IBC INNOVATION FACTORY BY SCHMIDT HAMMER LASSEN

The IBC Innovation Factory is designed to support new ways of learning. The 12,800 square metres educational building is the result of a refurbishment project of the paint manufacturer GORI’s factory from 1978, which set new standards for factories at the time.

In the spirit of the original factory, schmidt hammer lassen architects, in collaboration with International Business College (IBC) Kolding, has created the settings for a ground-breaking and creative learning environment, aiming to become the world’s best.

The ambition is to be a training camp for future innovators. With the acquisition of the GORI factory in the summer of 2010, the IBC gained access to a unique physical environment characterized by an impressive pioneering spirit and vision.

It was the first factory plant in Denmark to unite production and management in one large room, allowing visual connection between the two. The large paint tanks were decorated by the French artist Jean Dewasne, in the conviction that art in the workplace would inspire employees and provide a better working environment.

The same idea inspired the incorporation of badminton courts and Ping-Pong tables on the production floor for the employees. The main task for schmidt hammer lassen architects has been to preserve and emphasize the building’s existing qualities and transform the facilities into an innovative learning environment.

By using six elements – fire, water, greenery, light, sound and air – the concept for the new Innovation Factory was developed with an emphasis on stimulating the users’ senses.

A central teaching facility in the shape of an indoor ‘landscape furniture’ designed in Douglas pine wood incorporates a variety of learning spaces and experiences. 

The wooden structure, which seems to float above a surface of water, has an auditorium, places for open study, an amphitheatre, and closed podiums for group work or quiet study time. There are green plants, the sound of trickling water, birds in aviaries and plenty of daylight from the skylights above.

Location: Kolding, Denmark 
Architects: Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects 
Engineer: Rambøll A/S 
Consultants: Alectia 
Main Contractor: MT Højgaard a/s, Odense 
Area: 12,800 m2 
Year: 2012 
Client: IBC International Business College, Kolding 
Photographs: Adam Mørk

ACTIVITY AND OUTDOOR CENTRE BY AART

The activity and outdoor centre is located at Hindsgavl Nature Reserve in Denmark and is designed as an inspiring site for a wide range of outdoor activities.

The design of the building supports the outdoor community spirit in all kinds of weather and all hours of the day, and the intention is to create an inspiring activity spot for the many aspects of outdoor life by reinforcing the relation between inside and outside and creating a significant architecture that interacts with the surrounding landscape.

The building reinforces the relation between inside and outside by using large window sections and decorating the inner walls with plywood.

The floor is made of planks made of solid wood and the same applies for the outer walls which are made of planks made of solid wood and milled in difference length to create a varied and natural expression.

To underline the scenic context the building has a captivating vantage point on the roof which is covered with vegetation and grass, planted over a waterproofing membrane.

The building is a result of a close collaboration with the organization Miljøforum Fyn which is specialized in environmental issues and sustainable development.

In this way, the building is designed as a visionary project in sustainable construction and is designed according to the passive house standard, reducing its CO2 footprint.

In other words, sustainability permeates the activity and outdoor centre which frames the outdoor life of the peninsula of Hindsgavl and contributes to merge social relations with outdoor recreation.

 

Location: Gals Klint Vej, Hindsgavl, Middelfart, Denmark

Architect: aart

Engineer: Rønslev Andersen A/S

Consultant: Miljøforum Fyn

Size: 500 m2

Year: 2012

Client: Middelfart Municipality

PEOPLE MEETING DOME BY KRISTOFFER TEJLGAARD + BENNY JEPSEN

Context

BL, Denmark Public Housing participated in this year’s Peoples Meeting on Bornholm, in order to generate debate on the future of housing. According to BL a standard exhibition tent would not do justice to a debate of such importance. Instead they wanted a space that stuck out, inspired and invited inside. In addition to creating the physical space for this debate, it was important for us that the space also became an independent contribution.

We wish to stick out, but in the right way. We have the ambition that architecture is to be as site-specific as possible, that architecture is influenced by the local surroundings; the view, the landscape, the wind and the sun. And the features it offers. On the drawing board was a sketch model that has been a long time underway, but had been missing the right circumstances, sentiments and audience. A model of a deconstructed “Dome”, a construction iconized by the hippies in the 70s.

