Ørestad, Copenhagen, Denmark

Led by Anders Lendager and his design team at Lendager Architects for NREP/AG Gruppen, Upcycle Studios has been designed with the mission to construct a residential area built by upcycled and local waste materials without compromising on aesthetics, quality or price.

Upcycle Studios is a sustainable Scandinavian townhouse solution located in Ørestad, in the periphery of Copenhagen, Denmark.

This lighthouse project featured the extensive use of upcycled materials, using 904 tonnes of upcycled concrete from the construction of the Copenhagen Metro, surplus woods for floors, and upcycled windows, electricity and energy from solar cells and heat pumps, demonstrating how a circular economy can be established enabling new buildings to be created from “upcycled” materials.

Building waste today represents a huge untapped resource, which will be exploited for the construction of Upcycle Studios.

The architects ensured that the valuable building materials move to the cities when people move.

By reusing the walls from the abandoned dwellings as new facade elements, the client saved CO2 and virgin materials, while also getting a new building with history and character from day one.

Upcycle Studios’ vision was to minimize the total carbon footprint of housing by reusing waste such as residual wood, crushed concrete, and windows from old buildings.

The houses are constructed of upcycled concrete, glass and wood, and are built on market conditions and designed for scalability.

When buildings are renovated, the healthy windows either end up as a landfill or the glass is crushed and melted for new purposes, using a lot of energy.

The team, therefore, decided to use old windows, with wooden and not aluminum frames, which according to the team saved them up to 95% CO2 in the production process.

To meet the modern isolation standards, the huge windows in the building consist of two-layer recycled double-glazing.

Also, the wooden floors, walls and facades are produced from offcuts and surplus wood from the Danish wooden flooring company Dinesen.

The homes have been created with a large degree of flexibility, making them suitable for a diverse group of potential residents and robust in changing markets – and social life conditions.

The interdisciplinary team has succeeded in developing upcycled, aesthetic materials from the early beginning and all the way to commercial implementation and the project has the potential to change the perception of reuse and upcycling in the building industry and among consumers.

In Upcycle Studios 75 percent of the windows come from abandoned buildings in North Jutland, Denmark.

And 1400 tons of upcycle concrete are casted from very durable concrete waste from the construction of Copenhagen Metro.

The wood for floors, walls and facades are produced of offcuts from Dinesen – and the strong collaboration makes it possible to reuse the wood in the building.

The idea, in itself, is not new but Upcycle Studios demonstrates good design, materials innovation and process documentation that is highly praiseworthy and sets a great example for others to follow and join.

Project: Lendager Architects Upcycle Studios
Architects: Lendager Architects
Lendager Design Team: Anders Lendager, Anette Orth Laybourn, Jesper Høiberg, Mathias Ruø
Rasmussen, Nicholas Ransome, Niklas Nolsøe, Iben Nørkjær, Torben Vestergaard, Sunniva
Garshol, and Signe Balthazar Munk
Engineers: MOE A/S
General Contractor: Arkitektgruppen A/S
Client: NREP/AG Gruppen
Photographers: Rasmus Hjortshøj for COAST