Architect: Zephyr Architects
Location: Wuhan, Hubei, China
Client: Bio-Lake Commission
Gross Floor Area: 3,540 sqm
Completion: 2010
Design Team: Fu Dong, Zhao Zhonggui, Yang Ching-Chi, Ding Junmei, Yu Tong
Associate Architect: Wuhan Oule
Photographs: Yao Li

As the central piece of architecture for the Guanggu Bio-lake campus, this reception center houses exhibition space, conference rooms and administration offices. The building sits between a main plaza and central lake. In a comparatively small piece of land, the architecture seeks to have a strong symbolic character. In order to increase the overall impact of the architecture, the mass is treated as a sculpture in shape and texture.

This site is surrounded by buildings with varying viewpoints of the main project. The multi-faceted box produces a façade of ever-changing viewpoints. The overall form and proportions of the building correspond to the program arrangement which includes a central atrium, models and media exhibition room, and ramps and stairs connecting different floors. The basic 6-sided volume is created from the merging and extruding of one small and one large square.

The small square extends the height of the ground floor, emphasizing an upward verticality and allowing the volume to float. In addition to the six main faces, creation of the volume also produces a series of angled faces, located on the roof and cantilevered space. The window openings break up the solid shell and connects interior and exterior space.

Textured beige stone is hung at 16° to follow the façade geometry, continuing the divisions and enveloping the entire volume, making the building more compact and strong. The architectural volume is like a powerful floating multi-faceted box, adapting to the surrounding while creating a dialogue with the water.

Architects: Matteo Cainer Architects
Location: Yaoundé, Cameroon
Client: Swiss Confederation, OFCL
Use: Swiss Embassy, Ambassador Residence and Staff quarters

The design of the new Swiss Embassy in Yaoundé, designed by Matteo Cainer Architects, pays tribute to its renewed presence in the Cameroon and a respect for the uniqueness of the site. The resulting proposal is an elegant ensemble that encapsulates the identity and self-image of the Swiss people and their values. The calm external simplicity of the proposal conceals an inner complexity while achieving a sustainable design, which was another key in the process.

The core concepts that guide this proposal are an expression of Swiss traditional know-how, and an understanding of what the Embassy can represent and achieve. The qualities of a Swiss timepiece offer an interesting metaphor for a building with a complex and symbolic role. Not only does the mechanism and synchronized movement resolve the complexity and secure requirements of the Embassy itself, but it can also represent the underlying beauty of a pragmatic and essential artifact.

The three principal components that make up the Embassy complex, the Chancellery, the Ambassador’s residence and the staff quarters, are conceived as separate elements, and as the components of a timepiece each is expressed at its own scale. These principal elements are each informed and enriched by their own language and references. The Ambassador’s residence takes its form from the traditional Cameroon ‘Musgum’ house with living spaces arranged around a central space, in this case a circular court. This arrangement provides visual and physical protection from the outside, retaining privacy for the Ambassador and his family, with a controlled environment within. This carefully structured interior landscape and private garden becomes the conceptual heart of the residence and a tranquil oasis for informal social gatherings.

The spatial and programmatic organization of the project is conceived so that the Embassy’s public entrance and interior space present an ambience of calm and assurance, with a functional arrangement that exudes precision in detail and movement. Public and private functions within the building are set apart from each other, with public services located on the ground floor and private Embassy functions on the floor above. The Ambassador’s office has been strategically placed at the center of the proposal, as its symbolic beating heart.

Digitally controlled external sunshades manufactured in Switzerland respond to and protect the interiors from the intense heat/solar gain and the resulting energy savings to provide cooling. The exposed concrete structure provides the thermal mass to reduce peak-period cooling demands and highly efficient lighting systems and a strongly insulated building skin reduce the overall energy consumption. A low maintenance “sedum” green roof over the Chancellery provides considerable energy savings, while the roof-mounted solar panels generate green electricity to reduce energy requirements for the heating of water. The installation of photovoltaic panels contributes to the Embassy’s annual power requirement. Internal heating and cooling will be effectively achieved by boreholes/earth tubes or crypt cooling, allowing air to circulate through large diameter underground pipes, with internal heat build-up by circulating air and discharging via a stack.

