Aarhus Harbour Development, Aarhus, Denmark

JDS + CEBRA Iceberg design wins place in Aarhus Harbour Development
JDS/Julien De Smedt Architects and Aarhus-based CEBRA, in collaboration with the Dutch firm SeArch and French architect Louis Paillard have won the competition to build a 25,000 sq m housing complex in the new Aarhus Docklands development.

The project will be developed by the Tækker Group and Brabrand Boligforening with an expected completion date of spring 2010.

The Aarhus Harbour development provides a huge opportunity for Denmark’s second largest city to develop in a socially sustainable way by renovating its old, out-of-use container terminal. The area will become a living city quarter, comprised of a multitude of cultural and social activities, a generous amount of workplaces, and of course, a highly mixed and diverse array of housing types.

The Iceberg Project seeks to locate itself within the goals of the overall city development. A third of the project’s 200 apartments will be set aside as affordable rental housing, aimed at integrating a diverse social profile into the new neighborhood development.

The project’s main obstacle was the density set up for the development, the desired sq ms are in conflict with the specified site height restrictions and the overall intentions of providing ocean views along with good daylight conditions. The Iceberg negotiates this problem, by remaining far below the maximum heights at points and emerging above the dotted line at other moments. “Peaks” and “canyons” form eliciting the project’s iconic strength while ensuring that all flats will be supplied with a generous amount of natural lighting and waterfront views.

“With the Iceberg we get unique housing qualities as well as a city architectural expression of the highest quality”, says Kent Martinussen, adm. dir. of DAC (Danish Architecture Centre).
source: www.worldarchitecturenews.com
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