Sunburst Village

VIA University Collage

Project idea

The development of Sunburst Village is located in the town of Arden, northern Denmark.

There, a group of people interested in sustainable co-living bought a plot and decided to approach the Aalborg University and their students in order to generate ideas for the project.

The development of Sunburst Village is going to establish a lively community for a wide array of dwellers. There are going to be established 3 clusters which can be built in phases. Total of 120 people is planned to reside there and take care of the land.

Project description

Units in each cluster are arranged in radial composition in order to maintain a strong and cohesive architectural expression. At the same time, the diversity of individual units is accentuated by differences in form and materiality. Besides housing units, there are greenhouses incorporated in each cluster so as to prolong the seasons for the occupants and soften the transition between the public and private. Common houses serve primarily to allow gatherings of the dwellers and reinforce the community.

All the dwellings have reasonable size, dwellers have enough space to live comfortably without using an excessive amount of floor area.

The areas in between and around the clusters are filled with greenery and water features. The forest garden along the southern and western boundary provides both pleasant microclimate and plenty of edible fruits and nuts. The vegetable patch on the plateau in the northeast provides healthy produce in the vicinity of the dwellings.

Sunburst Village provides a wonderful framework to live in harmony with nature and neighbours.

Technical information

WATER SENSITIVE URBAN DESIGN
2 different types of water sensitive urban design features are incorporated in the design, soakaway tank in the southern cluster and dry basin in the northern part of the site.

ROOFS
The roofs are optimized in order to allow sunlight into the courtyard and at the same time provide good angle for the placement of the photovoltaic panels, which cover circa 300 m2 per cluster. Geothermal heat pump for each cluster helps to reduce the amount of panels needed, as well as lower the peak loads on the energy network.

MATERIALS
The development is built from responsibly sourced materials and majority of the construction is from renewable sources including, but not limited to, CLT, wood fibre insulation, and wooden cladding. Other materials, such as zinc roofing are completely recyclable and some, such as perlite have negligible impact on the environment compared to its high energy alternatives.

CLT
Cross-laminated timber panels form the skeleton of the building. Despite being a relatively new material in Danish construction industry, CLT is gaining more and more support among professionals, and examples from abroad show the great potential of the product.
CLT panels consist of several layers of timber planks, bound together by glue. Each layer is set at 90 degrees from the previous layer. This gives CLT structural firmness in both directions.

Even though the initial cost is higher than concrete panels, the shorter construction period and ease of installation offsets this disadvantage. Studies have shown that overall, CLT is cost competitive and total cost is comparable to other construction principles. Another advantage of CLT is the precision of work and prefabrication. It is not uncommon to erect multistorey CLT buildings in a timeframe as short as a week.

On top of that, it is also the most sustainable principle for the core structure, by far outperforming both concrete and steel. The energy used for manufacturing of timber products is on average only one tenth of the energy used to produce concrete or steel.

CLT is used as a finish for walls and ceilings, since it has positive impact on the well-being of the inhabitants. Walls of CLT offer rich and authentic expression, great acoustics, and air tightness to create a unique sense of home, built to last.

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