Project

The geodesic dome is one of the most optimal methods of constructing that we know of. It has all the advantages of being rationally and mathematically generated, but it is sadly lacking many of the qualities we associate with good architecture. You could call it non-architecture. It sets like a spaceship that only relates to its own design, not the local surroundings.

The ambition was therefore to understand the geodesic domes construction, and then deconstruct its sacred geometry, in a way where we do not oppose, but respect its properties. The deconstruction enables the dome to become an unlocked shape, but can be split up and scaled, so that the cut dome may be shaped by it’s site and features. It can form niches, crevices and corners, defining, opening and hiding.

By splitting the dome, we created niches at the entrances that were oriented towards the access to the site. Inside niches that provided the framework for the various internal functions and indirect lighting. We made it consistent, that the curved surfaces were closed and that the perpendicular surfaces were transparent, which means that we dictated the light and the views by splitting the shells.

This gave the effect, that the center of the room had no view to the outside. The space closed in on one until one moved out towards the niches where the functions were located. For the Peoples Meeting the dome contained a stage, placed in a niche, and the stands were in the open center of the dome, where the effect described above, created additional focus on the stage and a great sense of intimacy.

We proposed a system of nodes in steel, nodes that connected with wood can build the complex lattice structure. A skeleton to cover as a tent, but also to be permanent and point towards new ways of building. The system is designed so that it is possible to vary the skeleton. It can be adapted to the given parameters, disassembled and placed in a new design, with new parameters.

The column-free lattice structure allows great freedom for interior and facade design. Windows and openings can be placed freely and no interior walls need to be load bearing. The dome on Bornholm had a building envelope like a tent, but the skeleton might as well be the supporting structure in a fully insulated house. 

Technical 

The geodesic dome, the starting point, is a frequency four, its great circles forming the lines that are cut along in the splitting of the surface. The chipped sphere surfaces are scaled from the center of the sphere and therefore remains true to the geometry. The surfaces in between becomes radiating, perpendicular to the spheres surfaces.

The ambitions of the system was honored by 3D-modelling the entire skeleton. Printed nodes that are laser cut and robot welded, meet the high precision requirements of the lattice structure. The nodes are designed as steel shoes that are open in one dimension and two inches in the other, so they can accommodate the family of standard rafters. In collaboration with our engineer we developed a table with the differend stress levels.

It generates the dimensions for the timber to be used for the different struts. This dome used 2×4 inches and 2×6 inches construction timber and same size plywood-beams, a total of four different strength classes, to minimize material consumption. The dome was set on the site with half nodes, as in all other intersections of the surface. The ring of nodes were attached to inward pointing beams, that were weighed down by 18 tons steel plates, that formed the floor and prevented the dome from lifting in strong winds.

The building envelope consisted of translucent greenhouse membranes on the sphere surfaces and transparent PVC film as windows on the perpendicular surfaces. All the wood used for the facade, flooring and interior is local grown Douglas pine. Because the project was temporary, the façade was made of old boards that could be only difficultly used for other purposes.
 

 

Location: Allinge, Denmark 

Architects: Kristoffer Tejlgaard and Benny Jepsen 

Engineer: Henrik Almegaard 

Area: 212.0 m2 

Height: 8m. 

Year: 2012 

Client: BL, Denmark's Public Housing 

Photographs: Courtesy of Kristoffer Tejlgaard - Benny Jepsen

SKIDOME DENMARK BY CEBRA

CEBRA has designed a vision for a skidome in the city of Randers for Danski: Skidome Denmark.

This city, in the eastern Jutland landscape, is centrally placed in the country, having on numerous occasions welcomed great projects, such as Randers Regnskov and a true copy of Elvis’ home in Memphis, Graceland.

The basic idea of Skidome Denmark is to share and pass on the joy of skiing to the Danes by bringing a piece of the Alps to Denmark. The proposal offers over 3 km of indoor and outdoor slopes and a freestyle park as well as a hotel, a restaurant and shops on an area of 1.076.000 sq.ft.

The structure consists of three arches, which resemble the shape of a six-armed snowflake. The arches each span 700 m across the river Gudenåen and the top arch’s highest point rises 110 m over the surrounding landscape.

