Join Us in a Look Back at 2024: A Year of Bold Ideas and Collective Progress 

Launching “Beyond the Roadmap” – A Blueprint for Transformative Change 
This year, we proudly launched Beyond the Roadmap at Building Green, the Nordic’s largest event on sustainability in the construction industry, which adopted the very same title as its overarching theme, inspired by the Reduction Roadmap movement and the insights of the new report. The talks at the conference culminated in an electrifying keynote by Johan Rockström, co-creator of the planetary boundaries framework and Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. 

Beyond the Roadmap goes beyond a collection of ideas—it’s a guide for systemic change. Building on our 2023 publication, Doughnut for Urban Development: A Manual, this new report challenges “carbon tunnel vision” and calls for systemic solutions that do more than mitigate harm. Instead, we advocate for creating positive, regenerative impacts within the Earth’s safe and just boundaries. 

By sharing actionable insights, the report aims to empower nations, cities, and industries to redefine their approaches to sustainability. We look forward to your feedback, which is essential as we continue refining this work. 

Reduction Roadmap Launched as an Association 
Also at Building Green, the Reduction Roadmap took a major step forward, launching as an association to empower the construction industry as a change agent. Operating as a non-profit NGO, the association is now welcoming individual and corporate members to help drive this transition. 

Living Places Copenhagen: Marking the Next Chapter 
After two years of welcoming visitors in Jernbanebyen as a prototype demonstrating how a small project can capture global attention and drive change, Living Places Copenhagen has now been disassembled – a process that has been carefully documented to share insights. The prototype will be reassembled in spring 2025 at a soon-to-be-revealed location. 

Recognized by the Financial Times, BBC, TV Avisen, P1, Wallpaper*, Dezeen and a host of others, Living Places has garnered nine awards. Over its lifespan, the project has hosted 177 events and 318 guided tours. Now scaling globally, the first international prototype has launched in the Netherlands, and SOS Children’s Villages will soon bring Children’s Living Places to Ukraine. 

Project Openings and New Partnerships 
2024 saw the completion of UMEUS, a student housing project in Copenhagen offering 543 thoughtfully designed apartments. Dubbed the “accordion houses” by Politiken’s architectural critic Karsten Ifversen, the rhythmic façade’s panoramic bay windows bring light and vitality to the compact living spaces. Critics have praised the project as a modern classic among the architectural gems on Åboulevard. 

The year also brought the unveiling of Better Energy Charge, a new fast charging station for EVs (electric vehicles) in Sønderborg, Denmark, transforming the conventional petrol station into a park. 

We entered into a new partnership with CREE Buildings to launch Biome, combining CREE Buildings' proven modular timber-hybrid building system with EFFEKT’s bespoke design solutions. The modular and standardized yet highly customizable nature of our housing product challenges the notion of cookie-cutter solutions. Biome housing can adapt to diverse demographics and locations, fostering a sense of belonging and individuality. Two Biome projects are already underway, and we look forward to unveiling them next year. 

We also secured Copenhagen Municipality’s climate adaptation and public space framework for the next two years. Our holistic approach to urbanism, architecture, landscape and research places nature in the driver’s seat, ensuring that water is seen as a resource rather than a threat and that climate resilience is seen as an opportunity to enhance the magnificence of public spaces. 

New Project Launches and Milestones 
This year, we announced that we are partnering with Frederiksberg Kommune and Artelia Denmark to develop the Urban LCA tool, aligning urban development with planetary boundaries. This innovative tool measures CO2 emissions, on-site biofactor, off-site biodiversity, and land use at the masterplan level and is currently being tested on the Frederiksberg Hospital transformation. The Urban LCA tool is an important means to help decision-making in early planning phases, mapping and illustrating potential strategies to reduce climate impact and improve biodiversity, a key focus we have for future urban planning assignments such as Refshaleøen structure and masterplan and Haraldsgadekvarteret.  
 
Among the competition wins this year was Sømærket, a new access point to Nature Park Lillebælt, a protected coastal landscape through which the Little Belt strait flows. This new educational and experiential platform highlights the natural life and history of the Little Belt while connecting the cities of Middelfart, Kolding, and Fredericia. A small project with a big impact, the project is already under construction and will open to the public next summer.  

Our landscape design for IPZ in Zurich will support cutting-edge research in aerospace, robotics, and advanced technologies. Blending history with innovation, the design integrates nature and human-scale spaces to inspire collaboration. IPZ is one of three ongoing projects in Switzerland, together with our work with CERN studying the feasibility of a Future Circular Collider (FCC) and our continued work on the Kartoni development which was approved by the Glarus municipality in May. 

We have projects on site as close as Frederiksberg to Brussels, Luxembourg, and even Japan (more on that next year!), and in the coming months we look forward to the completion of two new housing projects rooted in community and new building delivery systems with Sjællandsk Muld and home.earth Nærheden.  

Awards, Exhibitions, and Publications 
2024 was a record-breaking year for awards, with wins across diverse projects, including our treetop walkway in Hamaren Activity Park, Living Places Copenhagen, SIMAC, Sjællandsk Muld and Reduction Roadmap. Highlights included the Danish Design Award, ICONIC Awards, MIPIM Awards and the Scandinavian Design Awards. 

Our work was showcased in exhibitions such as DAC’s The Water is Coming and Gasometer Oberhausen’s Planet Ocean, which featured Regen Villages for its innovative integration of aquaponics. Meanwhile, Living Places Copenhagen was included in the UIA Guidebook for the 2030 Agenda as the sole Danish example of sustainable architecture aligned with the UN’s SDGs. 

The publication of Living Places: Principles and Insights for a New Way of Thinking Buildings encapsulated the knowledge and solutions behind the project, inspiring the building industry to rethink housing for the benefit of people and the planet.  

Thank you! 
From awards and exhibitions to partnerships and launches of projects and publications, 2024 was a testament to what’s possible through collaboration. Here’s to a new year of bold ideas and shared purpose. 

Season’s greetings from all of us at EFFEKT