Life Campus
Visionary research and learning centre for children and young people.
LIFE Campus in Lyngby, Denmark, aims to en-courage children’s and young people’s interest in science. And with a 360-degree auditorium, an adventure trail, and scientific artwork, it’s definitely a place to be inspired by. A high-tech universe with evolving environments, where everything’s thought out down to the smallest detail, with design and architecture signed off by Vilhelm Lauritzen Arkitekter.
Visitors arriving at LIFE Campus are greeted by an impressive sight: Ninety-six wooden columns from 150-year-old oak trees symbolising the transition between the dynamism of nature and the dynamism of a building. The wooden pil-lars are carefully placed in a way that has been inspired by Fibonacci’s mathematical patterns and DNA strands. The life of the natural sciences truly pulses through every area of the campus, inside and out. “The building was founded in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), and manifests this interplay between nature and science with the surrounding landscape of beautiful old hunting grounds,” explains Andreas Hultfeldt at Akustikmiljö AB. An adventure trail leads visitors from the building out into nature. Along the trail, you can enjoy science-inspired art-work by world-renowned artist Jeppe Hein. To the south, the path leads to the learning gardens of LIFE Arboretum and LIFE Orchard. Inside, there’s a hive of educational activities in both the teaching labs and research labs. Here, students tackle current so-cietal challenges that, among other things, support the UN’s sus-tainable development goals. In the heart of the campus there’s a 360-degree auditorium with a state-of-the-art audiovisual installation. This is a place where it’s easy to lose one’s sense of both time and space, where you’re taken on a journey from the core of the earth to the fringes of the galaxy.
And in an auditorium, the acoustics are a top priority, of course. Here, Vilhelm Lauritzen Arkitekter chose to enlist the help of Akustikmiljö both for the auditorium and other environ-ments, largely because of the core material in Akustikmiljö’s unique EcoSUND and EcoSUND RAW sound absorbers. The polyester fibres are certified in accordance with Oeko-Tex Standard 100, are completely recyclable, contain no binders, and cannot get mouldy thanks to their structure. Such quali-ties harmonise with LIFE Campus, research, and health. “We supplied a complete acoustic solution for all the labora-tories, open stairwells, and the auditorium. In the 360-degree space, we’ve integrated EcoSUND in white behind perforated white sheet-metal cassettes on the walls, and black EcoSUND on the ceiling. It’s an incredibly fun by also very important task for a fantastic campus,” says Andreas Hultfeldt at Akus-tikmiljö AB. Sound absorbers from Akustikmiljö also adorn the ceilings and walls of all the centre’s labs, and are integrated into the walls at the lightwells around staircases and other open areas. Here, however, the sound absorbers have a light-grey textile covering, which becomes a natural and harmonious part of LIFE Campus’s stripped-down Nordic design.