Aarhus: The Latest Architecture and News

In this animated clip from French film production studio 11h45, penguins have taken over ‘The Iceberg,’ winner of ArchDaily’s 2015 Building of the Year for Best Housing Project. Imagining the building as a literal iceberg, the filmmakers envisioned the designed by SeARCH + CEBRA + JDS + Louis Paillard Architects-designed complex as an antarctic wonderland where penguins could slip, slide and dive down the structure’s sharp rooflines.

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A competition for the expansion of the MCH Messecenter, Denmark’s largest exhibition hall, has been won by the team consisting of CC Contractor with Schønherr, Cubo Arkitekter, and engineering firm Midtconsult. Given the center’s importance within Herning, the competition called for a new approach to the site’s physical organization, to provide more coherent and functional relationships with the surrounding context in order to host larger events in the future and serve as an even bigger tourist attraction.

Within a masterplan created by Schønherr, a new admissions building designed by Cubo Arkitekter will incorporate a distinctive façade with a homogenous character to directs visitors from the new arrival area to the Jyske Bank Boxen arena, exhibition Hall M, and the arcade that extends towards the rest of the MCH Messecenter.

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Competing against a shortlist of internationally acclaimed architects, the team led by newly established practice Vargo Nielsen Palle (in collaboration with ADEPT and Rolvung & Brøndsted Arkitekter) has been selected as the winners of the NEW AARCH competition, which sought designs for several new buildings for the Aarhus School of Architecture and the development of the surrounding area in Aarhus known as Godsbanearealerne.

The restricted competition consisted of three invited practices – BIG, SANAA and Lacaton & Vassal – and the three winners of the earlier open qualifying competition, Vargo Nielsen Palle, Erik Giudice Architects, and ALL (Atelier Lorentzen Langkilde). Vargo Nielsen Palle’s proposal was chosen as the unanimous winner.

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It is often said that architecture only makes projects more expensive; that architects only add a series of arbitrary and capricious complexities that could be avoided to lower costs, suggesting that the project could function exactly the same without them. Is this true in all cases? Although they may be more profitable economically, human beings don't seem to be happy inhabiting cold concrete boxes without receiving sunlight or a breeze every now and then, or in an unsafe neighborhood where there's no possibility to meet your friends and family outdoors. Quality in architecture is a value that sooner or later will deliver something in return.

Balance is key, and a good design will never be complete if it's not economically efficient. How do we achieve this ideal? We reviewed the design process for 'The Iceberg' in Aarhus, Denmark, a project that managed to convince the authorities and investors by proposing a high-impact and tight-budget design, which seeks to respond to the objective of guaranteeing the quality of life of its users and their neighbors.

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A competition for a new social housing complex in Aarhus, Denmark, has been won by WE Architecture, in collaboration with local practice JWH Arkitekter and commissioned by Ringgaarden, a Danish housing organization.

Titled “Saltholmsgade”, the winning proposal is a reinterpretation of Aarhus’ historical housing typologies along Hjortensgade, creating modern and green communal spaces. The complex consists of 38 individual apartments, offering tenants views of the city through the inclusion of rooftop gardens.

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AART Architects have won the competition to transform the Aarhus Municipal Hospital into a new campus for Aarhus University in Denmark.

In an effort to renew and enhance the original qualities of the site—like its red tile façades and consistent compositions of public space—as well as to support academic and urban life of the future, the project will uphold “the site’s historical potential by paving the way for new prospects to create a forward-looking transformation of this unique spot.”

AART Architects has won a competition to design a significant new residential and commercial complex in the heart of Aarhus Ø, the newly developed port district of Aarhus, Denmark. The winning proposal, dubbed the Nicolinehus, focuses on “injecting life and authenticity into the new port district and [paving] the way for the unique opportunities the setting provides.” Its design draws inspiration from the old residential blocks of the city center, rethinking the courtyard block typology into a “hybrid of classic residential block and terraced landscape.”

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With the aim of creating a new civic experience at a central point in the city of Aarhus, Denmark, the 'Next Level' project by Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects expands the interior capacity of the ARoS Art Museum through a 1,200 square meter subterranean gallery and a huge semi-subterranean dome. The €40 million expansion plan was born from a collaboration with renowned American artist James Turrell, generating a unique experience of color and light.

The horizontal underground space will extend 120 meters below the surface, allowing the visitors to pass through a string of galleries and exhibition spaces before arriving at the Dome. "With its 40 meter diameter, the Dome will form one of the most spectacular spaces ever built into an art museum," explain the architects.

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Thanks to the invitation we received from the team at The Architecture Project, we had the opportunity to travel to the city of Aarhus, Denmark, and meet with Kazuyo Sejima during the Aarhus School of Architecture conference in August 2016.

Winner of the 2010 Pritzker Prize and founder of SANAA (Sejima + Nishizawa and Associates), Japanese architect Kazuyo Sejima talks to us about the importance of white in their designs, with the intention of bringing and diffusing natural light to all the spaces. Sejima also describes how their buildings are able to integrate and bring people together through open spaces that connect, in an almost extreme way, the interiors and exteriors.

William McDonough + Partners and GXN together with 3XN Architects, BCVA and Urland have teamed up to develop a master plan for the Agro Food Park (AFP), a hub for agricultural innovation near Aarhus, Denmark. Aiming to serve as a benchmark for future global food industry development, the project will combine urban density with agricultural test fields in a collaboration of academic and commercial business.

Over the next 30 years, the current AFP—which was opened in 2009 and spans 44,000 square meters with nearly 1,000 employees—will expand by an additional 280,000 square meters.

We are privileged to have been chosen by GXN to collaborate on what will become an entrepreneurial ecosystem for addressing the future of food and plant resources, said William McDonough, founder of William McDonough + Partners and co-author of the text, Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things.

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