The Urban MediaSpace project with the Multimedia House, as well as the popular, new harbour area puts Aarhus on the map as a lively city on the water with a diverse cultural life and inspiring learning environment.

The Multimedia House will be for the enjoyment of all city residents and visitors and is being built with a low-energy class 1 rating using Northern Europe’s largest solar panel system. A total of 3,300 m2 of solar panels are being installed on the roof to upgrade the building to energy class 1. Airtight construction and electrical savings are also contributing factors to achieving the best energy rating.

This ambitious building will house the future Central Library and public offices with the associated administrative facilities for a total of 18,000 m2, as well as approximately 10,000 m2 of rental space. Denmark’s largest automated car park with a capacity for approximately 1,000 cars, will be built underneath the building.

The project also includes new, inspiring and attractive areas along the harbour and the reestablishment of the river mouth with a beautiful staircase design, shaped like sheets of ice. Due to climate changes, the water in the harbour is expected to rise, and the project therefore provides the opportunity to protect the inner city from floods using a sluice at the mouth of the river and altering the terrain at certain points of the harbour.

The Urban Mediaspace project has a total budget of approximately DKK 1.8 billion and is expected to be completed at the end of 2014. The parking spaces and roads will be completed at the end of 2015.

ALECTIA is the consulting engineer on the project; the chief consultant and architect is Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects and the landscape architect is Kristine Jensens Tegnestue. Aarhus Municipality is the developer and Realdania and Realia A/S are financing partners.

One of Europe’s largest automated car parks
The Multimedia House will include Denmark’s most innovative car park – the first automated car park in Aarhus. It will house approximately 1,000 cars, and is therefore one of Europe’s largest automated car parks.

Cars are dropped off in a bright and friendly envi-ronment, where they are transported safely and automatically to a location underground. An automated car park makes better use of the space, as the height of each storey is only half that of a traditional under-ground car park. It also protects cars better against wind and weather, and since there is no access to the parked cars, vandalism and theft is avoided.

ALECTIA has consider-able experience providing consultancy on traditional, semi-automated and fully automated car parks. For example, ALECTIA is currently working with the City of Copenhagen on delivering three fully automated car parks.