Home.Earth and Scandi Byg construct apartment buildings with a planetary and social bottom line
Earlier this year, the property company Home.Earth and the module manufacturer Scandi Byg could unveil their new collaboration on the construction of 158 homes in the vicinity of Hedehusene. Now the contract has been signed, the production of the 200 or so modules will soon begin, and Home.Earth is ready to reveal their economic model for the construction, which is based on a planetary and social bottom line that also offers profit sharing with the residents.
In Hedehusene, the new district Nærheden is rising at a rapid pace, and on the last building sites there will be 158 homes by next year, which will set new limits for circularity, social sustainability and CO2 footprint. This is the announcement from Kasper Guldager, co-founder of the property company Home.Earth, which is behind the construction.
– We are set in the world to make homes with a planetary and social bottom line, which means that we work towards housing developments that not only meet current legal requirements for climate footprint, but must be below the actual limits that our planet can bear , so that we do not deplete the earth’s resources. The proximity is a step on the way in that direction, and we hope that the project can become an exemplary building for the entire industry, says Kasper Guldager and continues:
– Etagebyggeriet Nærheden will have a climate footprint of less than six CO2 equivalents per square meter per year – i.e. less than half the limit for climate footprint in the building regulations. We can achieve this because of our early and close collaboration with Scandi Byg, which is based on transparent models for the environment and economy. The collaboration also means that we are the first to operate with full transparency on all materials in the construction that are exposed inside to ensure a healthy indoor climate.
Dealing with the rental market
In addition to ensuring more climate-friendly housing and a transparent construction process, Home.Earth is also ready to go the extra mile to meet their own strict requirements for the social bottom line. Therefore, the property company has developed a new model for rental housing that will create social sustainability in a challenged rental market.
– If we look at the market for rental housing in areas such as Copenhagen, rental prices have grown so strongly since the financial crisis that many people today find it difficult to find a foothold in the market. We are now introducing a third way, which is neither the classic owner-occupied home nor rented accommodation, in order to contribute to a more inclusive and spacious housing market. The residents of Nærheden will, among other things, share in a financial profit sharing, because it is necessary to look at all sustainable bottom lines in the housing construction of the future and not just the resource-saving measures, explains Kasper Guldager.
At Scandi Byg, we are happy to be part of the forward-looking housing development, because at the module manufacturer, over many years, we have built up the necessary skills needed to meet Home.Earth’s ambitious requirements for the climate footprint.
– We have many years of experience with residential buildings with high requirements for CO2 footprint and indoor climate. And here our wooden modular buildings are particularly well suited. We are happy to be involved in the project in Nærheden, where the client has taken the next step in terms of climate footprint and social sustainability. And it is the first time that we are building a six-storey residential building that manages to have such a low climate footprint, says Torben Bloch Nielsen, managing director at Scandi Byg and continues:
– Without a close collaboration with Home.Earth, it could not be done at all, because a construction of this caliber requires an enormous amount of trust and transparency. We have put all our skills into play to achieve a low climate account through optimized processes and the right building materials. And then we have designed the homes together with the client so that they live up to Home.Earth’s visions without compromising on buildability, concludes Torben Bloch Nielsen.
Nærheden is planned to be completed in late summer 2024 as the end of the new district Nærheden in Hedehusene.