Nordic Solutions - Stateside
Nordic solutions for sustainable buildings were a hit at GreenBuild 2010, the most important arena for the green building sector in North America.
The Plantagon vertical urban greenhouse concept. (Render: Plantagon)
The public-private Nordic Solutions Pavilion showcased Nordic concepts and market-ready solutions to the 30,000 architects, developers, contractors, engineers, and manufacturers participating in Greenbuild 2010 in Chicago this November.
From Urban Greenhouses..
Among the concepts presented at the pavilion was Plantagon, a Swedish-American organisation looking to establish a striking vertical urban greenhouse. The spiralling design would produce crops in an urban environment, greatly reducing energy use in transportation, land use in agriculture and foster a greater connection between modern urban lifestyles and food production. The greenhouse was developed with help from Swedish sustainable engineering and design consultancy Sweco, who also took part in the Nordic Solutions Pavilion.
…To Space Optimisation
Finnish firm Optimaze.net works with office layouts, and was one of the solutions presented at the pavilion. Optimising the office space used per employee is one of the simplest ways to reduce the energy consumption of a building. According to Optimaze.net, average space usage in the United States is twice that in the United Kingdom – indicating the substantial potential for energy savings.
Office space optimisation – a low hanging fruit for energy efficiency.
Nordic Urban Planning
Throughout the three-day conference and expo, a range of presentations and events were held at the pavilion. Green urban development was one of the themes that drew immense interest, much more so than anticipated - at a presentation of Swedish urban planning methods the audience filled up the surrounding hallways, hauling chairs from the neighbouring café in order to participate.
“Many US cities and regions are developing sustainability programs, and they are very interested in the Nordic models and tangible solutions” Pelle Bournonville, the project leader of the pavilion explains: “Some participants at GreenBuild are focused on urban development, some on building materials and others on sustainable energy, so it is a very diverse audience. And of course the challenges vary depending on whether you are working with sustainable development in the Arizona desert or in the mountains of Montana. But at the Nordic Pavilion we had 18 companies and organisations working with a wide range of technologies and so we were able to accommodate requests from most of our visitors”.
Visitors mingle between presentations at the Nordic Solutions Pavilion (Photo: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Denmark)
The pavilion was organised by the US representations of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, and supported by the Nordic Council of Ministers. The participating organisations and their solutions are presented in the official catalogue for the Nordic Solutions Pavilion.