The proposal makes efficient use of the intense rainfall and humidity in this region. The roof over the Residency is suspended over a ventilated void to keep the roof dry. The rainwater collected from the Chancery roof is stored and used for irrigation and grey water purposes. Rainwater collected from the garden is naturally purified and stored as potable water for the entire complex.

The layered and interconnecting spaces are developed from the concept diagrams of the time-piece mechanism. The passing of time is represented by the constantly changing patterns of shadows that are cast across the internal wall and floor surfaces. The interconnecting internal spaces, clad in natural materials, retain the complex fascination that lies within the casing of a timepiece. Constructed according to Swiss “Minergie Standards,” the new Embassy will be an exemplar of efficient and sustainable energy, learning from and integrating the qualities of the Cameroonian and Swisspeople and their cultures.

The Bauhaus school was founded by Walter Gropius in Weimar. In spite of its name, and the fact that its founder was an architect, the Bauhaus did not have an architecture department during the first years of its existence. Nonetheless it was founded with the idea of creating a ‘total’ work of art in which all arts, including architecture would eventually be brought together. The Bauhaus style became one of the most influential currents in Modernist architecture and modern design. The Bauhaus had a profound influence upon subsequent developments in art, architecture, graphic design, interior design, industrial design, and typography.

The school existed in three German cities (Weimar from 1919 to 1925, Dessau from 1925 to 1932 and Berlin from 1932 to 1933), under three different architect-directors: Walter Gropius from 1919 to 1928, Hannes Meyer from 1928 to 1930 and Ludwig Mies van der Rohefrom 1930 until 1933, when the school was closed by its own leadership under pressure from the Nazi regime.

The changes of venue and leadership resulted in a constant shifting of focus, technique, instructors, and politics. For instance: the pottery shop was discontinued when the school moved from Weimar to Dessau, even though it had been an important revenue source; when Mies van der Rohe took over the school in 1930, he transformed it into a private school, and would not allow any supporters of Hannes Meyer to attend it.

milimetdesign updated  13/05/2012

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The project location

The project location

Master plan

Level 01

Level 02

Level 03

Landscap concept

Section

Architects: Ho Thieu Tri architect and Associates
Location: Vung Tau, Viet Nam
Project Year: 2011
Project team: Hồ Thiệu Trị, Micheal Regembal, Phạm Chí Lịnh, Trần Nhật Thu.
Images from: HTT Group

Vung Tau administrative center project is located on an area of 90.500m2 in a whole new planning of city with 4 sides facing the main transportation.

Vung Tau is a dynamic coastal city, the center of political and economic – cultural of Ba Ria Vung Tau province. The development of economic and social here strongly promote the urbanization process. The old administrative center of disjointed and not suited to a modern urban.

Function as designed included 3 main blocks: office block, combined exhibition conference block and associated services block.

Scheme solution for the master plan is oriented with 2-axis through: The main axis connecting the office block with the large square and links to the Sun Lake Park. The sub-axis is the “green axis” connecting 3 main function blocks by sidewalks and trees combined water hidden under the hill designed artificial grass.

Highlights of the project is the whole office block was located on a hill of artificial grass with an open courtyard which hidden beneath are the combined exhibition conference and service blocks has been designed contribute to increase the natural landscape.

The project was developed with the soft shapes blend with the artificial grass hill creating a uniform overall and also evokes the image of a large ship was on the soft sea waves – an very close image to the coastal city people.

Project: MilanoFiori NORD office Building
Location: Assago, Milan Italy
Area: 10000 sq/m

Client: Milanofiori2000 S.r.l. – Gruppo Cabassi
Architect: Park Associati – Filippo Pagliani, Michele Rossi

Design Team:
Marco Siciliano_Project Leader
Laura Cirrincione
Marco Neri
Marco Panzeri
Madoka Tomita
Paolo Uboldi
Fabio Calciati_Rendering

Site Supervision: General Planning, Milan
Engineering: General Planning, Milan

Competition:2007
On Site: 2009
Expected completion: 2010

The analytical approach to the complex system of access routes, pedestrian walkways and roads, the local climatic conditions, as well as a close attention to the building’s integration into the general master plan led to the development of a structure formed by two interconnected wings and adapted to contain light and greenery.

This office building opens up towards the south, in an almost sinuous embrace, so as to provide access to the system of pedestrian routes and green spaces that surround it.

Besides a necessarily flexible planimetric system, the frontage remains the focal point of the scheme. This is in fact conceived as a continuous surface which consists of a technological strip that adapts itself to the different surrounding conditions.

