The Site
The 130,000 square meter project located in the new Orestad quarter south of the Copenhagen old city centre reinforces the identity not only of Copenhagen, but also the Oresund Region as an international centre for commerce. The three 85 m high towers located at the junction of the Oresund Link and the Metro will form an imposing gateway to the Orestad South development.

Dissing+Weitling was chosen in 2006 by SG Nord to develop the master plan for the site as a whole, including the design of the first of the two towers, a four-star hotel with conference facilities. Fleshing out the international ambitions for the area, Foster + Partners of the UK joined the team to help develop the masterplan and design the second tower.

Masterplan
The concept of blending hotel, conference and office facilities into one complex has been used by the World Trade Centres around the globe with great success and was a great inspiration for developing this project.

The site was chosen for its apparent exposed location next to the E20 motorway and with a unique vicinity to the infrastructure of Copenhagen and the Oresund Link to Sweden. The Orestad Metro Station takes you to the centre of Copenhagen, and by train or car Copenhagen Airport is reached within 5 minutes. The adjacent slip roads to the E20 motorway takes you directly over the Oresund Bridge to Sweden or to the western part of Zealand.

The master plan follows the original layout for the Orestad City as the culmination of the area, flanking the towers on the opposite side of the E20 motorway creating the gate to the Oresund Region. The idea is to let the site grow in a symbiotic way into an inter linked small business village sharing and joined by the atrium running straight through the centre of the complex.

Concept
The 72.500 m2 Hotel and Conference Centre designed by Dissing+Weitling consists of a 25 storey high tower, reception and guest facilities on ground floor, a 7 story high conference centre and underground ballroom facilities. The southern building comprises office facilities linked to the main complex at ground and first floors. Underground parking facilities are covered with a landscaped park approach to the four star hotel.

The building volume of the hotel is divided into 3 sections: the core building which sits firmly on the ground and the 2 side sections – "saddlebags". These ‘saddlebags’ are raised 4 storeys from the ground and, carried by V-shaped in-situ concrete columns, floating above the ground floor reception and lounge area.

The lifts for the tower are situated in the centre of the core section and the escape stairs at each end. Two corridors have been placed on each side of the core section, in between the core section and the ‘saddlebags’. By introducing the three-sectioned volume and sliding the ‘saddlebags’, this elongates the tower, breaking down the scale and making the tower an elegant collection of slender volumes.

The hotel rooms are located in the top 20 floors with 18 hotel rooms per level (floor plate of 840 m2). On each floor the daylight welcomes you as soon as you step out of the lift. This is created by the sliding of the ‘saddlebags’. The short distances and floor to ceiling glass at the end of the corridors optimize daylight and make it easy to orientate and read the floor plate.

The restaurant and bar are situated on the ground floor, adjacent to the lobby and reception. The lobby area connects to the conference building to the east and a ballroom for 800 persons is located at lower basement level.

The ground floor level hotel lobby connects with the office building, also designed by Dissing+Weitling ,to the south and to the north with the future 3 storey high atrium designed by Foster + Partners .The future atrium will connect the hotel with the remaining phases of Copenhagen Towers, including the second tower.

Sustainability
Throughout the years Dissing+Weitling has been working with sustainability – from participating in research groups to developing EU-supported holistic energy-saving solutions. To continue the cutting edge sustainable design and set new standards in the field, we have focused on intensifying this development in coorporation with clients, municipalities and manufacturers.

Dissing+Weitling emphasizes a level of detail that gives the product a special quality, by working with sustainability as an integral part of the architectural design and strategy.

When developing the masterplan the towers was orientated east-west to reduce the risk of overheating. Additionally the towers are positioned as far away from each other as possible, to maximize the daylight levels and views.

Early in the design development the underground was tested and it was determined it consists of porous chalk. The porous chalk layer is part of the Carlsberg Fault, which runs straight under the building site and is directly connected to the sea water and not the drinking water for Copenhagen. Investigations were made and it was determined that utilizing the ground water for a heating/cooling system would not have any impact on the geological/ecosystem of the underground. Two 100 m deep holes were drilled into the water reservoir, making it possible to utilize the ground water. During the summer the underground water is used to cool the water for the fan coil units.

Additionally the ground water cooling system was upgraded with a ground water heat pump system. The combination of using the ground water and the heat pump system saves 88% of the energy normally used for heating the air. Additional bore holes were drilled, preparing the site for the future use of the ground water as the remaining buildings on the site are completed.

A hotel function being an energy-consuming type of building, reducing the energy used has been in focus from day one. In addition to this the client decided at a late stage in the design development to change the parameters and requested a Low Energy Class 2/EU Green Building Certification – this meant an energy reduction of 50%. It was a challenge to the design team. The building and functions were analysed and the requirements were met by introducing two major energy saving elements: a ground water heat pump system and solar cells.

Due to further cost savings the facades were redesigned at a late stage. This gave us the opportunity to incorporate solar cells as a natural element of the cladding. The south facing facade cladding has incorporated 2000 m2 Mono Crystalline solar panels. This gives an energy production of 172,000 kWh per year, the equivalent of the typical energy consumption of 40 single family-houses.

Additional energy saving measures were taken by installing a central system of individually controlled dampers in the ducts. This makes it possible to shut heating/cooling down locally if a room is not occupied. This even makes it possible to shut down entire floors in low season, and in relation to the specific room, the system can be switched on/off as the guest is checking in/out.

To meet comfort and sound reduction as well as maintaining as large glazed areas as possible in the hotel rooms, these were originally designed with triple glazed units. The 10 m tall glass facades in the lobby were originally designed with double glazed units however these were redesigned to accommodate the triple glazed units to meet the low energy certifications.

Facades
The project consists of several different facade appearances. In general the facades have a core structure of concrete slabs and load bearing walls. The tower appears with a smooth glazed cladding divided in sections expressing each of the hotel rooms in the ‘saddle bags’.

The lower buildings, the conference centre and the office building to the south, are both made of pre-cast concrete sandwich panels. Special attention has been given to the randomised vertical grooves in the black concrete surfaces. The appearance is randomised grooves, however a system was developed in order for the manufacturer to optimize production and re-use the form work. As a contrast to the concrete elements, the window frames protrude discreetly from the facade. Additionally, the glass planes in the window frames are further recessed creating a variation of planes.

The connecting buildings appear lighter with glazed facades and plenty of roof lights flooding the space with daylight. These glazed facades will in the future be joined by the lightweight atrium roof.

The kitchen and administration building is formed as a glazed box with a core concrete structure. The opaque fritted glazed cladding gives a fine contrast to the dark concrete surfaces.

Interior
The main access point to the hotel is from the west. Arrival is on a slightly raised plateau integrated in the green park placed in the south western corner of the site. The ground floor serves as a unifying level where all parts of the buildings are joined together with large spacious openings. Plenty of daylight floods the ground floor and becomes an ’external’ space inside the complex. The vision is to link up in the full length of the future atrium north of the tower and adjoining office buildings, creating a spacious entrance through the atrium.

When the site is completed with all the adjoining buildings and the atrium running through the site from east to west, the intention is to create an indoor public space, with an outdoor street feeling, accessible for everyone. This public space being penetrated on the upper floors by internal walkways inter-linking the buildings.

Completion
Dissing+Weitling’s hotel tower and conference centre was completed on 2nd November 2009. In addition to the EU Green Building certification, the hotel is a CO2 Neutral building. On 16 November 2009 the four-star Crowne Plaza Hotel opened, with 365 rooms – ready for the UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen in December 2009.