Coal wall

Description

Each day thousands of cars drive along the major approach road from the south, passing the old coal-fired power plant that once supplied the town of Aabenraa with energy. Its mountains of coal were hidden behind a dynamic structure designed by the architect Niels Junggreen Have: Coal wall is 500 metres long and 25 metres high, but just 20 cm thick. The free-standing construction follows a lively, meandering course with sharply angled turns and softly curving folds, as if it were made from a piece of stiff paper rather than concrete.

Once darkness falls the wall becomes even more lively: 222 small fibre-optic points of light shine with slowly shifting intensity, like stars pulled down into the structure itself. During the day, sunlight is reflected in 33 sail-shaped aluminium triangles that mimic the sailboats out on the fjord.

In 2005, Coal wall received the Aabenraa Municipality architecture award.