Copenhagen: The Latest Architecture and News

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."

After an international competition, the design by KHR Arkitekter, WHR Architects and Arup International Ltd. has been selected for the new Bispebjerg Somatic Hospital in the Bispebjerg region of Copenhagen, Denmark. Being added to an existing hospital campus project that will include a somatic hospital, a psychiatry hospital, laboratory/logistics building and a parking garage, the new hospital will help meet the region’s demands.

In less than four weeks, Copenhagen will turn into a big playground for everyone with an interest in architecture and urban design. As RISING Architecture Week unfolds around the theme Growing Cities, more than 50 events throughout the city will explore new ways of thinking about architecture and the future of cities. Movies, walks, bike-rides, runs, boat-trips, swimming, and talks with the themes "Why We Love Trees", "Temporary Urban Spaces, and "Architecture in a Circular Economy," are just a few of the many events.

Among the city-events, RISING will host a 2-day conference at PapirØen (Paper Island). At the RISING conference, you will meet with a big, international audience, develop and exchange ideas across borders, while connecting with future partners. Keynotes and discussants as well as a number of interactive showcases and activities will take you on an educational journey. Your involvement will complete the debates.

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"The role of public buildings should be the first to show quality, sustainability, and an embrace of the people," says Copenhagen native and architect, Dan Stubbergaard, in this recent video from the Louisiana Channel. In COBE: Monuments of the Future, Stubbergaard speaks in favor of architecture that reinforces the welfare state, beginning with the philosophy behind the process: "Our buildings are like a hard disk of our memory or history" says Stubbergaard, "and you can see that this was the best you could do at that time."

Founder and creative director of COBE in Copenhagen, Stubbergaard focuses his practice on work varying from public space to large urban planning. Stubbergaard explains how architecture can be a way to understand how cities grow, live, break down and grow again. It is the architecture, the buildings and structure that direct people to the most popular cities, as it is "embedded into the history."

Videos

From the 15th to the 18th September 2015, Copenhagen will play host to the international RISING Architecture Week. For four days the city will turn into a sizzling melting pot of over fifty events, site visits, bicycle tours and debates throughout the city.

Among these events is a two-day conference where 500 professionals and visionaries meet to exchange ideas and discuss the theme Growing Cities. The conference has a venue for speaks, debates and interviews, and another venue for workshops, networking and innovation labs. "RISING gathers a very big, international audience of architects, developers and city planners, which gives professionals a unique opportunity to develop and exchange ideas across borders. I’m very much looking forward to participate in RISING this September," says Sergey Kuznetsov, City Chief Architect of Moscow and keynote speaker at RISING.

Gottlieb Paludan Architects have been selected as the winners of an anonymous two-stage competition to design a new biomass unit at the Amagerværket power plant in Denmark. The combined heat and power unit (CHP), dubbed BIO4, will power the facility with biofuel, upholding local efforts to make Copenhagen the world’s first CO₂-neutral capital by 2025.

C.F. Møller has unveiled designs for Denmark's largest sewage pumping station. Planned to be built on Copenhagen's Kløvermarken, the new building will serve as an independent counterpart to the site's historic 1901 pumping station, originally designed by city architect Ludvig Fenger.

According to the architects, the brick station aims to "set new standards for large-scale sustainable utilities in Danish cities," while "closely integrating itself into the dense urban context." It will be built as a circular structure - the optimal shape of an underground pumping well - and feature two rainwater harvesting green roofs, a distinctive set of 24 meter-tall pressure towers, and two recreational "gardens" for employees. 

Images have been released of a new mosque planned for Copenhagen. Designed by Henning Larsen Architects, the mosque will replace an existing one on the corner of Dortheavej and Tomsgårdsvej in the Nordvest district of the city. ”One of Copenhagen's slightly forgotten districts will receive a new architectonic pearl,” says Morten Kabell, the city's deputy mayor for technical and environmental issues. The Copenhagen Municipality has approved the project’s planning application and completion is expected for February 2016.

The Brønshøj Parish Centre by NORD Architects provides a space for community congregation informed by the surrounding religious architecture. With warm materials, a multi-functional program, and a form that physically opens up to the city, the Parish Centre presents an inviting social and reverent space for Copenhagen.

Videos

Following our top 40 Architecture Docs to Watch in 2014 and our favourite 30 Architecture Docs to Watch in 2013, 2015 is no exception! Our latest round up continues to feature a fantastic range of films and documentaries telling the tales of unsung architectural heroes and unheard urban narratives from around the world. This entirely fresh selection looks past the panoply of stars to bring you more of the best architectural documentaries which will provoke, intrigue and beguile.

From a film which explores one man's dream to build a cathedral (#4) and a simultaneous history of and vision of Rotterdam's future (#7), to a tour of the world's last surviving squatter town in Copenhagen (#14) and A Short History of Abandoned Sets in Morocco (#16), we present - in no particular order - thirty freshly picked documentaries for you to watch in 2015.

Daydreaming about a trip to Copenhagen? Now is your chance to go. As part of BIG’s HOT TO COLD exhibition on view at the National Building Museum, Visit Denmark is hosting a sweepstakes for two to see the architectural and cultural sights of Denmark’s capital. All you need to do is watch the video above, find out which seaside museum Bjarke Ingels believes to be one of the world’s greatest (hint: take a look after the break), and enter your answer here (click "Win a trip to Copenhagen!"). Only US residents are eligible.