MVRDV and co-​architect ADEPT have just released images of their win­ning entry for the Rødovre Sky­scraper Com­pe­ti­tion in Den­mark. The tower reaches to 116m and is a mixed-​use pro­gramme of appart­ments, hotel, retail and offices. We are aiming for more images very soon.

(Rødovre – Copen­hagen, Novem­ber 3rd, 2008) The munic­i­pal­ity of Rødovre, an inde­pen­dent munic­i­pal­ity of Copen­hagen, Den­mark, announced today MVRDV and co-​architect ADEPT winner of the design com­pe­ti­tion of the Rødovre Sky­scraper. The 116 meter tall tower accom­mo­dates apart­ments, a hotel, retail and offices. A public park and a plaza are also part of the pri­vately funded scheme.

The new sky­scraper with a total sur­face of 21,688 m2 will be located at Roskilde­vej, a major artery East of the centre of Copen­hagen. It is after the Frøsilos MVRDV’s second project in Copen­hagen. The skyscraper’s shape reflects Copenhagen’s his­tor­i­cal spire and present day high-​rise blend­ing in the sky­line of the city, it fur­ther com­bines the two dis­tinc­tive typolo­gies of Rødovre, the single family home and the sky­scraper in a ver­ti­cal vil­lage. Con­sid­er­a­tion of these local char­ac­ter­is­tics leads to Copenhagen’s first con­tem­po­rary high-​rise.

Respond­ing to unsta­ble mar­kets the design is based on a flex­i­ble grid, allow­ing alter­ation of the pro­gram by re-​designating units. These ‘pixels’ are each 60m2 square and arranged around the cen­tral core of the build­ing, which for flex­i­bil­ity con­sists of three bun­dled cores allow­ing sep­a­rate access to the dif­fer­ent pro­gram segments.

On the lower floors the volume is slim to create space for the sur­round­ing public plaza with retail and restau­rants; the lower part of the high rise con­sists of offices, the middle part leans north in order to create a vari­ety of sky gar­dens that are ter­raced along the south side. This cre­ates a stacked neigh­bour­hood, a Sky Vil­lage. From this south ori­en­ta­tion the apart­ments are ben­e­fit­ting. The top of the build­ing will be occu­pied by a hotel enjoy­ing the view towards Copen­hagen city centre. The con­stel­la­tion of the pixels allows flex­i­bil­ity in func­tion; the build­ing can be trans­formed by market forces, how­ever at this moment it is fore­seen to include 970m2 retail, 15,800m2 offices, 3,650m2 hous­ing and 2,000m2 hotel and a base­ment of 13,600m2 con­tain­ing park­ing and storage.

Flex­i­bil­ity for adap­ta­tion is one of the best sus­tain­able char­ac­ter­is­tics of a build­ing. Besides this the Sky Vil­lage will also inte­grate the latest tech­nolo­gies accord­ing to the pro­gres­sive Danish envi­ron­men­tal stan­dards. Fur­ther­more the plans include a grey­wa­ter cir­cuit, the use of 40% recy­cled con­crete in the foun­da­tion and a vari­ety of energy pro­duc­ing devices on the façade.

A public park adja­cent to the Sky Vil­lage is part of the project and will be refur­bished with addi­tional veg­e­ta­tion and the con­struc­tion of a ‘super­bench’, a mean­der­ing public path and bench. A play­ground, picnic area and exer­cise areas for elderly cit­i­zens are also part of the plan.

Lead archi­tect MVRDV and co-​architect ADEPT Archi­tects won the com­pe­ti­tion from BIG, Behnisch and MAD. Winy Maas and Jacob van Rijs present the plan today in Copen­hagen together with Anders Lonka and Martin Krogh from local office Adept Archi­tects, Dutch engi­neer­ing firm ABT and Søren Jenssen act as con­sul­tants for the project. Ear­lier MVRDV realised the Frøsilos / Gemini Res­i­dence in the port of Copen­hagen: a res­i­den­tial project mark­ing a new way in refur­bish­ment of old silo’s which was highly acclaimed and received inter­na­tional awards.