In the vicinity of Roskilde, an old city in the Copenhagen region in Denmark, an ecological community initiated a sustainable housing project, which was completed in autumn 2000. The buildings are constructed and inhabited in a manner that fulfils stringent principles of environmental sustainability and organic lifestyle. The construction consists of 100 apartments, five groupings of 20 dwellings each, with additional facilities such as communal houses and land areas for future agricultural purposes. The inhabitants have been consulted during the entire process of design and construction, and the outcome is a trade-off between multiple parameters such as environmental and organic issues, economics, and democratic structure. The social structure of the community with dwellings for elderly, youngsters, and families and communal facilities is a novel way to promote cross-generation integration in Denmark and may serve as inspiration to sustainable housing practices.

The environmental aim of the project is in general to minimise the environmental impact as much as possible by utilisation of renewable energy sources, lessening water consumption, and use of ecological building materials. In regard to energy consumption this means a target of 57 kWh per m².

The inhabitants’ stringent ecological way of thinking has clearly influenced the choice of multiple environmentally friendly technologies. In order to minimise the energy consumption the dwellings are equipped with several low energy measures of which the two most salient ones are the heating system fuelled by biomass and solar energy, and the extensive use of ecological and environmentally friendly building materials. Moreover much effort was put into minimising transmission losses. Glass constructions were integrated in the building facades to utilise passive solar energy, low energy windows were installed, cold bridges were eliminated, and the building envelope was extensively insulated. 
In regard to reduction of water consumption, the project included rainwater harvesting and installation of toilets that separates urine and faeces, which is treated in an on-site treatment plant. The toilets as well as the rainwater collection scheme save significant water amounts, and moreover the wastewater system ensures ecological reuse of nutrients. The wastewater system, however, is not economically sustainable with current water prices. 

• Biomass based district heating
• Ecological building materials

More information at http://www.munkesoegaard.dk/

Building period:	Work started: 1995
	Work finised: 2000
Monitoring period:	2001
Monitoring results:	Parameter	Norms	Predicted	Monitored
	Heat: (kWh/m2)	80 (room heating) 30 (hot water)	68 (room heating) 15 (hot water)	78 (room heating) 18 (hot water)
	Electricity: (kWh/m2)	1.876 kWh/year per apartment 3.899 kWh/year per house 1.512 kWh/year per person	2.000 kWh/year per dwelling 1.000kWh/year per person	1.480 kWh/year per dwelling 121.160 kWh/year in 5 communal houses 1.108 kWh/year per person
	Water: (m3/m2)	50 m3/person	28 m3/person	25 m3/person
Other results  / achievments:	The CO2 consumption was only 1,3 tons/person, where the Danish average is 3,2. The 243 m2 solar DHW heating system provided with 60 MWh. This is expected to increase when the last of the 5 systems is in function. Use of bio mass district heating and paper granulated insulation and partition walls of unburned clay. Heat consumption was covered by fossil fuel with 37 kWh/m2 from and renewable energy with 59 kWh/m2. For heat production 155 l/person was from oil and 774 kg/person from wood pills, equal to 1.287 MWh. This means that 66% of the heating was covered by wood pills, 27% by oil and 7% by solar system. Water saving by help of low flush toilets, water saving equipment and new environment friendly washing machines. Waste is separated in 15 fractions. Local caring of wastewater, where the wastewater is divided into 3 fractions. Reusing of nutrients in human urine. Another good result is that this new way of living has initiated a “car sharing scheme”, where 42 tenants share 3 cars.

Further information:

Contact Person / Local authority	Director of Urban Planning Mr. Jan Bille Municipality of Roskilde Phone: +45 46332180 Fax: +45 46332897 e-mail: janb@roskildekom.dk
Architects	Thure Nielsen og Robow A/S
Builder	Egen Vinding og Datter www.egenvinding.dk MT Højgaard A/S  www.mthojgaard.dk
Technical consultants	Cenergia Energy Consultants  www.cenergia.dk