Illustration: Entasis

CARLSBERG – SKY-HIGH AMBITIONS

The Carlsberg Brewery production plant in Valby was closed down in 2008 in order to re-emerge as a new sustainable city district with 3,000 housing units plus industry and commerce. The conversion of the historical buildings on the old industrial site will follow a plan developed by the firm of architects Entasis.

Entasis has its premises in Sankt Peder Stræde in inner Copenhagen – a neighbourhood containing a mixture of residential, industrial and commercial buildings, densely built-up, with lots of people on the move and streets where bicycles, scooters, skaters and eco-friendly delivery boys share the space among them in a perfect combination of harmony and chaos. This is the kind of urban environment Entasis aims for on the Carlsberg site, i.e. an urban environment and an atmosphere which, together with a dense city structure and attractive urban spaces combined with public transport, sustainable solutions for new building as well as for the restoration of the existing ones, all add up to create a sustainable city district.

Density and sustainable energy solutions

The project for the new Carlsberg city district points back to the classic urban space and away from modernist suburban building with its wide views, light, air and straight streets. In addition to a dynamic city life dense urban structure makes for minimal strain on the environment.

The aim is a comparatively low and dense city that reduces and optimises material use in construction, and a design philosophy where the buildings become individual energy systems in themselves. A number of technical solutions are to help achieve this, as for instance efficient insulation, low-energy window glass, heat recirculation and the implementation of renewable energy solutions such as solar heat, solar cells and the exploitation of wind energy.

The district plan moreover lists a series of key points to help complete the picture of a city district with a rational energy strategy:

•That new buildings are constructed as low-energy buildings Class 1

•That systems for the harvesting of rainwater from roofs are installed and used for recreational water purposes.

•That roof surfaces, as far as possible, are constructed as green roofs and/or with a gradient suitable for mounting solar cell systems.

•That suitable free spaces are laid with water-permeable surfaces for rainwater to seep down locally.

•That suitable facades on new building are constructed with the mounting of solar cells in mind.

•That mainly natural and/or recyclable materials are chosen for the facades.

More traffic

The transformation of the Carlsberg area from industry to a dense mixed urban area means that traffic will change. It will most likely increase within the boundaries of the district and on the roads that connect Carlsberg and the rest of the city. Motorised traffic, to and from Carlsberg, is expected to amount to something like 17,000 trips per 24 hours. The cars will not dominate the townscape, however, as practically all the 4,500 parking places are to be located underground.

The number of cyclists and travellers using public transport will also increase strongly. To encourage the use of public transport neighbouring Enghave Station is to be modernised and moved to Carlsberg, and there will be a new bicycle route connecting Valby with Vesterbro via Carlsberg.

Carlsberg and carbon

The long-term aim is for Carlsberg to become carbon neutral and also an ideal example of sustainability in a partly built-up area – in which there are thirteen listed buildings. As a matter of fact, it is exactly the existing building stock that may cause problems in regard to the ambitious carbon plans. Lars Holten, managing director of Carlsberg Ejendomme (Carlsberg Properties), has made the following comment, “We honestly don’t know how to carry out the ambitions for carbon neutrality”.

Exactly those grand, old buildings are one of the big challenges for the Carlsberg project. New buildings can be made eco-friendly right from the start, but what does one do with a more than one hundred-year-old yeast storage barn.

Quality elements in the new district

The assessment committee which in 2007 commissioned the architects’ firm Entasis to develop Carlsberg of the future made the following statement about the winning entry, “ The project does not propose a historical city or the making of Carlsberg into a museum. It is a robust proposal for a modern city with an emphasis on the need for ongoing development.”

The winning entry from Entasis rests on five principles or columns: Heritage, The City Spaces, The Axes, The Towers and Urban Mass.

At present the existing buildings stand isolated by their historical beauty. These buildings must be linked to new building and together generate narrow passages and urban spaces. The existing buildings tell an important story and will in the future form urban spaces for activities open to the public. Even the many Carlsberg cellars will be assigned to public use in the future.

The Carlsberg area is intersected by a number of axes that will deal with the traffic flow in the area. All axes begin and end in an open space, each with an identity of its own.

Finally Carlsberg has a series of towers and prominent landmarks that in the course of time have acquired general recognition. The huge silos, the sheer size of the Elephant’s Gate and Carl’s residence at the bottom of Pile Allé are all examples of this.

Great ambitions

Nine tower buildings of various heights will in the future be attached to the main spaces in the city district. The towers will reach a height of 80 metres with a ground plan of max. 350 square metres. The tower buildings will be multi-functional and contain mixed residential and business premises, hotels and small commercial enterprises.

Urban mass is created mainly by town houses in the traditional manner of the Copenhagen and Frederiksberg block structures. Height will be adapted to adjacent areas and the scale of the buildings will from two storeys be enlarged to one of six or seven.

Read more

In the winning entry from Entasis you may read more about the five columns and the ideas behind the new city district.