It is the aim of the skidome that it can be used and enjoyed by everyone – any time of the day, any time of the year. Thus, the arches’ exterior roof surfaces are an integrated part of the design equal to the interior slopes with real snow.

The top arch’s roof offers two black pistes, allowing outdoor skiing even during the summer. The middle arch is shaped like an urban playground with street sport facilities for skateboarding, BMX etc., while the bottom arch has a green landscape roof, which like a raised city park invites to a wide range of leisure activities.

Every piste has its own chair lift and the three arches are conjoint by an elevator for transporting skiers between the different levels. In order to ensure variation in the landscape over time, it is possible to transform the pistes’ topography, providing visitors with a different experience each time they visit the ski dome. Skidome Denmark is developed with environmental issues in mind.

Cooling of the dome requires large amounts of energy, which the dome obtains from two sources of sustainable energy: ground heating and solar cells. As well as being close to the town of Randers, Skidome Denmark is surrounded by a large natural resort. This is an invaluable source of energy, because it can be used to produce ground heating.

Also the ski dome has an advantage, when it comes to solar cells, in that it needs the energy mostly during the summer, when there is most of it. During winter, when cooling is less of an issue, Skidome Denmark will donate excess heat to their humid neighbor and little brother, Randers Regnskov (The tropical Rainforest).

Skidome Denmark brings, quite literally, a piece of the Alps to Denmark: The slopes are developed in association with Alpe d’Huez ski resort in France, and the gradients are copied directly from the most popular pistes.

Location: Randers, Denmark

Architect: CEBRA

Area: 100,000 m2

Max. capacity: 3,000 guests

Client: Danski

PRINSESSEGADE KINDERGARDEN AND YOUTH CLUB BY CODE AND NORD

“NORD Architects, COBE, PK3 and Grontmij are announched as winners of the competition to design a new kindergarden in Copenhagen for 618 children. The site is in central Copenhagen next to Christiania on Christianshavn. The project can be found under featured projects.

The complex "Prinsessegade Kindergarden and Youth Club" in the heart of Copenhagen wil be second home to 618 children and young people. Completion is scheduled for the end of 2014. In a very flexible scheme the winning entry proposes a new norm for how the future welfare system of Denmark can embark on the challenges of a growing capital.

Copenhagen is growing! Projections show that by 2025, there will be up to 90.000 more inhabitants in Copenhagen than today. Of these 90.000 new inhabitants, 33.000 will be 18-29 years and a whopping 22.000 of these will be young people and children between 0 and 18 years!

The site – a triangular plot in the Copenhagen borough of Christianshavn, wedged between the rigid urban block structure of Prinsessegade and the homegrown diversity of the Christiania Free Town – has been chosen as the frame of the good everyday life of 618 children and young people between age 0-18.

This makes the project the largest daycare center in all of Denmark! It also presents a big challenge – how do we avoid creating a daycare factory when building an institution for so many users? The daycare center in Prinsessegade is a city for kids!

It’s not one huge building but rather a cluster of many small and varied buildings, grouped around two central streets that connect to the surrounding city structure. Like Copenhagen, the Kids’ City has different neighbourhoods, different houses, different public spaces, squares and parks.

It even has a city hall, a fire station, a restaurant, a stadium, a factory and a golden ballcage on the roof. Most buildings consist of a general city mass, based on a rational, modular construction system, while the special buildings of the city stand out both in terms of function and architecture.

The Kids’ City is planned from a careful analysis of the site’s existing landscape, in order to emphasize and preserve as many of the present qualities as possible. The buildings are placed in such a way that the largest trees and most important landscape elements are preserved and incorporated into a large, green shared outside area - the heart of the Kids’ City.

In addition to this, many new landscape elements, such as the city hall square and the beach, add diversity to the site’s existing qualities and allow many new outdoor activities and experiences. The size and diversity of the Kids’ City means that everybody – children and young people as well as their parents – will feel at home.

Sustainable solutions, materials and architectural solutions all point towards quality of space and underline the content of the new kindergarden, afterschool club and youth club." Desciption from Architects.

 

Location: Copenhagen, Denmark

Architects: COBE and NORD 

Landscape: PK3

Engineering: Grontmij

Size: 4.200 m2 

Status: 1st prize in competition 2012

Client: Copenhagen Municipality