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Munksøgård

Roskilde municipality had begun to work on sustainable construction when the housing association Munksøgård in the mid 90s was looking for space to get established in the area. The municipality was sympathetic and helpful towards the alternative solutions that the group wanted, and probably also took advantage of the group’s wish of establishing a decentralized wastewater treatment system and their own energy supply, then the municipality would not have to establish a supply network to this rural area.

The local plan for the Munksøgård area is is the first of its kind on Zealand, which explicitly leaves room for ecological construction – “…ecological resource management and certain elements of urban ecology.” The local plan has the usual requirements for plot ratios, terrain, land use, demands for aesthetics and public access etc. But in addition, it contains various provisions for constructions which are characterized as “quality construction characterized from a resource-and energy-conscious approach”:

Energy: Self-sufficiency in energy with the possibility of exemption from the district heating connection, solar panels as an integral part of the roof structure

Sewage: roofed composting and wastewater treatment systems based on sand filters and waste separation and source separation/dry composting toilets at each property - availability of dispensation from requirements for wastewater discharge to the sewage system

Socially: mixed composition of residents, owners and tenants, cooperative housing, young and old, ensuring social life: room for children's institutions, small businesses, agriculture and farm sales

Nature: fencing of land must be of living material, room for utility gardens, sustainability requirements for forestry and farming, demands for a green wedge and forest planting in a 30-40 meter thick belt

Materials: roofing as tiles or iron plates, apartment boundary constructed by heat-accumulating soil stone walls excavated in the area

Road and play: roads are given the status of playing and living area

The pioneer-like nature of the design of the local plan with disposition of land for buildings with alternative designs can be seen in some provisos where Roskilde municipality has required that Munksøgård presents specific waste, energy and wastewater management plans, which are to be approved by county, municipal and state authorities before facilities can be built and put into use.