Novonesis Innovation Campus wins the international Architizer A+ Award 2024 in the category ‘Factories and Warehouses’. The new Innovation Campus is located in Hørsholm and designed by Vilhelm Lauritzen Architects together with 1:1 Landskab. With an approach to creating more and using less, the new Innovation Campus stands as an example of how to promote transformation by rethinking the existing.

Architizer, with 400 million annual visitors, is one of the world's largest architecture magazines. Each year they select the world's best architectural projects across more than 100 categories. After an international jury selects five finalists in each category, architecture enthusiasts from around the world can vote for their favourites. Now the votes have been tallied and Novonesis Innovation Campus wins the ‘Popular Choice’ award in the ‘Factories and Warehouses’ category.

Build less, recycle more

Novonesis Innovation Campus is located in Hørsholm and is designed by Vilhelm Lauritzen Architects with landscape architects 1:1 Landskab. The project is a 15,000 square metre extension, carefully placed between four existing buildings from the 1980s, creating a 38,000 square metre campus for innovation, knowledge sharing, and customer support. The campus is designed for Novonesis, the former Chr. Hansen, a global biotech company in the food, dairy, and agricultural industries.

The design process for the new Innovation Campus has been to build less and reuse more. The focus has been on creating a new campus of high architectural quality, but with fewer square metres of new construction and less waste of resources and waste from demolition.

‘As architects, we need to think creatively when we encounter existing buildings. The new campus can hopefully inspire future projects and show how to extend the life of existing buildings. We are therefore extremely proud of this recognition from Architizer,’ says Anne Møller Sørensen, partner at Vilhelm Lauritzen Arkitekter.

Architecture that brings the landscape all the way in

The project is about making connections. Connections between the forest and the company, both internally for employees and visitors from all over the world. Nature is drawn all the way into the campus, with views of nature wherever you stand in the new campus. By reusing the trees from the site as firewood piles and insect nests, the small atriums create a biodiverse planting.

Inspired by the material palette of the existing buildings, elements such as clear tectonics and simple wayfinding have been incorporated. The facade is clad in light grey limestone, while the interior walls are cast in untreated concrete with exposed glulam beams and acoustic oak cladding. The floors are covered in Norwegian quartzite, lit by skylights and large windows. The incorporation of green spaces acts as a deliberate architectural feature that promotes a harmonious connection between the building and its natural surroundings.

‘Throughout the expansion, we had a strong focus on creating a robust building, with a high degree of flexibility and in simple materials that patinate beautifully over time and have a high level of detail,’ says Anne Møller Sørensen.

The new buildings include laboratories, offices, a customer support centre, auditorium, meeting rooms, canteen and production kitchen. At the heart of the campus is the mini dairy, where customers can experience the development of new products. Two new 3-storey main buildings contain laboratories closely connected to the open office spaces.  

Read more about the project here Novonesis Innovation Campus