SUSTAINABLE HOUSING SOLUTION

SUSTAINABILITY: Involvement in a winning Danish project for Venice Architecture Biennale has raised the profile of Carl Bro as a firm which successfully incorporates sustainability into its solutions.

Carl Bro was consulting engineers on the concept of sustainability when four Danish architect firms in collaboration with four Chinese universities designed solutions for sustainable urban development in China. The solutions, here for a completely new suburb of Shanghai, were presented at the 2006 Venice Architecture Biennale, and won the Golden Lion Award.

“The ability of Danish companies to think sustainability into solutions has substantial export potential. Despite the rise in GNP, Denmark has continued to keep its energy consumption down, which no other country in the world has done,” says Hans- Martin Friis Møller, divisional director for Environment, Water & Energy, at Grontmij – Carl Bro, the consulting engineering company. 

“Denmark has achieved it through the development of wind energy, constant focus on energy efficiency and energy savings. In this context the “Zero Energy House” (a super-insulated dwelling developed in Denmark at the start of the 1970s oil crisis) is a milestone achievement worth putting extra efforts into. In the coming years we should be aiming at having far more Zero Energy Houses in Denmark than the 4% of the housing stock which they represent today,” says the divisional director.

Sustainability
“Many developing countries could also benefit from Denmark’s holistic thinking in the environmental area,” says Friis Møller. “For example the needs of the rapidly growing middle class in India cannot be met by the country’s existing power grid.”

Hans-Martin Friis Møller points to four large-scale housing projects in China, in which Carl Bro has collaborated with Danish architects and Chinese universities, as outstanding examples of how Danish architects have thought in sustainability as a fundamental element. The projects recently won the prestigious Golden Lion Award at the Venice Architecture Biennale. They present sustainable solutions for a number of Chinese cities where economic growth and rising populations are putting heavy pressure on natural resources.

Merger
The consulting engineers Carl Bro has just merged with the Dutch consulting firm Grontmij. The new company Grontmij – Carl Bro is now the fifth largest consulting engineering company in Europe with a total workforce of 7,000 and offices throughout the world.

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