This neighbourhood, which spans about 3km, is a hotspot for prime examples of green design and construction. Its renovation, which began in 2009, is scheduled to create housing for some 40,000 residents and workspace for just as many by 2050.

It’s a project that incorporates all the latest technologies in terms of sustainable development and environmental preservation.

Through their design, each building has a role to play in reducing the district’s overall carbon footprint. In addition to solar energy, other technologies are favoured, such as the recovery and use of rainwater or seawater for air-conditioning systems.

This district is also built on the concept of the “five-minute city”, requiring all services and institutions to be quickly accessible to residents. The idea is to make the neighbourhood into a “city within the city”, with its own stores, restaurants, theatres and park, all built with recycled materials.

The transportation infrastructure is exclusively electric. Among the latest works is the arrival of a new subway line that connects the neighbourhood to downtown Copenhagen.

Perhaps not surprisingly, Nordhavn is crossed by more bicycle paths and footpaths than any other neighbourhood in the city.

One of the objectives of this major project will also be to be able to collect real-time information on wind and solar energy, how this is consumed and its overall cost, in order to better manage these renewable energies in Nordhavn and elsewhere in the city.

However, such infrastructure comes at a price, and Nordhavn is now the most expensive district in the city at over US$9,000 per sq m on average. In the long term it could even become a tourist attraction, especially since the neighbourhood is now a pioneering model in its field, not only in Europe but worldwide.