GPP Architects were recently awarded 1st prize for the Syd Energi (SE) Headquarter competition. The project is located on a remarkable site in the southwest part of Denmark – where the countryside meets the city, next to the biggest Danish land art monument – “The hill of light”. This new building for the employees at the energy company will, beside from being a great work environment, also be ground-breaking in terms of architecture and sustainability.
A simple and timeless design with a slanted cut on the top floor offers a dynamic, round building, that reflects SE´s company profile and the grandness of the western Danish landscape. A big, green atrium in the center of the building provides light and airiness for all workspaces in the building.
Visitors and employees are met and greeted by a large reception and showroom area, from where you via the atrium can get an overview of the entire building. An amazing sculpture of stairs and bridges in the atrium leads visitors and employees through the building. The first three floors are a mixture of departments with a combination of single and multiple workspaces in an open office environment together with modern meeting and relaxing areas. At the top floor you will find a panoramic cantina, lounge and meeting area. The icing on the cake is the 1000 m2 roof garden, shielded from the wind by the top aluminum-ring and glass. There is also a 360 degree panoramic walk around the top floor that gives and amazing view of the surrounding city, farmland, airport and the Atlantic ocean.
Sustainability From the very start of the design process, architects and engineers have collaborated on everything from the overall building design to the details of the windows, ceilings and ventilation shafts giving a sublime integration of sustainable solutions in the design of the building. The energy efficient solutions have been carefully selected. The building has for example an 1800 m2 solar panel roof and 10 kilometers of underground tubes for cooling and heating the termoactive concrete slabs. Heating from the huge basement server room will be used for heating the rest of the building.
When completed – SE´s headquarters will be Denmark’s largest office building that fulfills the passive house plus standard – producing more energy than it consumes. The building will be one of the five largest passive house plus office buildings in Europe, putting SE and GPP Architects at the forefront of sustainable building design.
Architect: GPP Architects Location: Esbjerg, Denmark Partners-in-Charge: Hans-Jørn Borgen Paulsen and Carsten Gjørtz Architects: Niels Haugård, Tina Lind and Erik Nord Nielsen Sub-consultants: Thing & Wainø Landscape, Vibeke Grupe Larsen Developer: Hoffmann Engineers: Esbensen, Sloth-Møller and Alectia Client: Syd Energi (South Energy) Size: 13500 sqm Year of competition: 2011 Project Year: 2013 Renderings: Courtesy of GPP Architects
