Greenroofs.com Project of the Week: 8/29/11
8 House (8 Tallet)
Copenhagen, Denmark
18,300 sf. Greenroof

Year: 2010
Owner: St. Frederikslund Holding
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
Building Type: Multi-Use
Type: Extensive
System: Single Source Provider
Size: 18,300 sq.ft.
Slope: 40%
Access: Inaccessible, Private

Project Description & Details

8 House (Tallet in Danish) is a 61,000 m2 bowtie-shaped mixed-use building of three different types of residential housing and 10,000 m2 of retail and offices which comprise Denmark’s largest private development ever undertaken. Designed by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), the 8 House sits on the outer edge of the city as the southernmost outpost of Ørestad. Rather than a traditional block, the 8 House stacks all ingredients of a lively urban neighborhood into horizontal layers of typologies connected by a continuous promenade and cycling path up to the 10th floor creating a three-dimensional urban neighborhood where suburban life merges with the energy of a big city, where business and housing co-exist.

With spectacular views towards the Copenhagen Canal and over Kalvebod Fælled’s protected, open spaces, 8 House not only offers residences to people in all of life’s stages as well as office spaces to the city’s business and trade – it also serves as a house that allows people to bike all the way from the ground floor to the top, moving alongside townhouses with gardens winding through an urban perimeter block. Two sloping green roofs totaling 1,700 m2 are strategically placed to reduce the urban heat island effect as well as provide the visual identity to the project and tying it back to the adjacent farmlands towards the south.

Designers/Manufacturers of Record

Architect: Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG)
Contractor: Hopfner Partners
Civil Engineer: Moe & Brødsgaard
Roofing Contractor: Uldum Tag ApS
Roof Decks: Skandek Tagelementfabrik A/S
Pre-vegetated Mat Greenroof System: Veg Tech A/S
Partner-In-Charge: Bjarke Ingels, Thomas Christoffersen, Bjarke Ingels Group
Project Leader: Ole Elkjaer-Larsen, Henrick Poulsen, Bjarke Ingels Group
Project Manager: Finn Norkjaer, Henrik Lund, Bjarke Ingels Group

Additional Info

With offices in Copenhagen and New York City, the Danish architects of Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) describe themselves as “architects, designers, and thinkers operating within the fields of architecture, urbanism, research, and development.” Known for some truly spectacular work, this young firm has definitely been pushing our comfort zones by playing with shapes and forms and redefining space. BIG’s founder, the creative and energetic Bjarke Ingels, leads their approach of Hedonistic Sustainability which “helps cities adapt to tomorrow’s challenges and why sustainable future doesn’t need to involve sacrifice” through his design philosophy and as a TED and keynote speaker at conferences and universities worldwide.

8 House has received plenty of national and international attention.  Last month, 8 House was selected as a finalist for the 2011 World Architecture Festival Award in the Housing and Future projects category.  The winners will be announced at the annual WAF festival which takes place in Barcelona on November 2-4, 2011.

While attending the opening of a Global Green Growth Institute in Copenhagen this past May, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and and His Royal Highness Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark were treated to a guided tour of 8 House by Bjarke Ingels.

Last December, 2010, Huffington Post selected 8 House as one of “the ten most-meaningful architecture moments from an exceptionally topsy-turvy decade.”  Read Jacob Slevin’s 10 Best Architecture Moments of 2001-2010.

Located in the Ørestad area of Copenhagen, 8 House was slated to be the first in a collection of buildings to push development in this outskirt neighborhood of wide open fields and pastureland.

BIG says 8 House was partly inspired by classic townhouses as well as “the open, democratic nature of functionalistic architecture.”

The undeniably unique, long, multi-sloped house has immense differences in height which the architects feel “create a strong inflow of light and a unique local community with small gardens and pathways that channel your thoughts into mountains in Southern Europe and memories of a childhood home.”

At a cost of 92,000,000 Euros, its base consists of 10,000 m2 of businesses spread out at street level alongside the surrounding main streets and at the northern courtyard that houses an office building.  The building’s housing program offers 476 residences with three kinds of accommodation varying in area from 65 to 144 m2: apartments for rent, and penthouses and townhouses for purchase.

“The different housing typologies are united by the exterior dimensions which provide inspiration for adventures, inspiring communities.” ~ BIG

Where the 8- or bow-shaped structure meets, two distinct spaces were created, separated by this center of the bow which hosts the communal facilities of 500 m2.  BIG says, “At the very same spot, the building is penetrated by a 9 meter wide passage that connects the two surrounding city spaces: the park area to the west and the channel area to the east.

