LEGO Houses, Copenhagen Housing by BIG, Architecture, Photo, Architect, Danish Home Design

LEGO Houses Copenhagen

New Housing in Denmark: Contemporary Danish Building design by BIG Architects

26 Sep 2008

LEGO Houses

Description in Danish at base of page

LEGO Houses in Copenhagen

During the Marshall years when post war Denmark was being rebuilt, the state chose to favour prefabricated concrete over all other forms of construction. As a result the in-situ cast concrete industry has almost vanished, leaving the entire building industry based on prefabricated modules and concrete elements. Contemporary Denmark has become a country entirely made from LEGO bricks.

When asked to do a dense mixed use development comprising parking, retail, offices and housing into a single super dense development of a rather small but central site, we knew that the program could not fit in a generic perimeter block. We knew that we once again had to step in to the minefield of public tower phobia.

Once again comparing the popular spires to the modern monoliths, we attempted to diagnose the demise of the Copenhagen high-rise. It appeared that until the early 1900s architects had been capable of designing imaginative towers in the honour of the church or the king.

But upon the arrival of functionalism, with all its good intentions for daylight, views, functionality and production technique, our imagination seemed to have been reduced to the repetition of identical rectangular slabs. Could we today harness all the good intentions of functionalism and turn it into a platform of the creative process, rather than its straightjacket.

TITLE: LEGO
PROJECT: RESIDENCES & MIXED USE
CLIENT: HALMTORVET 29 A/S
COLLABORATORS: MOE & BRØDSGAARD
SIZE: 50,000 M2
LOCATION: COPENHAGEN, DK
STATUS: Competition 1st prize, local planning process

LEGO CREDIT LIST
Partner-in-Charge: Bjarke Ingels
Project Leader: Andreas Pedersen
Contributors: Jan Børgstrom, Camilla Hoel Eduardsen, David Vega, Eva Hviid-Nielsen, Tina Lund Højgaard Jensen, Ville Haimala

Danish Text:

LEGO Huse København

LEGO
Programmet i de tidligere Alfred Benzons fabrikslokaler består af 50.000 m2 boliger, butikker, hotel og fitness center samt parkeringspladser. Et projekt i den størrelsesorden rummer muligheden for at udtænke både en masterplan og et arkitektonisk mesterværk. Den oprindelige masterplan byder på sammenhæng, åbenhed og styrke. Sammenhæng er evnen til at skabe en ide, som forener en gruppe af forskellige programmer til et stærkt arkitektonisk koncept.

Åbenhed er evnen til at lade en række forskellige dele interagere frit og uafhængigt af hinanden for at kunne leve op til så mange forskellige ønsker og behov som muligt. Og endelig styrke, der handler om planens evne til at inkorporere pludselige programmatiske ændringer ved afvigelser i demografi, marked eller politik.

Vi foreslår en arkitektur, der ikke kontrolleres af eksakte tal eller sublime kompositioner, så de mindste ændringer ikke resulterer i forringelser i den arkitektoniske helhed. Vores design har derimod et rigt udtryk, som udspringer af hver ingrediens’ individualitet og forskel, og som blot vil blive rigere og smukkere af at interagere med de forskellige input fra kunde, myndigheder og politikere.

LEGO
PROJEKT RESIDENCES & MIXED USE
KLIENT HALMTORVET 29 A/S
SAMARBEJDE: MOE & BRØDSGAARD
STØRRELSE 50,000 M2
HØJDE 99,75 M
STED COPENHAGEN, DK
STATUS: 1st pris, lokalplan process

LEGO PROJEKTGRUPPE
Hovedansvarlig partner: Bjarke Ingels
Projektleder: Andreas Pedersen
Medvirkende: Jan Børgstrom, Camilla Hoel Eduardsen, David Vega, Eva Hviid-Nielsen, Tina Lund Højgaard Jensen, Ville Haimala

VM Houses Copenhagen images / information from BIG 2008

Lego Houses Copenhagen architect : BIG

Location: Copenhagen, Denmark, Northern Europe