#Industry News
This building’s geometric facade transforms to regulate daylight
Henning Larsen Architects' design for the Syddansk Universitet communications and design building in Kolding, Denmark, features a climate-responsive kinetic facade that regulates interior temperatures.
The completed building is the first to meet Danish 2015 building code energy targets, according to the architects, and it gets serious points for aesthetics too.
One of the building’s most important features is the responsive facade made of perforated metal screens-1600 in total-which reference the site and regulate the amount of natural light reaching the interior. The architects rotated the building in order to create an outdoor public space and used a triangular layout in order to take advantage of the adjacent Kolding River. A site-specific art installation by Tobias Rehberger features colored LED lights that charge during the day. The element of color is repeated in the exterior panels.
The 13,700-square-meter building has a ventilation system integrated into the ceiling planes, efficient LED lighting, photovoltaics and solar-heating panels. The central atrium is lit through a large skylight above and is dominated by several stairs and catwalks. Thanks to its sustainable features, the building’s energy demands are reduced by 50 percent compared to similar buildings in Denmark.
