Copenhagen: The Latest Architecture and News

Metropolis Magazine has released their 2016 rankings of the world's most "livable" cities. Acknowledging that what makes a city "livable" can often be subjective, the team at Metropolis emphasizes that in creating the list they "focused on the concerns at Metropolis’ core—housing, transportation, sustainability, and culture." The result of this research was last year's top prize-winner Toronto dropping to the number 9 spot and Copenhagen, which last year took the number 4 spot, jumping to the top. Rounding out the top three are Berlin and Helsinki.

Foster + Partners has broken ground on the new headquarters for Ferring Pharmaceuticals A/S in Copenhagen, Denmark. Located on the urban fringe of Copenhagen in Kastrup, the 39,000-square-meter project occupies a waterfront site along the Øresund crossing between Copenhagen and Malmö near the Copenhagen International Airport.

With this location and neighborhood of predominantly low-rise development, the new company offices will feature expansive views towards Malmö and the Swedish coast, where the company was founded.

TREDJE NATUR, AART Architects, and Arup have teamed up for a competition proposal to redesign Kronløbsøen, an island development marking the transition between port and city in Nordhavn, Copenhagen. Composed of 30,000 square meters of housing, six water-rooms, a houseboat colony, harbor bath, and multi-story underwater parking, the project aims to create an island celebrating all aspects of harbor life.

Taking into account the local port’s spirit, scale, material palette, and history, Kronløbsøen is “composed of eight porous monoliths shaped by physical connections, visibility, and microclimate, creating the optimal conditions for housing and urban life.” 

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White Arkitekter’s Copenhagen studio has been selected as winners of a competition to design 115 individual homes as part of a social housing project in Denmark’s Allerød Municipality. Located north of the capital city of Copenhagen, the new neighborhood will be bordered by forest and a lake, inviting the nature in to complement and screen individual buildings. The project, titled “By the Woods,” will attempt to subvert typical preconceptions about social housing through the blurring of public and private space.

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Planning and landscape firm SLA Architects and engineering office Ramboll have won an international competition to redesign Hans Tavsens Park and its surrounding area in the central Copenhagen borough of Nørrebro. The competition tasked architects with envisioning a park and streetscape that would benefit the hydrological, biological and social ecosystems of the neighborhood. The winning proposal, titled The Soul of Nørrebro, tackles the challenge by creating a system of drainage areas and an adaptable park designed to redirect runoff and contain and purify water during flood conditions.

Dorte Mandrup Arkitekter won the competition to design an extension for the headquarters of the Danish Society of Engineers (IDA). ‘‘The Opal’’ will form part of the scenic Copenhagen Harbour, accommodating a conference hall and restaurant. Of all shortlisted designs, the IDA stated that The Opal best-reflected "[their] vision of engineering."

The eye-catching design alludes to the gemstone it is named after, which reflects light to take on multiple colours. This reference is seen both in the structure and form of the new addition to the Copenhagen Harbour.

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A new museum dedicated to rock, pop and youth culture will open today in the Danish city of Roskilde. Designed collaboratively by Dutch-based practice MVRDV and Copenhagen-based COBE Ragnarock, as it is to be known, has been described by its designers as "oozing rock’n’roll attitude, with its golden exterior and velvety red interior." The museum is part of ROCKmagneten, a masterplan for the site of a former concrete factory which COBE and MVRDV won together in 2011. The area has since been designated as a creative and cultural neighborhood and the museum, which is now at the heart of this transformation, is set to be open to the public all year round.

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COBE has been announced as winner of an international competition to masterplan Christiansholm island (also known as Paper Island) in Copenhagen’s inner harbor. COBE's plan calls to replace the artificial island's existing warehouses with new "Copenhagen Halls" that are topped with housing and commercial space, and anchored by "informal, public functions," such as event, gallery and swimming halls. All will be connected by a public promenade the surrounds the island.

“Our vision for the island’s future is to create a place that celebrates the city’s culture and the Copenhagen way of life. It was important for us that Christiansholm also in future will be a first class example of Copenhagen’s generous urban living that can attract tourists and visitors at the same time has a strong local presence,” says Dan Stubbergaard, owner and creative director at COBE.

Thanks largely to its status as a hotbed of contemporary design innovation, the city of Copenhagen has become one of the most desirable places in the world to live. Yet, as has been seen in places like Manhattan, increased desirability can come at a cost to local residents. Due to rapid growth and a successful university system, Copenhagen has fallen upon a shortage of both student housing and land available for traditional development. The only open, affordable land in the city is located within ports – but it is currently zoned to be protected from any permanent construction projects.

Enter Danish company CPH Containers and architect Søren Nielsen, a partner at Danish firm Vandkunsten Architects. By creating a structure of shipping containers, the team has created a student village that acts a temporary complex, able to vacate the land upon short notice with its close proximity to existing transportation infrastructure.

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Following an international open call for 'Intervention Strategies' which connect and correspond to the 2016 Oslo Architecture Triennale’s theme—After Belonging—five proposals have been selected to be developed as part of its core program, to be displayed and discussed throughout the course of the event. The jury have been "pleased and impressed by the wide range of proposals, their creativity, seriousness and sometimes also the humor with which [the submissions] approach issues of real gravity, and by the care and hard work that was evident in almost all of them."