The skin of the building responds to the level of sunlight during different seasons in a constant search for energy efficiency. Due to its ability to filter light and adapt to different situations, the building generates a high-quality working environment both in terms of comfort and lighting.

Architects: BIG
Location: Tampere, Finland
Partners in Charge: Bjarke Ingels, Andreas Klok Pedersen
Project Leader: Søren Martinussen
Team: David Tao, Jesper Victor Henriksson, Lucian Racovitan, Taylor McNally-Anderson
Client: Rakennustomisto Pohjola Oy & YH-Länsi Oy
Size: 65,550 sqm
Images: Courtesy of BIG

The challenge of developing a unique destination as the Ratinanniemi Peninsula is to avoid privatization and domestication of the public space. We propose a project defined by a linear public space that like a red line ties the three distinct urban areas together. It invites public life along a new water front promenade, brings it onto a rooftop hiking path to enjoy the views over Tampere, and into the tribunes of the new improved stadium. The three-dimensional public space injects sports into the city, and urban life into the stadium of Tampere.

The three areas are conceived as different architectural typologies targeting the potentials of each of the sites. The zone north of the Ratina Stadium holds the potential of becoming a new urban skyline of Tampere visible from the city centre. BIG proposes a miniature skyline of point houses built on pillars in the water all varying in height. The houses are programmed with offices, commercial and cultural space on the ground floor supporting the public life along the waterfront, while private residences with rooftop gardens and spectacular views occupy the higher levels.

The second area, on the tip of the peninsula encompasses an urban perimeter block which surrounds a green courtyard and is distorted to follow the natural topography allowing views from all housing units. The building touches the ground in both ends which allows people to access the building roof featuring a publicly accessible hiking track. Small zones along the route invite for a break on the way up, light workout or a chance to enjoy the spectacular views of the city.

At the street of Tampereen Valtatie a new building with retail, offices and culture doubles as an extension to the spectator stands, forming a hybrid building which breaths life into the stadium. The facades are clad in horizontal louvers that filter the sun towards south and become stepped spectator stands on the north side.

A linear public space, the red line, meanders through the three new developments and connects them to the surrounding neighbourhoods. The red line changes shape and function throughout the area – from a boardwalk with harbor baths and saunas along the miniature skyline to a public hiking path reaching the peak of the perimeter block, finally ending as a running track along the stadium building.

Zaha Hadid’s Guangzhou Opera House from Dan Chung on Vimeo.

Guangzhou Opera House © Zaha Hadid Architects from Zaha Hadid Architects on Vimeo.

Photo © Iwan baan

Photo © Huflon and Crow

Photo © Iwan baan

Photo © Virgile Simon Bertrand

Photo © Zaha Hadid Architect

Photo © Virgile Simon Bertrand

Photo © Huflon and Crow

Photo © Iwan baan

Photo © Iwan baan

Photo © Zaha Hadid Architect

Photo © Zaha Hadid Architect

Photo © Zaha Hadid Architect

Photo © Zaha Hadid Architect

Photo © Zaha Hadid Architect

Photo © Zaha Hadid Architect

Architects: Zaha Hadid Architects
Location: Guangzhou, China
Project Director: Woody K.T. Yao, Patrik Schumacher
Project Leader: Simon Yu
Project Team: Jason Guo, Yang Jingwen, Long Jiang, Ta-Kang Hsu, Yi- Ching Liu, Zhi Wang, Christine Chow, Cyril Shing, Filippo Innocenti, Lourdes Sanchez, Hinki Kwong, Junkai Jiang
Local Design Institute: Guangzhou Pearl River Foreign Investment Architectural Designing Institute (Guangzhou, China)
Structural Engineering: SHTK (Shanghai, China); Guangzhou Pearl River Foreign Investment Architectural Designing Institute
Façade Engineering: KGE Engineering (Zhuhai, China)
Building Services: Guangzhou Pearl River Foreign Investment Architectural Designing Institute (Guangzhou, China)
Acoustic Consultants: Marshall Day Acoustics (Melbourne, Australia)
Theater Consultants: ENFI (Beijing, China)
Lighting Consultant: Beijing Light & View (Beijing, China)
Project Management: Guangzhou Municipal Construction Group Co. Ltd. (Guangzhou, China)
Construction Management: Guangzhou Construction Engineering Supervision Co. Ltd. (Guangzhou, China)
Main Contractor: China Construction Third Engineering Bureau Co. Ltd. (Guangdong, China)
Project Area: 70,000 sqm
Project Year: 2003-2010

Like pebbles in a stream smoothed by erosion, the Guangzhou Opera House sits in perfect harmony with its riverside location. The Opera House is at the heart of Guangzhou’s cultural development. Its unique twin-boulder design enhances the city by opening it to the Pearl River, unifying the adjacent cultural buildings with the towers of international finance in Guangzhou’s Zhujiang new town.

