Fields of learning in Denmark
Henning Larsen’s design for The New School in Sundby, Denmark, sits in a field between learning and landscape.
It will be the first school to receive the Nordic Swan Ecolabel, an official sustainability certificate for the region which takes into account energy consumption, indoor climate, chemical exposure and sustainable material use.
‘The New School’ in Sundby Denmark.
Built in the Guldborgsund Municipality in southern Denmark, it will become the area’s largest ever construction project, ensuring, “both a healthy and productive learning environment for all its students.”
The wood-clad exterior appears as though pushed up from the ground, the roof forming a hill and lookout point with spectacular views of the landscape. Its green roof is walkable and publicly-accessible at all times, meeting the ground and merging into the terrain.
Construction has begun and is expected to be finished by the end of next year’s Northern Hemisphere summer.
The C-shape of the two-storey school seamlessly blends into its surroundings, and interior spaces can be changed and reorganised, while also opening to the outside and increasing the students’ proximity to nature.
Attention has been given to spaces outside the traditional school environment. “The children can have learning experiences that contribute to their creative development and are not a usual part of the schedule of primary school,” say Hennning Larsen. “Sundby is a school that can stand as a modern, flexible, and sustainable lighthouse for many years to come.”
The project will be the area’s biggest ever construction site.
Eva Ravnborg, Henning Larsen project director, remarks that, “with New School in Sundby, there is a unifying urban, landscape and social ambition that over time will grow larger than the sum of the individual elements.”
The school is expected to open at the end of summer 2022, with capacity for 100 employees and 580 students up to the age of 16.
The school hopes to be the first to receive the Nordic Swan Ecolabel.