A new sustainable Danish town, Vinge, is under construction in a bare field north of Copenhagen. According to politiken.dk, the town will have CO2 neutral geothermal heating, a sharing neighborhood concept (shared gardens, trampolines, barbeques), excellent internet, plenty of bike lanes, good public transport (30 min. to central Copenhagen), and a river delta designed to absorb rainwater and avoid floodings.
Frederikssund Municipality controls the entire green pioneer project, but that does not imply streets with completely identical houses. It is up to future residents to design and construct their individual houses. Only requirement is that all houses must be in two levels.
23 plots are already sold, and a new train station should be ready in 2017. The town project is expected to be finished in 30 years, and by that time, if all goes well, there will be 20,000 residents and 4000 workplaces.
Vinge is likely to be pioneer of green urban development primarily in similar climate regions. In contrast, countries like Saudi Arabia have very different challenges when it comes to building “green”: According to denmark.dk, the Danish Henning Larsen Architects have created a comfortable micro-climate in the capital of the hot desert country. Among their solutions were a dense city structure to provide shade, and light facade materials that maintain humidity and lower the temperature.
For an environmentally concerned Scandinavian like me, living up North, it will be interesting to follow the sustainable Vinge pioneer town project!