“Instead of dividing the different functions of the building – for both habitation and trades – into separate blocks, the various functions have been spread out horizontally.  The apartments are placed at the top while the commercial programme unfolds at the base of the building.  As a result, the different horizontal layers have achieved a quality of their own: the apartments benefit from the view, sunlight and fresh air, while the office leases merge with life on the street.  This is basically emphasized by the shape of 8 House which is literally ‘hoisted up’ in the North East corner and ‘squeezed down’ at the South West corner, allowing light and air to enter the courtyard in the middle.”

“This is our take on creative, experimental architecture, which surprises and calls for a life based on a sense of community. We have actually elevated the shared facilities around the height axis, so that gardens, trees and the system of paths follow the body of the structure all the way to the roof. On the rooftop, eleven stories up, these shared spaces culminate in a combined ‘mountain path’ and rooftop garden. From here, you can enjoy the view of Kalvebod Fælled’s nature resort.” ~ Bjarke Ingels.

Originally, the entire roof 8 was designed as a continuous greenroof, with pre-vegetated mats from Veg Tech A/S used on the extensive 30-40% slope portions and recreational intensive roof gardens planned atop the flat areas.

Yet, because of the economic climate and budgetary restrictions, only the lower sloped portions were greened.  Here’s 8 House under construction:

Here are a couple of great views of the greenroofs as they meet:

Referring to the greenroofs, Kai-Uwe Bergmann AIA, RIBA, MAA, LEED AP and BIG Partner, Director Business Development says, “Our design called for the entire roof area but the flat areas were cut due to the financial crisis and ensuing financing difficulties – so the other portions were sacrificed.  But it’s even amazing that the building was built at all these past three years.”

Aramis and I met Kai-Uwe last November when we both spoke at the International Skyrise Greenery Conference in Singapore – his presentation most definitely had the wow factor!  He started with the eye-catching, frenetic “Yes is More” video highlighting the young firm itself plus some of its equally eye-catching projects, including 8 House.

By the way, BIG’s ”Archicomic Yes is More is World’s 1st Architectural Monograph” is available as an iPad app featuring loads of bonus material, including 25 integrated videos and animations, updates of 8 House and the Danish Expo Pavilion and three new projects not available in the printed version.  You can download it on iTunes here.

Greenroofs.com’s Design Editor, Haven Kiers, and I have selected 8 House to represent our perennial #10 Category in our 2011 Top 10 List of Hot Design Trends in Greenroof & Greenwall Design: Client Specific ‘Boutique’ Greenroofs.  We’ll be inaugurating the 2011 Top 10 List at this month’s Greenroofs & Walls of the World™ Virtual Summit 2011.

8 House is unique not only because it reduces the urban heat island effect with its cool courtyards, planted trees at entrances, container plantings on the balconies, and 18,300-square foot greenroofs, but the living roofs visually connect back to its pre-construction site on the prairie fields, creating a true sense of ‘genius loci’ or spirit of place.

So, ultimately, the dramatic greenroofed “V” of 8 House blends the iconic Danish structure beautifully with the original natural site and sets it off against the reflecting water of Copenhagen Canal:

Certainly, the sloped V roof line is as dramatic in a sunless, snow-covered winter landscape…

…as on a warm summer’s evening as seen from across the water:

Watch a video of Bjarke Ingels of BIG as he introduces you to his office and how their conceptual designs morph into reality with teamwork, including 8 House, below:

 

Did we miss something?  We’d love to hear from you!  Click here to see more information about this project in The International Greenroof & Greenwall Projects Database.  See how you can submit yours here.

Love the Earth, Plant a Roof!

~ Linda V.

First of all, I have to say that the title is just quite not right because 1):  Although most students are back in school, summer is not over yet; and 2):  I haven’t had a real vacation in a long time, let alone this particularly hectic summer!  Of course, recently I have been traveling in my “other career” to some wonderful cities – Buenos Aires, Barcelona, Madrid, and Copenhagen - but with only 24 -36 hour layovers, these visits can hardly be considered holidays.

But I liked the classic tone of ”What I did on My Summer Vacation” because it sounds like I actually did something productive, and I felt like I needed an excuse to explain why I haven’t posted anything in three months… Well, I’m back and now Sky Gardens ~ where cool green meets lofty blue will be populated not only by me but all of our contributing editors on a more regular basis.  So what have we been doing on Greenroofs.com?

For one thing, we’ve been keeping our Student Intern, Caroline Menetre, very busy with hands on visits to The Greenroof Pavilion & Trial Gardens of Rock Mill Park documenting our plant trials and with The Greenroof Projects Database, where she has been entering case studies like crazy.  Her internship will be over soon, and we’ll need some extra hands for research and data entry, so if you’re interested, please let me know: linda@greenroofs.com.

