Note completion: Sustainable Architecture Lecture

SPEAKER: The building I want to discuss today was completed in 2019 in Copenhagen. Its most striking feature is a facade made entirely of recycled aluminium panels, which reflect light differently depending on the angle, giving the building a constantly shifting appearance. The architects deliberately avoided air conditioning by designing a natural ventilation system that uses the building's central atrium as a thermal chimney. Warm air rises through the atrium and exits through adjustable roof vents, drawing cooler air in through ground-level openings. Energy consumption for climate control is approximately forty per cent lower than comparable buildings in the same district. The interior uses cross-laminated timber for all structural floors, which both reduces the building's carbon footprint and creates a warmer acoustic environment. The project won the European Green Building Award in 2021, and the architects have since been commissioned to design a similar structure in Oslo.