Realdania is a strategic foundation that initiates and supports built projects that improve the quality of life in Denmark. They are involved in aprox. 54 flagship projects, and now they are starting a mixed use building in Bryghusgrunden, one of the few undeveloped remaining areas of Copenhagen, Denmark with the potential to link the city to the waterfront. And guess who they choose for this project: OMA.
But what´s interesting in this project is the mixed of use. Housing, offices, public spaces and parking are put together with the Danish Architecture Center, with its own exhibition areas, research facilities, an auditorium, conference rooms, a bookstore and a café. It´s architecture meets one of it´s own key subject of study: mixed use.
Video, renders, plans and more info after the break.
As you can see on the above diagram, the building itself will straddle the busy Christians Brygge ring road, creating new urban connections for pedestrians and cyclists between the waterfront and Denmark’s houses of government.
The project is lead by Ellen van Loon, who concluded that “unlike the typical ‘stacked’ sections where individual programs remain autonomous, the program ‘heap’ of the Bryghusgrunden Project has the elements stacked in a seemingly random order. The public program, the urban routes and the DAC reach into the heart of the building and create a broad range of interactions between the different program parts.”
From the press release: OMA’s design integrates the existing playground facility on the site into the project and extends it with new typologies for different age groups distributed over the entire site – facing the city as well as the waterfront. A more secure playground is integrated at the transition point between landscape and building and is directly linked to the educational spaces of the DAC. The landscape at the waterfront is designed for older children.
The building is designed in compliance with the highest standards of the new Danish energy code. The building uses a mixed system of mechanical and natural ventilation, a high performance glass facade and other environmentally sustainable systems, such as sea water cooling. The heat gained in the building will be used to heat the public spaces in winter.