After the whirlwind filming of our little “Love the Earth: Plant A Roof!” video in May, we embarked on a much larger project, our brand new “Sky Gardens” WebTV series, at the beginning of June.  We begin our internet journey to explore the organic architecture of greenroofs and visit all kinds of different, exciting projects around the world, and I’ll be your host on Greenroofs.TV.  We’re initiating our series highlighting greenroofs in the U.S., starting with one of my own designs – you guessed it – the beautiful and award-winning Rock Mill Park.  The City of Alpharetta received the 2008 Water Resources Project of Excellence award and Breedlove Land Planning, who designed the park, just won a Merit Award from the Georgia Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects – congratulations!

Each time I’ll take you on a tour of one unique, stunning vegetative roof.  From planning through the design process, installation through completion, we’ll share intimate stories from the stakeholders – government officials, designers, owners, product manufacturers and service providers.  Why was it built – what was the client’s intent or market driver?  Was it stormwater management, mitigation of the urban heat island, biodiversity, sexy aesthetics, or a combination?  What was the design philosophy and who was involved?  What were the site challenges, techniques used, and what were the lessons learned?  Bottom to top, we’ll show the materials used, culminating in the beautiful, living, breathing plant layer.  Each program will highlight the greenroof’s site specific benefits to the building’s ecology, the local environment, and the watershed at large.

The Alpharetta project is unique for many reasons, especially because the entire property was originally owned by a full blood Cherokee and the site is located within the 100-year flood plain of Big Creek Watershed.  The Greenroof Pavilion is just one of the many low impact development techniques used to tread lighter on the environment and provide educational opportunties for visitors.  When is the air date?  We’ll keep you posted, but we’re planning on the end of September.

Speaking of September, are you going to the World Green Roof Congress in London?  The two day conference will discuss the challenges and opportunities faced when implementing green roofs, and will focus on the contributions that they can make to sustainable urban regeneration, climate change adaptation, sustainable storm water management as well as improvements to local biodiversity and quality of life within cities.  The conference will highlight latest innovations and research to support the effective promotion and delivery of green roof solutions as well as demonstrating examples of good practice from the UK and overseas.  We’re planning on going, but there may be a scheduling conflict with our second “Sky Gardens” WebTV episode – we’ll be filming in Manhattan atop a corporate headquarters, and the date hasn’t been confirmed yet!

Hopefully we can go and see Dusty Gedge of Livingroofs.org and all of our other friends from across the pond.  And it would be grand to go on one of the 6-day study tours from Green Roof Safari in Germany and Switzerland – we’ll see.  Green Roof Safari is a collaboration between Christine Thuring, our Student Editor, and Jörg Breuning of Green Roof Service, so I’m sure a lot of great vegetated roofs and fun will be involved.

I also spent some intense design time for a major greenroofing company on a potential local commercial project – I delivered four conceptual illustrative designs and it would be just awesome if they decide to implement any of them!  Can’t tell you who it is, but it’s very exciting – let’s see what develops.

You know how last year we published our first Greenroofs of the World Calendar™?  Well, we’re currently gathering more stunning living roof projects for the 2009 Greenroofs of the World Calendar™, and this year it will be available for purchase much earlier – in time for the holiday season!

So designing, writing, editing, and filming in 97 degree weather here in Georgia has taken up most of my summer, but don’t feel too badly for me.  Confession:  24 hours may not be enough to qualify as a vacation, but I have to admit that I always manage to have some fun on my (very) mini work-related holidays.  Sightseeing in a new city is always a must, as seen in these photos from Copenhagen earlier this month, but I’m always looking for examples of green architecture, too. 

And to be honest, it wasn’t really my first time in Denmark – my husband Aramis and I spent one day there in 2002 awaiting our return to the U.S., after I gave a greenroof presentation across the way in Malmö, Sweden where we spent four wonderful days with our very gracious hosts, Peter and Violetta Lindhqvist, former directors of the Augustenborg Botanical Roof Garden and the International Green Roof Institute, now the Scandinavian Green Roof Association.

But on this trip I was able to go on a canal tour and it was beautiful!  The overcast skies opened up to a gorgeous day on the water.  And I even found a sustainable design exhibition going on offered by the Danish Architects Center.

So there you have it!  My next blogging endeavors will include interviewing all of our contributing editors, starting with Ed Snodgrass, our Plant Editor.  And look for a new editor coming on board soon, too.

Happy Greening & Safe Travels!

~ Linda