Green buildings in an infrastructure perspective

Recent years have been marked by a rising number of green residential buildings in the Copenhagen region and throughout Denmark, both in terms of new buildings and those renovated under the Urban Renewal Act. The green buildings have been seen as an important way to achieve sustainable cities and have a central role in various national environmental programmes. A focal point of green buildings has been the ability to reduce flows, that is, minimize consumption and outputs of water, energy and materials by using different technical devices. Flow management in green buildings has mainly been understood in terms of 'closing the circuits of flows locally' and 'creating a circular metabolism', often with an implicit understanding of self-reliance for the building as the ultimate in greenness. This understanding has primarily been demonstrated by a number of self-sustained eco-communities, sited in rural environs, using a vast variety of green technologies for managing flows locally. These ideas have largely been copied by many urban projects for green buildings in Denmark. However, the use of the same green elements in buildings has met with several difficulties.