Scan Magazine, Issue 81, October 2015

Page 64

2_3_ScanMagazine_Issue_81_Oct-Nov_2015_Scan Magazine 1 15/10/2015 21:36 Page 64

Scan Magazine | Architecture Special | Denmark

Design icon Blokken: the cable station is adapted and designed as an anchorage into the landscape. Builder: Energinet.dk. Cooperation: Rambøll Danmark A/S

Climate, energy and architecture Having an innovative mindset, involving all parties and seeing obstacles as potential. These are among the ingredients in the recipe for success for the Danish architecture firm Møller & Grønborg, where the architects made it their trademark to adapt big technical installations into the landscape. By Nicolai Lisberg | Photos: Møller & Grønborg A/S

For most people, a high-voltage cable station means an ugly, technical landscape installation. For Møller & Grønborg, it is nothing but a big and interesting challenge to tackle. So when they had to design and develop new electrical cable stations in Denmark, they took a different approach to the task. “What we aimed to do was to develop new design icons and make the technical installations understandable for the people

64 | Issue 81 | October 2015

who saw them – to visually reveal how the cables are anchored from the air to the ground,” says Niels Kjølhede, architect and partner at Møller & Grønborg. Another interesting project for the architecture firm was the establishment of a new 400-kilovolt transition station that took up the space equivalent of five football fields. “Such big technical installations are difficult to hide in the landscape and it often causes frustration and anger

from the neighbours affected by it and people in general,” says Kjølhede. “Together with citizens, stakeholders and neighbours, Møller & Grønborg created a landscape project on the surrounding areas. This project hides the installation and is in tune with the landscape, which offers new recreational opportunities for the station’s neighbours. Great value was added to the area for the neighbours and the builders from Energinet.dk alike. So if you take a look at the station today, you will be surprised because what you see is actually a big recreational area.” A similar approach was taken when Møller & Grønborg designed a treatment plant at sØnæs in Viborg. An increasing demand for climate security and a wish on part of


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