The 1,800-seat auditorium of the Opera House houses the very latest acoustic technology, and the smaller 400-seat multifunction hall is designed for performance art, opera and concerts in the round.

The design evolved from the concepts of a natural landscape and the fascinating interplay between architecture and nature; engaging with the principles of erosion, geology and topography. The Guangzhou Opera House design has been particularly influenced by river valleys – and the way in which they are transformed by erosion.

Fold lines in this landscape define territories and zones within the Opera House, cutting dramatic interior and exterior canyons for circulation, lobbies and cafes, and allowing natural light to penetrate deep into the building. Smooth transitions between disparate elements and different levels continue this landscape analogy. Custom moulded glass-fibre reinforced gypsum (GFRC) units have been used for the interior of the auditorium to continue the architectural language of fluidity and seamlessness.

The Guangzhou Opera House has been the catalyst for the development of cultural facilities in the city including new museums, library and archive. The Opera House design is the latest realization of Zaha Hadid Architects’ unique exploration of contextual urban relationships, combining the cultural traditions that have shaped Guangzhou’s history, with the ambition and optimism that will create its future.

Architects: Lea Pelivan + Toma Plejic / STUDIO UP
Location: Ulica dr. Selingera, Koprivnica
Project Team: Lea Pelivan, Toma Plejic, Sasa Relic, Marina Zajec, Katarina Luketina, Danka Tisljar, Ana Dana Beros, Mojca Smode, Marina Smokvina, Ana Boljar, Masa Mujakic, Antun Sevsek (models 1:50, 1:100 Zeljko Golubic, Jerolim Mladinov, Dujam Ivanisevic, Silvija Lakovic), Mateo Bilus, Teodor Cvitanovic, UPI-2M: Berislav Medic, Goran Janjus, Andrej Markovic, ENG-90: Milan Bjedov, Ernest Kevo, Sinisa Radic, INSPEKTING: Milan Carevic
Client: Koprivnica Municipal Authority, Koprivnica-Krizevci County, Tehnika SPV (private partner)
Site Area: 2,4 ha
Constructed area: 11,600 sqm
Project: 2003-2006
Completion: 2007
Cost: 10,958,904.00 €
Program: High school (900 students) and Sports hall (2000 visitors)
Competition: Open
Investment: Public-private partnership
Photographs: Robert Les

‘Koprivnica – Spirit of Mega’; a town with the lowest number of college graduates in Croatia announced the rebellious competition program for 900 scholars and 2000 spectators in 2003.

The site of the high school building and a sports hall, in front of the American-like housing suburb periphery, is located at the end of a series of ambitious town interventions – mega elements. ‘Tabula rasa’; The contact site of these ‘two worlds’ is radically divided into two parts, black and green, full and empty, spiritual and physical, one facing the city and the other facing the residential suburbia.

The new building complex arises between these two extremes. An enigmatic compressed mono-volume of the gymnasium and sports hall complex with intricate spatial relations in contrast to a vast plain landscape, placed centrally on the plot, forms a gymnasium – a common place – a contrasting provocative whole lacking a foreground or background, without hierarchy or authority.

The “common place” concept examines the stability of the hybrid, and enables the most diverse interpretations both in terms of use and interpretation of significance of the building. The selection of an abstract mono-volume, with a transparent membrane is a radical break with the modernist tradition of building schools and sports facilities as three-dimensional interpretations of bureaucratic disposition schemes. In addition to the public-private partnership in construction of the gymnasium and sports hall in Koprivnica, the idea of building two complementary urban facilities in a single building also arose. Hybrid facilities overlap with the public-private partnership concept, where the hybrid complex is leased and managed independently of the newly formed institution. The spatial and visual overlapping of the facilities and the synergy of use constitute the basic operative logic underlying the building.

