In the
centre of Copenhagen,
close to Nyboder, Holscher Arkitekter has designed and constructed a
residential project on a very narrow site of seven meters. The structure is
unusual in its form, in its detailing and in its relation to the city.Short description: The project 4B consists of a slim structure of
glass, a plaster gable and a light cladding of Tombac.
From the
ground to the fourth floor the building is facing north and south. The structure
is extruded from the street to the courtyard taking a cue in height from the
tall adjacent red brick house and forming a white plaster wall against the 3
storey neighbouring house.
From the 4th
to 7th floor the building opens towards west and the Østre Anlæg
park. The band clad with Tombac flows over the facades from the main entrance
to the courtyard, breaking the scale to the historic urban
context.
Context: 4B is situated in an area characterized by large
edifices like The Museum of Art, Nyboder, a local church, Østerport Station and
Østre Anlæg, Kastellet and
Kongens Have (King's Garden) parks.
4B is part of a street-sequence which
consists of a number of different building typologies.
The university and the church dominate
the street locally with their size and the characteristic brick facades. The
church expresses the same massive solidity towards the pavement level in the
street as the university building – but becomes more vertically oriented
towards the sky than the long horizontal facade of the university's which is
facing Stokhusgade.
The stringent facade of the university
emphasizes the variation in the sequence of facades across the street.
The street Stokhusgade is
characterized by a 6 storey brick housing project with delicate details and
horizontal bands which accentuate each floor.
The adjacent house (no. 4) consists of
a six-storied brick house from 1862, which appears with the detailing
characteristic for the decade, a tiled roof and a plain and clear expression.
The other neighbour (no. 6) consists of a three-storied house from 1878.
Debate/ dispute:
A densifying project like 4B is often
evaluated by its ability to adapt to the context such as the surrounding
buildings in the street. From the adjacent buildings the project gets its
legitimacy by taking cue in height from the adjacent buildings and respecting
the building line.
Furthermore you will meet hard
opposition in regards to the relation between new and old architecture in the
discussion of densifying the city centre. The historic buildings are regarded
with great respect and concern for the preservation of the architectural
tradition and detailing.
The arguments used by the critics of
new residential projects are that the architecture is too neutral, generic and
smooth without identity or agenda. Or even worse: That the architecture is too
self-centred and flashy, disregarding the old building stock and unable to
adapt to existing site conditions. The critics regard present buildings to be
unable to generate quality to their surroundings. But then how do we develop
the city?
The discussion appears to be caught in
a dialectic relation between the neutral role where architecture participates
as a wall in public space and the opposite role where architecture becomes an
event or an object that generates experiences and spaces which can break with
the rules of the context. Is this the only possible repertoire or can a more
subtle programme be made for densifying the city than what is already defined
by the structure/site dialectic.
One attitude could be that densification should express some kind
of relation to the context and the present time. This would create a
relational, coherent structure which intentionally enters the existing row of
houses and ages already represented in the street and in the district.
The interesting challenge with a
densification project like 4B is that the prominent surroundings request an
architectural ability to create coherence between the architecture and the
place.
You could understand the project 4B as
a bridge between two opposite tendencies – one is characterized by the specific
and generic contemporary demands towards architecture; character of space,
materials, transparency and lifestyle. The other is locally anchored and
imitates the result of construction techniques and materials of the context
from the past and as such consolidates the projects relation to the context.