The Copenhagen International School (CIS) is currently building a new campus in the Nordhavn district that is already receiving international praise for its design and sustainability. 

 

The architect firm CF Møller has designed an innovative sustainable building that is scheduled for completion in 2017. When it is finished, the school will be not only the centrepiece of Nordhavn but one of the largest building-integrated solar power plants in Denmark. 

 

“The Danish and Nordic architecture tradition is anything but extravagant – simplicity and sound finances have always been the key features,” CF Møller architect Julian Weyer told The Local.

 

“Sustainability also is a key value in Danish society, meaning not just energy consumption, but more relevantly a focus on safe and practical urban solutions, transport forms, and overall general common sense,” he said.

 

The school will also allow students to monitor energy production data. Photo: C.F. Møller.

 

The international school's new 25,000 square metre campus is expected to serve 1,200 students and 280 employees and will feature multiple green spaces and facilities. Sustainability is at the heart of the project.

 

The facade of the school building will be covered in 12,000 solar panels that will supply more than half of the school’s annual electricity consumption. The solar cells on the panels will cover a total area of 6,048 square metres and will produce around 300 MWh each year, roughly the equivalent of powering 70 single-family homes. 

 

The building's solar power will also be incorporated into the learning curriculum, with students offered a class in solar studies and the ability to monitor the campus's energy production for use in maths and physics courses. 

 

The main school building will be divided in four smaller towers, adapted to meet the needs of children at different stages of development. 

 

“Ideally, a good school is working like a small community or even city in itself, teaching students how to partake in the public life and democracy,” Weyer said.

 

See also: Danish classrooms built for empathy

 

The school is designed to give an open ambience and to link the school premises with its surrounding urban environment, but most of all to be eco-friendly. The school's design has already caught the eye of both design watchers and environmental experts. Good Magazine dubbed it “a marvel of solar science”. 

 

“We know that today's learning environments must be varied and diverse to accommodate all on the same level, and these efforts to improve spaces for teaching and concentration require that schools are suited for different, democratic and personalized learning styles”, said Weyer.

 

CIS Nordhavn will be Copenhagen's largest school.  Photo: C.F Møller

 

The school, which currently has around 850 students from more than 70 countries, isn't just significant for its design, however. The CIS expansion will make it the city's largest school and will help fulfil a need that both the Danish business community and local expats have long wanted: better schooling options for Copenhagen's foreign professionals.

 

The city's mayor, Frank Jensen, has been a strong supporter of the project. 

 

“Copenhagen International School will undoubtedly help to attract highly educated foreign experts and business leaders to Copenhagen, because we can now offer a strong international community with a clear, sustainable profile in and around Copenhagen International School,” he said at a June event to unveil the new design.  

 

Construction on new campus is well underway and is expected to be completed in 2017. CIS has set up a livecam of the construction, which can be viewed here. 

 

Students will even be offered a course in solar studies. Image: CF Møller