The structure of the building is reinforced concrete on the ground floor, while the upper floors are realized with dry assembled ‘H’ shaped steel elements. The classrooms floors have thin Slim-deck flooring, made up of trapezoid section lightweight galvanized sheet steel and cast concrete. The roof of the sports hall is made using a specially designed grid work of right-angled elements and joints in steel. Generally, all the materials are available on the standard building market (lightning, anodised aluminium window frames, metal parapet grilles, Profilit industrial opal glass) and there is no finishing when unnecessary, as in case of the floor soffits which are left unfinished. Because of its high cost there is no air conditioning in the gym, so system of shutters above the sports hall and the ducts through the cantilevered classrooms of the top floor ensure a constant flow of cool air during the summer months, while the double polycarbonate skin creates a ‘green house effect’ in winter. The translucent skin, illuminated at night, radiates the even and turns the building into public condenser, an iconic and symbolic place for the youngsters of Koprivnica.

The West Kowloon Terminus functions as an indicator of how relations have improved between Hong Kong and mainland China. The high-speed rail terminus station will connect Hong Kong toBeijing with the largest rail network in our history.  Located centrally in Hong Kong within the city’s urban realm, the 430,000 square meter facility, equipped with fifteen tracks, will be the largest below ground terminus station in the world.

The WKT will function more like an international airport than a rail station as the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region maintains economic and political differences from P.R.C. This means that the facility needs to have both custom and immigration controls for departing and arriving passengers. What is highly unusual in this facility is that the West Kowloon Terminus will have immigration domains for both Hong Kong and China in the same facility, as opposed to how immigration works in a typical international airport, which only serves the host country.

The site’s proximity to the future West Kowloon Cultural District and to Victoria Harbor required a design which was highly influenced by civic demand. Adding to the challenge was the construction of a 400,000 square meters of commercial development on top of the station, which would be auctioned off to a developer at a later date.

As the “gateway” to Hong Kong, it was considered vital to connect the station with the surrounding urban context and make one aware of the city’s character whether arriving or departing. In order to do this, the design efficiently compacted all of the supporting space to allow for a large void down into the departure hall below, with added apertures going down to the track platforms. The outside ground plane bends down to the hall and the roof structure above gestures toward the harbor. The result is a 45 meter high volume which focuses all attention to the south façade with views of the Hong Kong Central skyline, Victoria Peak and beyond.

The terminus station has both regional commuter trains and long-haul high speed trains. The commuter trains go across Hong Kong to Shenzhen, a booming Chinese border city, and further North toGuangzhou, the capital of Canton. Research performed on civil engineering concluded that based on the urban make-up and internal site restrictions, the short haul tracks needed to be placed on the western side of the site, and the long-haul on the eastern side. The locations of these tracks were thus fixed. In addition, research showed that 80% of the station users are short-haul commuters, pressuring the design to reduce travel times for these passengers as much as possible.

The “baseline” scheme had segregated immigration, which seemed to make sense from a territorial point of view. However, this caused great inefficiencies within the planning diagram. The solution was to stack territories so that all immigration facilities for arrivals would be on one floor and all departure facilities on another.  This made the inner workings easier and more efficient. Locating the immigration facilities over the short-haul tracks significantly reduced station travel time for short-haul passengers. Their location being well beneath the density of the future commercial spaces optimizes the openness of the void and the entrance building on the opposite side of the site.

The converging tracks coming into the terminus station becomes a metaphor for Hong Kong’s own converging forces. The project maximizes civic gestures both internally and externally. The station is sculpted out of the energy of these moves and strongly defines the design’s focus toward Victoria Harbor and the Hong Kongskyline. The West Kowloon Cultural District is invited into the site. A large “Civic Square” opens up toward the cultural district and is defined on the other side with its own outdoor performance amphitheatre.

The pedestrian flow into this amphitheatre continues up onto the roof top of the station where there is a highly vegetated sculpture garden, an extension of the green below. The resulting open space is almost five times the area of the already ambitious mandate in the master plan. The green space provides links flowing through the site to a Public Transport Interchange to the North, the Austin MTR Station to the East, the Kowloon Station Development and the Elements shopping mall to the West, as well as internal connections into the WKT itself and its future commercial development on top.

