Friis & Moltke has designed a new housing project in Aarhus inspired by a Scandinavian forest. Just as “moss-covered hillocks and majestic towering trunks with crowns filter light and create shimmering patterns on the forest floor,” says the architect, the Løvhusene housing complex adapts to its natural surroundings as circulatory “boardwalks” weave between a “forest” of clustered wooden residences, all centered around a shared community “clearing.”
From the architects: The basic architectural concept of the project comes from the Scandinavian forest; moss-covered hillocks and majestic towering trunks with crowns filter the light and create shimmering patterns on the forest floor. Sharp rocky surfaces intersect the soft hillocks and leaves, while floating boardwalks weave between the tree trunks.
The houses are arranged like a little village in small clusters around a central space - a community. In between, the buildings allow the landscape and paths to seep through the common area, which takes on the character of a clearing in the forest. In order to guarantee views and daylight in the clearing, the lowest-lying houses have been kept at one-story, while the houses highest up on the slope rise to three stories. Together they create shifting building heights and the sloping terrain generates a varied settlement, which breaks down the scale and adapts to nature.
In contrast to the soft shapes of the countryside and the forest, the mossy forest floor is taken over by distinctive concrete plateaus on various levels. In some places the hard surfaces act as terraces, in other places as floors for houses, over which sculptural, floating wooden boxes form the ceilings. Wide windows allow the forest floor tree trunks to come right up to the façade, creating an intense feeling of proximity and atmosphere.
The sharp geometric shape of the floating boxes with vertical wooden cladding and compositionally placed window openings create a dialogue with the vertical tree trunks, the tree crowns and the flickering light. The houses in these boxes have a quasi-pictorial, framed view of the forest’s treetops and the sky.
Competition
LøvhuseneAward
Winning EntryArchitects
Location
Aarhus, DenmarkEngineer
TækkerLandscape Architect
Tredie NaturClient
Tækker, Lasse LillevangArea
7300.0 sqmPhotographs
Friis & MoltkeCompetition
LøvhuseneAward
Winning EntryLocation
Aarhus, DenmarkPhotographs
Friis & MoltkeArea
7300.0 m2
