Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects, in collaboration with Friis & Moltke, just won the competition to design the Ny Anstalt correctional facility in Nuuk, Greenland. The 8,000 square meter facility is the first such facility in Greenland, focusing on the contrast between beauty and roughness as a guiding theme for the project. This concept is also present in the choice of materials: concrete, wood and corten steel, which is rooted in a desire to adapt the complex to the landscape. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Openness, light, views, security and flexibility are the leading values behind the design. Our project matches the unique and beautiful surroundings and supports the focus of the Danish Prison and Probation Service on the balance between punishment and rehabilitation. The whole idea behind the project is to add qualities to the complex that will enhance rehabilitation and diminish physical and psychological violence.
The belief that the physical surroundings have an important impact on human behavior and the will to collaborate has motivated the client to initiate a project of high architectural quality. Moreover, the competition aimed at creating a good working environment for the employees.
The winning proposal consists of five residential units with rooms for 76 inmates, in both a ‘closed’ and an ‘open’ section. The project also includes work and leisure facilities as well as spaces for visitors to the inmates. In addition, there is an administration division and various technical and security installations.
Architecturally the facility is composed of accurately shaped blocks, which in their positioning follow the natural contours of the rocky landscape. In our appreciation of the lines and character of the landscape, we create a project which in orientation and scale appears subordinate to its surroundings. We make a place with an identity – a small, well-defined area in a magnificent and vast natural setting.
The design of the residential units offers an experience of the changing daylight and the surroundings. The contrasts of nature – snow, ice, rocks, moss, blue sky, sun, night, day, birds and other animals – are brought into the complex by the way the buildings are arranged in relation to each other. Thus, a panoramic window in the common lounge area carries nature into each residential unit, and the inmates have an unrestricted view towards the landscape from the windows in their cells.
Architects: Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects, in collaboration with Friis & Moltke
Engineer: Rambøll A/S
Landscape Architect: Møller & Grønborg
Full Service Contractor: Rambøll A/S
Client: Danish Ministry of Justice, Danish Prison and Probation Service
Competition Status: 1st prize in restricted competition
Area: 8,387 m2
Year: 2013