This commercial development aspires to be seamlessly knitted into the overall flow of the project even though the success of the development is not dependent on this integration. The station will be situated in the southeast corner of the site. The Civic Square will be defined by the station entrances and facilities on the east and west sides as well as adjacent paths moving up to the top of the station, into the green “roofscape”.

This commercial development aspires to be seamlessly knitted into the overall flow of the project even though the success of the development is not dependent on this integration. The station will be situated in the southeast corner of the site. The Civic Square will be defined by the station entrances and facilities on the east and west sides as well as adjacent paths moving up to the top of the station, into the green “roofscape”.

The culmination of these ideas is an an observation deck on top of the entrance building’s crest, twenty five meters above the Civic Square and forty five meters above the Departure Hall below. At the top, the perfect view acts as an extension of the journey into Hong Kong – into and beyond the West Kowloon Cultural District; VictoriaHarbor and the concrete jungle of Hong Kong. The station may be visible below as a reminder of where one came from but the future paths of discovery present themselves invitingly beyond…

Project: Nordea
Location: Ørestad North, Copenhagen, Denmark
Client: Nordea Ejendomme
Gross floor area: 40,000 m2 (stage 0ne – with opportunity for additionally 30,000 m2 in a later stage)
Construction period: 2013-2016
Type of assignment: 1st prize in invited competition

Architect: Henning Larsen Architects
Workspace design: Signal Architects
Landscape architect: SLA
Consulting engineer: COWI

Team at Henning Larsen Architects:

Design: Louis Becker (responsible partner), Kostas Poulopoulos (architectural design manager), Søren Øllgaard (architectural design manager), Julian Chen, Brandon Hall, Anders Park (project manager), Blanca Ulzurrun, Ingela Larsson, Marie Hildebrand Frederiksen, Morten Krog and Per Ebbe Hansson

Sustainability concept: Signe Kongebro, Jakob Strømann-Andersen, Erik Folke Holm-Hansson, Philip Johansen and Lise Manfeldt Faurbjerg

Illustrations: Christian Schjøll, Wesam Asali and Hung-Kai Liao

Nordea’s new office building in Ørestad North, Copenhagen, will house 1,800-2,200 employees and be ready for inauguration in 2016. The new building of Nordea will border on the Danish Broadcasting Corporation and the Concert Hall – Koncerthuset.

To the south, the building is characterised by a sophisticated, sloping park landscape and to the north by an open ground floor and tile facades on the lower floors. Nordea’s new building introduces a new medium scale in Ørestad – a street level connecting buildings and landscape.

Stage one covering a total of 40,000 m2 consists of two light, sculptural buildings placed on a base. The architectural concept reflects the functionality of the buildings. Thus, the effective office floors are all placed on top of the base, while the shared, outward functions are placed in the base.

The building is organised as a city – offering quiet, more intimate places as well as squares and streets full of life and activity. The individual departments all offer both a quiet and active section.

This functional layout promotes collaboration, innovation and knowledge sharing across departments and professional fields. The interaction between effective open plan offices and meeting places allows the individual employee to find the optimal working situation.

The building interacts with the city, opens up and invites for activity at different levels. It will be a place in the city that offers activity inside as well as outside. The building provides the employees with the best opportunities to produce results in an inspiring work environment in which sustainable solutions contribute positively to the everyday-life of each employee. At the same time, the new office building will be an architectural and functional landmark in Ørestad North.

Sustainability

The new Nordea office building should achieve the highest score in the international certification system in green building, LEED. LEED evaluates the building as a whole – from programme through effective treatment of water, energy, materials, indoor climate to design process.

Henning Larsen Architects applies a unique, holistic design method, developed by the company itself. Focus is on minimising the energy consumption of the building. This is achieved by reducing the energy consumption, then optimising the technical solutions and finally integrating solutions for energy production in the buildings.

The energy consumption of the new building has continuously been simulated through studies of volumes, materials, room heights, light and shadow, noise, wind and feasibility of indoor and outdoor spaces. Subsequently, the energy consumption has been further reduced by intelligent selection and use of efficient technologies.

With the applied methodology, the building will achieve a LEED Platinum certification, while at the same time offering an energy consumption of 41 kWh/m2/year without use of energy-producing installations. Adding the solar cell system required according to LEED, the total energy consumption will be minimised to 18.8 kWh/m2/year, which is far below the new 2020 energy requirements according to Danish building regulations. This makes Nordea’s new building a sustainable role model.