Coal wall
Title and year
Coal wall, 2005
Materials
Concrete, steel, aluminium, fibre-optic lights
Artist
Niels Junggreen Have, b. 1946
Location
The former power plant Enstedværket, Flensborgvej, Aabenraa
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.