PRESS

See the feature about The Resource Rows in Danish Broadcasting Corporation’s TV AVISEN on 1 September 2018.

TYPE, SIZE, SITE

Residential

9148 m²

Denmark, Ørestad

CUSTOMER

NREP A/S

Arkitektgruppen A/S

PARTNERS

NREP A/S

Arkitektgruppen A/S

MOE A/S

STATUS, YEAR

Under construction

2015 – 2019

TEAM

Partner in charge: Anders Lendager

Project manager: Anette Orth Laybourn

Employees: Jesper Høiberg, Niklas Nolsøe, Mathias Ruø Rasmussen, Mikkel Damsbo, Gunnar Agerskov Madsen, Anders Bang, Nicholas Ransome, Søren Brauer, Nanna Lee Thusgaard, Iben Nørkjær, Torben Vestergaard, Sunniva Garshol, Signe Balthazar Munk

Context

Ørestad Syd is a new development area in Copenhagen and thus an area with a unique opportunity to define the framework for future life in the city. Here there is no need to choose between urban life or life in close connection with nature. As part of a rapidly growing Copenhagen and neighboring the protected nature area of Kalvebod Fælled, it is possible to get the best of both worlds.

The future of Copenhagen should be a city that takes climate change seriously and makes the best use of all available resources. It should therefore be based on the notion that waste does not exist and that all materials, buildings, cities and people are considered resources that always maintain value. This way of thinking has great potential to generate economic, environmental and social value over time.

Concept

Resource efficiency and optimization form the underlying concept of the project. We have been working to challenge and investigate what a thorough understanding of the concept of resources can bring about in terms of value and quality for new constructions. This work has been based on five different focus areas: materials, energy, water, social and biodiversity.

A significant and innovative concept in the project is thus to reuse brick facades from abandoned homes directly in the new building. By cutting the facades of the abandoned homes and installing them in steel frames, they can be used as facade modules in the new building.

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Materials

Building waste today represents a huge untapped resource, which will be exploited for the construction of The Resource Rows. We will ensure that the valuable building materials move to the cities when people move. By reusing the walls from the abandoned dwellings as new facade elements, you save CO2 and virgin materials, while also getting a new building with history and character from day one.

WHAT IF: We could create homes with history? We could build new dwellings out of waste such as residual wood, crushed concrete and bricks? We could build exclusive sustainable housing at no additional cost? We could minimize the total carbon footprint of the dwellings?

WHY: We reconsider and reuse the untapped resources in “construction waste” to build new homes! We build using sustainable, non toxic and certified materials! The utilization of existing resources has a positive direct impact on the environment!

BRICKS FROM THE HISTORICAL CARLSBERG BREWERIES

Since the 1960s it is no longer possible to recycle individual bricks, because the mortar is stronger than the actual brick. The bricks for The Resource Rows are thus cut out in modules, processed and stacked up to create the new walls in building. This innovative approach makes it possible to recycle bricks and give them many lives instead of just one – which results in a reduced CO2 emission in the construction phase.

Lendager ARC and Lendager UP have in collaboration with Carlsberg Byen cut out brick modules from Carlsberg’s historical breweries in Copenhagen. The rest of the bricks for The Resource Rows come from various old schools and industrial buildings around Denmark.

In The Resource Rows we also use upcycle wood from the construction of Copenhagen Metro. Our team processes the large amount of wood waste, so the wood appears as beautiful and sustainable materials in the project’s facades and interior.

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Energy

We have an ambition to make it easier to live affordable and more resource efficiently in Copenhagen’s new residential buildings. Through the processing of the building envelope alone, it is possible to lower the energy consumption for the operation of the homes.

This means that the residents of The Resource Rows can afford cheaper housing without any additional effort in their daily lives!

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Water

Reusing rainwater for toilet flushing and irrigation is an important part of The Resource Rows’ identity. For non-potable uses, tap water is replaced with rainwater that is collected from solar cells and other unused roof surfaces. Rainwater from roof terraces is collected and stored for irrigation of the landscape. This intensive use of rainwater results in considerable economic savings on utility costs for the residents.

Biodiversity

In The Resource Rows, a greatly enhanced biodiversity is incorporated with ordinary residential buildings. Not only because it improves the quality of life for the residents and enhances the feeling of living in symbiosis with nature, but also because in this way the building gives more back to its surroundings than it takes.

The green areas of this previously uninhabited district are thus reshaped into roof gardens, courtyards, green roofs and vertical gardens that support a varied wildlife, where buildings and nature are not each other’s opposites. Rather, the two come together to create a synergistic space for the benefit of all residents.

The integration of green infrastructure acts as a common thread throughout the settlement and the understanding of natural cycles becomes an integral part of the residents’ daily lives – yielding a return not only in the form of plenty of fresh vegetables, but hopefully also by increasing their environmental awareness.