Farum, the proposal by WE Architecture for “The Suburbs of the Future” competition initiated by Realdania, envisions a plan that is meant to preserve and enhance the character of Farum as a future suburb, combining the best of suburbia and the best of urbanity. Today, Farum is a fragmented suburb located 20 km from the center of Copenhagen. The competition area is divided by large roads into islands of eclectic architecture composed of buildings mainly from the 70s and the 80s. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Today, suburbia is a typology that has been greatly criticized. We believe that suburbs have great potential in becoming qualified and generous spaces for the inhabitants. The atmosphere of each island in their proposal is intensified by preserving the existing typologies and upgrading the green areas. The area is densified on the premises of the neighborhood, creating the familiar squares and qualified plazas that we know from suburbs, rather than defined streets.
Surrounded by the built islands, the focus site, Bybækgunden , plays the role as a representative model for how to create robust solutions for the suburbs of the future. The building typology is planned after a flexible grid of 40 x 40 meters with mixed functions in up to 6 storeys. This flexible grid allows space for large squares and pockets in the porous building mass. The resulting typology is a harmonic variety of suburban and urban elements.
Architects: WE Architecture Location: Farum, Denmark Team: Marc Jay, Julie Schmidt-Nielsen, Nora Fossum, Kristian Hindsberg, Casper Berntsen, Steffen Ommundsen , Mikkel Friberg, Tom Benjamin Hobbs, Justin Cua, Karen Shiue Collaborators: JWH arkitekter, Preben Skaarup landskabsarkitekter, NIRAS, Gitte Marling Client: Realdania & Furesø Municipality Type: Urban Planning Assignment: Invited competition Size: 96 ha Year: 2012
