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Architects: WE architecture
- Area: 1580 m²
- Year: 2019
- Photographs: Rozbeh Zavari, Marc Jay
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Manufacturers: Keflico
Text description provided by the architects. Using wood in an innovative and expressive way, Bavnehøj Allé Youth Housing seeks new and ambitious standards within affordable youth housing. Bavnehøj Allé consists of 40 one-room apartments on 38-45 m2, with an impressive ceiling height of 3 meters. All apartments are accompanied with either a generous balcony or terrace. The apartments are detailed with honest materials such as natural wood and raw concrete (load bearing construction). The building is a simple composition of two diagonal blocks connected by a centrally located gallery on all floors. Using sustainable New Zealand pinewood for the lamellas it creates a unique patchwork pattern, which contributes to a distinct, vivid and warm expression on the façade. Likewise, it also adds a semi-transparent extension of the apartments that embrace privacy as well as providing an active and living façade.
The custom-made cassette system is consecutively arranged in a horizontal or vertical grid on top of a metal frame consisting of 8 individually designed balcony cassettes each with their own unique composition. The cassettes are composed in a rhythmic arrangement, which in its entirety creates a homogenies patchwork. At first glance, the façade appears to be a continues and rhythmic pattern, but upon closer inspection, the facade quickly reveals the complex variation that does not leave two similar corners anywhere. The New Zealand pinewood, titled Accoya®, is a sustainably sourced, CO2 neutral and 100 per cent recycle friendly wood as well as FSC®, Cradle to Cradle Gold certified holding the Nordic Swan Ecolabel. It is natural modified Radiata Pine which makes the wood exceptional resistant against rot and fungi – without use of chemicals. The wood is light, stable and UV resistant, and holds a Class 1 in durability with a warranty of 50 years above ground.
Bavnehøj Allé Youth Housing consists of two apartment blocks positioned directly in line with the North-South and East-Vest going axis. Strategically placing all the practical functions such as parking, garbage disposal, staircases, galleries and entrances in the North-East, the disposition allows for balconies and the interior main living rooms to fully benefit from the sunlight and the stunning view over the nearby park and historical cemetery. The minimalistic plan solution of the one-room open studios naturally integrates the exterior surroundings through the extruded facade containing generous 5-6 m2 balconies. Inside the apartments, the end walls towards the balconies is one large floor to ceiling window, and in its 3-meter full height it adds a smooth transition to the exterior – integrating the balcony as a second room in each apartment. The lamella façade performs an essential function as sun screening that naturally filters the sunlight, allowing parts of the light into the apartments meanwhile protecting them from overheating.
Located on the border between the city and the green, Bavnehøj Allé Youth Housing differentiates from the surrounding buildings with its expressive timber façade, while creating a natural transition to the park and cemetery. A local and architectural landmark heightening the standard within affordable timber housing.
