SDU University of Southern Denmark Campus Kolding

SDU Campus Kolding supports different teaching methods, new ways of teaching and is a flexible and state-of-the-art teaching environment. The project is characterized by its focus on quality in every detail – as regards design, techniques and crafts. It is a sustainable frontrunner within low energy buildings in the educational sector. The design is an example of new thinking and contains a number of innovative solutions, e.g. an intelligent façade and temperature adjusting concrete.
With its triangular shape, Campus Kolding has created a new landmark in Kolding. The building is located in the centre of the city close to the harbour, station and scenic attraction of the river. It forms a close interaction with the other educational institutions of the town, Kolding Design School and International Business College Kolding.
The facade is an integrated part of the building and together, they create a unique and varying expression. Inside in the five floor high atrium, the displaced position of the staircases and access balconies creates a special dynamics where the triangular shape repeats its pattern in a continuous variety of positions up through the different floors. The activities open up towards the town so that the campus plaza and the interior study universe become one interconnected urban space with a green park at the back and a common recreational town plaza at the front.
Each floor is organised with offices and formal group rooms placed in the periphery. These rooms can be opened up to the more vibrant study environment on the balconies just as the sliding doors make it possible to open up the rooms in connection with presentations and meetings. The balconies are based on individual as well as group environments and are furnished by means of low dividing elements enabling students to study individually or in groups at work stations on the study balconies, in the lounge areas or in the enclosed group rooms.
The objective behind the structure of all the floors has been to create cross-fields between professors, researchers and students while at the same time ensuring available areas for quiet contemplation. By giving all users an errand on all floors, the number of cross-fields is maximised. The degree of community is up to each student. Everyone, researchers as well as students, has the opportunity to retire to the periphery or to be social and interact on the study balconies facing the atrium.
The sustainable strategy has been integrated in the architectural design of the building. The geometry ensures the best utilization of every square meter and the skylight in the atrium ensures a fair distribution of daylight to the entire building. The building is fitted with dynamic solar shading, which adjusts to the specific climate conditions and user patterns.
The landscape design builds upon the idea of an urban carpet lying underneath the building. It is shaped as a wide-open surface orientated towards the stream. The entire plaza is choreographed as a conglomerate of urban influxes leading to and from the university. The layout is inspired by the Tuileries – just smaller and more modern in its expression. The sustainable surface materials form part of a raw parterre together with white drawings, grass surfaces, rainwater beds, borders of steel and alder trees.
Gross Floor Area: 13,700 m2
Site Area: 27,000 m2
Architects: Henning Larsen Architects
Landscape Architects: Arkitekt Kristine Jensens Tegnestue