VM Houses / PLOT = BIG + JDS

May 2008

Uploaded by Nico Saieh — Filed under: Housing ,Selected , Balcony, BIG, Denmark, Glass, JDS, PLOT, Steel

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Architects: BIG + JDS = PLOT
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
Collaborators: Plot, JDS, MOE & Brodsgaard
Client: Hopfner A/S, Dansk Olie Kompagni A/S
Contractor: Hopfner A/S
Program: 230 Apartments
Construction period: 2004 – 2005
Total Area: 25000 sqm
Photography: BIG & JDS

If people are different then why are all apartments alike?

The VM Houses are two residential blocks formed as the letters V and M. The blocks are formed as such to allow for daylight, privacy and views. The vis-à-vis with the neighbour is eliminated by pushing the slab in its centre, ensuring diagonal views to the vast and open, surrounding fields. All apartments have a double-height space to the north and wide panoramic views to the south. The logic of the diagonal slab utilized in the V house is broken down in smaller portions for the M house. In this project, the typology of the Unite d’ Habitation of Le Corbusier is reinterpreted and improved; the central corridors are short and receive light from both ends, like bullet holes penetrating the building. The VM Houses offer more than 80 different apartment types that are programmatically flexible and open to the individual needs of contemporary life – a mosaic of different life forms.

: plan 01

: plan 02

: plan 03

: plan 04

: M scheme 01

: M scheme 02

: V scheme 01

: V scheme 02

: plan diagram

: plan diagram 01

: plan diagram 02

: plan diagram 03

: plan diagram 04

Cite:
Saieh , Nico . "VM Houses / PLOT = BIG + JDS" 19 May 2008. ArchDaily. Accessed 04 Feb 2012. <http://www.archdaily.com/970>

Comments (26)
Tweets (11)
Links to this entry (8)

keyhole says:

Oh my God!!!
What’s this?

# August 20, 2008 at 03:27

Juan Gomez-Velez says:

Brilliant!!This is truly an extraordinary building,conceptually, formally and tectonically. The many options in apartment typology make this something worth studying closely.

# August 27, 2008 at 22:12

kasam says:

durian House or prickle House

# October 17, 2008 at 01:39

Keith says:

is that a balcony??
weird,,

# November 4, 2008 at 14:41

Mohammad Ataullah says:

Balcony gives dramatic effect.

# January 6, 2009 at 22:01

martynas says:

I think it’s too aggressive…

# January 18, 2009 at 09:10

Amelie says:

just bad … wrong conceptual architecture for just effect…

# January 18, 2009 at 12:45

Abdul says:

Jesus, it looks like 100 canoes got stuck while flying through the air.

# March 26, 2009 at 20:21

dustin says:

It seems to me all the floorplans are the same… am I missing something?

# March 26, 2009 at 23:40

No they r all at different places on plans if u look carefully & on views!

# December 18, 2010 at 10:32

Em says:

While the project itself may look interesting, the building in its actual location (and in particular the much-hyped V building facade) is quite disappointing, as it is packed between other buildings.

# April 8, 2009 at 04:08

juna says:

man. makes me uncomfortable watching..

# May 5, 2009 at 19:21

Bo Lucky says:

This is just normal, average, ordinary, typical block apartment building made “strange” to draw attention. Why not… if there is extra money to spend? But is this right way to make people’s life better? I don’t think so… I like Abdul’s comment above :)

# May 12, 2009 at 15:19

CMO ARCH says:

BO what kind of architecture DO you like? It seems most of your comments are so depressing…

# May 12, 2009 at 15:41

I think that this is a great and simple way to provide different units within one building. the unit layouts offer so many different options with unique spaces inside. I an imagine going to my neighbor’s apartment and not feeling like I am in a copy of my own, it’s fun and gives people a sense of individuality!

# May 12, 2009 at 15:44

fab says:

“The blocks are formed as such to allow for daylight, privacy and views. The vis-à-vis with the neighbor is eliminated by pushing the slab in its center, ensuring diagonal views to the vast and open, surrounding fields. ” I hope this is really true for each unit, its a little difficult to see, too much attention spent on those triangles… Because too achieve the important things there are many ways, and the article does not help so much in clarifying if it is really accomplished, but you can start irrelevant discussions about triangle shaped balconies… After a year living there you don’t will care about that, but if you really got the “daylight, privacy and views” Damn photographers showing only the visual stuff, if they really care so much about those balconies, at least show how to live on them, and maybe the view from the balcony clarifying if there is really a good care about neighbors privacy and so on… Triangles or not, or if the corridor has that color, or even is there a nice girl in the apartment, who cares… at least they show that there are many different types and some interesting double heights… but again a strange thing: you can see more on the pictures token from outside, considering that one of the aims is privacy.

# May 24, 2009 at 19:57

Joshua says:

@ Dustin

Look where at the diagrams labeled ‘M scheme 1′ and ‘V scheme 1′. You’ll find a matrix of the various units.

# June 4, 2009 at 11:58

s says:

If I lived there, I would be aggressive everyday,everytime.
The thing is although they want to makt the apartment different from the others, there is nothing different except the offensive balcony.

# June 27, 2009 at 04:28

looks like scattered broken-glass

# June 27, 2009 at 04:29

socoll says:

so cool

# October 23, 2009 at 02:16

fercha says:

i think the basic idea breaking the appartments in puzzle like pieces to form unit, its awesome, but sadly the fachade its horrible. its agressive, gives an unpleasent feeling

# February 9, 2010 at 17:36

flavin says:

Is so weird the effect

# February 22, 2010 at 15:56

I still thinking that there is too much attention on the “visual effect” and not the architecture.
let say you are in plan 1, v35.2-s1 sitting on the sofa and in front you have the balcony of v32.2s, also looking at vm07.jpg (the more oblique view). Moreover for additional aesthetics the alternation of directions gives more visual from one of the upper balconies to the lower ones, aesthetics vs privacy, then the apparent subjective issue about aesthetics, that some “like” or “dislike” the appearance, the appearance is just appearance, nothing essential, and at the essence, the project does not accomplish what is promised (privacy, etc…) then it is not that good, even if the aesthetic effect might be “good” or “bad” which will depend on your own background of esthetic knowledge, but architecture does not depend on that, it is or not what it should.

# February 24, 2010 at 10:05

adrian says:

cool.. it’s economical to compress the forms.. so cool the lot is maximized :)

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# December 16, 2010 at 20:52

Carmelo Dalpe says:

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# March 26, 2011 at 10:59

4:13 AM Sep 26th

Luiz Dumont

Reading: "VM Houses / PLOT = BIG + JDS | ArchDaily"( http://twitthis.com/5xrywc )

12:48 PM Dec 4th

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VM Houses / PLOT = BIG + JDS | ArchDaily http://t.co/TKwj412 via @archdaily

9:55 AM Mar 4th

Michal Konicek

Unpleasing yet beautiful architecture – VM Houses / PLOT = BIG + JDS | ArchDaily http://t.co/MOIslAR via @archdaily

9:57 AM Mar 4th

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