A flagship project to modernise heating and ventilation at Copenhagen City Hall will achieve heating energy savings of 80%, demonstrating the contribution historic buildings can make in the transition to net zero.
Dominating the skyline of Denmark’s capital, Copenhagen City Hall is a beautiful, iconic building designed by the architect Martin Nyrop. With its tall, slender clock tower, richly ornamented façade and ornate interior, the 120-year-old building is one of the city’s leading tourist attractions, as well as a popular venue for events and celebrations. Its prime function, however, is as home to the Municipal Council of Copenhagen, providing a modern workplace for over 750 employees.
The City of Copenhagen has set ambitious goals to reduce its CO2 emissions, in keeping with Denmark’s target to achieve reductions of 70% by 2030. However, historic and listed buildings are notoriously high energy consumers due to the limitations imposed by listed building regulations and lack of suitable insulation possibilities. Although its systems have been constantly updated and maintained throughout its lifetime, the Copenhagen City Hall is no exception.
WSP is involved in innovative project to significantly improve the building’s energy efficiency through the installation of a new heat recovery and natural ventilation system. It is the culmination of a project initiated in 2012 by the City of Copenhagen to explore opportunities for reducing heating energy consumption within the context of the protected environment. The new system makes full use of the building’s original infrastructure, including brick ventilation ducts, pipework, chimneys and basement corridors.
As part of the modernisation, Copenhagen City Hall, and the main fire station behind it, the last two buildings in the city to be heated by steam. were switched over to the city’s district heating system,
Through these measures, combined with a state-of-the-art building management system (BMS), it will be possible to achieve 80% in energy savings.
To reduce CO2 emissions in unique, historic buildings, you need to think outside the box.
Niels Boel
Market Director, BMS and Commissioning,
WSP in Denmark
Working in close partnership with the City of Copenhagen’s technical team, architects Barfoed og Rasmussen Arkitekter and Force Technology, the heating and ventilation consultants, WSP provided the design, engineering, project management and supervision of the BMS solution that will control the heating and ventilation throughout the building and optimise its performance.
We have also assisted the clients with a comprehensive renovation of the electrical installations that have been continuously extended throughout the lifetime of the City Hall, to adapt them to current user needs for IT and communications.
These improvements ensure that Copenhagen City Hall continues to function as a modern, efficient workplace where employees can enjoy the benefits of 21st century technology in beautiful and sustainable surroundings. Furthermore, the experience from this project is transferrable to many of the city’s other historic buildings so they, too, can make their contribution to net zero in Denmark.
