The information was announced at a workshop on building active houses co-organized by the Danish Embassy in Vietnam and the HCMC Energy Conservation Center (ECC) in HCMC last Friday.

The first Danish active house will start construction this month and will be completed in one year. At the workshop, ECC along with Denmark’s Kaersgaard & Andersen A/S Co. and the University of Northern Denmark clinched an agreement to jointly build the house.

Speaking with the Daily at the seminar, Walter Jerry Jackson, director of the technical design program of the University of Northern Denmark, said the 600-square-meter-work will use Danish materials and will produce energy itself by solar panels.

The house will introduce and display energy-saving construction materials of Denmark, Walter said. It will also be where the University of Northern Denmark organizes training courses on architecture and construction of green houses based on Danish technology for Vietnamese students, he noted.

HCMC vice chairman Le Manh Ha said that with the energy consumption accounting for one fifth of the country’s total volumes, the city now is deploying a green energy program.

Under the program, designing green architecture in construction is an important part of the program, Ha said, adding reasonable designs and construction will help save energy consumption of buildings by 15-20%.