Bitten & Mads Clausen’s Foundation, in partnership with Danfoss, is investing in the building of one of the world's most sustainable housing developments. The house will be called ‘Danfoss House’ and will be ready in 2023. The purpose of the building is to house employees of Danfoss who are posted to Sønderborg to work for short or long assignments.
May 13th is a special day
May 13th was Bitten & Mads Clausen’s wedding anniversary. They were married in 1939. To mark the occasion, the details of the new house, to be called Danfoss House, will be revealed.
Not only will Danfoss House provide both attractive and sustainable housing, it will also be a test and demonstration centre for Danfoss' energy-efficient technology. The plan is for the building to achieve the highest sustainability certification whilst still being a completely normal residential building from top to bottom. By using traditional building materials and existing energy-efficient technology, it will show that it is possible for anyone to build sustainably.
ProjectZero
The Foundation also supports ProjectZero, which is tasked with realising Sønderborg’s vision of reducing the area’s CO2-emission to zero in 2029. The starting point was just below 700,000 tonnes CO2-emission in 2007, corresponding to roughly 9.2 tonnes CO2 per head of population. Danfoss House is a part of that vision.
This will not be the first time that Bitten and Mads Clausen’s Foundation has built sustainably. This has happened with several construction projects in the Towns Harbour. One of these is Alsik, built in partnership with PFA Pension. The hotel was inaugurated in 2019 and its energy consumption has been reduced to less than a quarter of the normal consumption for this type of building. This has partly been achieved with the help of energy-efficient solutions installed by Danfoss.
Peter M. Clausen, Chair of Bitten & Mads Clausen’s Foundation, explains:
Bitten & Mads Clausen’s Foundation has been building energy-efficient homes for several years now and has built numerous gold-certified DGNB buildings. With Danfoss House, we are aiming sky high and going for a platinum certificate. Even though it will be an achievement comparable to landing on the moon, I am sure we will reach our goal and show that we can build sustainably for ordinary families with existing technology and materials that are already accessible to everyone.
Peter Mads Clausen, Chair of Bitten & Mads Clausen’s Foundation
A wealth of exciting technological solutions
Danfoss House will be a short walk from Alsik, on the same waterfront facing the Alssund. It is going to be a four-story building. The goal is that it will gain the DGNB platinum certificate, the highest level of the globally recognized DGNB sustainability certification scheme.
DGNB
Focusing on every aspect of the building, the DGNB scheme is regarded as sustainability certification rather than environmental certification. The DGNB evaluation of a building is a 360-degree analysis looking closely at everything from the planning process, input from users of the building and management of the construction site. Danfoss House has achieved valuable points here. In addition, the building has scored points towards the overall certification as a result of its economic quality and robustness.
At the same time, Danfoss will use the building to develop and test new solutions with the help of the residents. This is in keeping with Danfoss’ core business which focuses on sustainability and energy-efficient solutions. According to The International Energy Agency (IEA), buildings account for more than a third of the world’s total energy consumption and for 40% of all CO2-emissions.
Danfoss House will get, for example, both centralised and decentralised heating systems so that it will be possible to monitor the two systems and find the optimal balance. The house will also get both underfloor heating and cooling from the district heating system and seawater cooling respectively. In addition, the building will be a smart home where all elements talk to each other. The plan is to install Danfoss Leanheat which is software using artificial intelligence to monitor and buy green electricity when this is cheapest. The house will be future-proofed with technology enabling all installations and solutions to be upgraded in the future.
DGNB platinum certification also requires “social quality”, and Danfoss House is built according to an architectural plan which puts people foremost and promotes social interaction and equality. For instance, the design encourages the residents to meet up on the roof terrace which has extensive views across the Sound in Sønderborg.
Kim Fausing, CEO of Danfoss A/S, has high hopes for the new building:
Buildings account for over a third of the world’s energy consumption. We have technology to reduce that amount significantly. We have the opportunity to demonstrate this with Danfoss House which is going to be a fantastic home for our employees on temporary assignments here. At the same time it will be a test and development centre for our energy solutions. We will show proof of the fact that the greenest energy is the one we do not use; and we hope to inspire others to renovate and build more sustainably.
Kim Fausing, CEO, Danfoss
The construction work will begin in October 2021.
