Hasta La Ideas

Modular panels fold around the exterior of this electricity station in rural Denmark by Scandinavian firm C. F. Møller (+ slideshow).

C. F. Møller was commissioned by Danish energy company Energinet to design the gas-insulated switchgear (GIS) station, used to control the flow of electricity on its way from Dutch wind farms to the Danish areas where it will be used.

The project forms part of a wider government scheme to upgrade the visual appearance of the country’s power grid.

The first switchgear station has been built in Vejen from prefabricated wooden components on a steel frame.

“Since it is a design concept and the first in a series of new stations, the exterior cladding is something that can be varied according to the location and context,” architect Julian Weyer told Dezeen.

“The first station now completed is clad in pre-weathered zinc panels, chosen mainly for their low maintenance, good recycling potential and the interesting play of light as reflected on the folded surfaces,” Weyer added.

Each modular unit of the exterior has a sloping roof and sides that triangulate to add stability.

They create a row of gill-like openings ranged along the sides of the structure, admitting daylight and allowing glimpses of the GIS units from the outside.

“With the progressing daylight, the folded surface creates an ever-changing play of shadows, altering its appearance all day long and all year round,” said the architects.

Exposed wooden fibreboard panels line the interior, contributing to the acoustics of the building.

Other projects we’ve featured by C. F. Møller include a proposal for the world’s tallest timber-framed building, an art and craft museum with a frosted glass exterior and illuminated fracture lines and a state prison in the format of a small village.

Other infrastructure projects featured on Dezeen include a combined power plant and ski slope that blows smoke rings, a biomass power station covered in panels planted with indigenous grasses and pylons shaped like giants marching across the landscape.

See more architecture and design by C. F. Møller »
See more stories about infrastructure architecture »

Here’s some information from the architects:

Gas-insulated Switchgear Stations

The Danish Parliament wishes to upgrade the visual appearance of the Danish power grid. Therefore, C. F. Møller has been hired to create a new design concept for switchgear stations for
Energinet.dk. The first 400 kW station is now ready for operation.

As a result of the new design concept, Energinet.dk has decided not to construct a new large open-air switchgear station in Vejen, Jutland, but instead build a gas-insulated switchgear station – also called a GIS station.

The idea of the design concept has been to give the technical enclosure of the station, placed in the open landscape, a distinct architectonic profile, and at the same time maximise the future flexibility.

This GIS (gas-insulated switchgear) station is one of the nerve centres in the Danish power grid, through which increasing volumes of sustainable energy – mostly wind power – will be transported.
The GIS station is an important part of 175 kilometres of new 400 kW high voltage cable running from Kassø in Southern Jutland to Tjele in central Jutland.

The link has been built to upgrade the power grid and to ensure that wind power from Danish wind farms is transported to the areas where it is needed. The GIS station is linked to a total of six aerial cable systems.

The enclosure has been designed as a series of modules, each consisting of a lightweight shell with a slanted roof and a folded exterior surface which adds lateral stability. Arranged in series, the modules create a transparent, gill-like envelope with triangular openings, letting ample daylight into the interior and allowing glimpses of the GIS units at the heart of the building.

All this gives the design an unmistakeable and strong sculptural and facetted identity. With the progressing daylight, the folded surface creates an ever-changing play of shadows, altering its appearance all day long and all year round.

Client: Energinet.dk
Size: 1,650 m² (450 m²workshops and 1,200 m² GIS building)
Address: Vandmøllevej 10, Revsing, 6600 Vejen in Denmark (and various sites across Denmark)
Year of project: 2010-2013
Design architects: C. F. Møller Architects
Executive architect: Kærsgaard & Andersen
Landscape: C. F. Møller Architects

The post Switchgear Stations
by C. F. Møller appeared first on Dezeen.

Seaweed pillows were used as cladding for this holiday house on the Danish island of Læsø by architecture studio Vandkunsten and non-profit organisation Realdania Byg (+ slideshow).

The Modern Seaweed House revisits the traditional construction method in Læsø, where for many centuries trees were scarce but seaweed has always been abundant on the beaches. At one stage there were hundreds of seaweed-clad houses on the island but now only around 20 remain, which prompted Realdania Byg to initiate a preservation project.

The team enlisted Vandkunsten to design a new house that combines the traditional material with twenty-first century construction techniques.

“Seaweed is at the same time very old and very ‘just-in-time’, because it is in many ways the ultimate sustainable material,” Realdania Byg’s Jørgen Søndermark told Dezeen.

“It reproduces itself every year in the sea, it comes ashore without any effort from humans, and it is dried on nearby fields by sun and wind,” he continued. “It insulates just as well as mineral insulation, it is non-toxic and fireproof, and it has an expected life of more than 150 years!”

Rather than just piling the seaweed onto the roof, the designers stuffed the material into netted bags and attached it in lengths across the timber-framed walls and roof of the house. More seaweed was enclosed in wooden cases to use as insulation behind the facade and beneath the floors.

“By using seaweed in the construction, we not only secure the continued supply of seaweed for use on the historic houses, we also reintroduce a material to the modern building industry which is CO2-reducing, environmentally friendly and sustainable in a broader sense,” said Søndermark.

The interior walls are lined with wooden boards, framing a series of rooms intended to house two families. A double-height living room and kitchen forms the centre, while bedrooms are located at the ends and in the loft.

“Our project has demonstrated that seaweed has remarkable acoustic properties,” added Søndermark. “This creates surprisingly comfortable rooms, while the ability to absorb and give off moisture contributes to regulate the indoor climate.”

As well as building the new seaweed house, Realdania Byg has restored the seaweed roof of Kaline’s House, a 150-year-old residence next to the site. The team hopes the two projects will inspire more seaweed architecture and restoration in Læsø.

“The seaweed houses on Læsø are physical testimony to the culture and the life that have characterised the building tradition on the island for centuries,” said Realdania Byg director Peter Cederfeld. “It is our hope that others will embrace the experiences from this project and develop the ideas even further.”

Seaweed has also been used in a few lighting designs recently, including for a series of laser-cut lampshades. See more stories about seaweed »

Photography is by Helene Høyer Mikkelsen and Realdania Byg.

Here’s a press release from Realdania Byg:

The cultural heritage of Læsø: A resource in sustainable building

On the small island of Læsø in Denmark, a several hundred-year-old building style has formed the basis on which a new holiday house has been built – the Modern Seaweed House. The house is designed by Vandkunsten firm of architects and developed by Realdania Byg as a holiday house built in wood, covered and insulated with seaweed. The Modern Seaweed House is carefully adapted into the landscape and has a wonderful interaction with nature, the historic buildings and Læsø’s unique cultural history. The Modern Seaweed House is now to be sold – but the ideas live on.

The Modern Seaweed House is part of the Realdania Byg project ‘Seaweed Houses on Læsø’ that also includes ‘Kaline’s House’ – a listed seaweed house from 1865, purchased and carefully restored by Realdania Byg in 2012. The seaweed houses on Læsø are an exceptional part of the cultural heritage of Denmark – and the world. Originally, several hundred of these seaweed houses were found all over Læsø while only approximately twenty remain today. The traditional seaweed houses were built using a timber frame construction with robust seaweed roofing – an abundant resource in the small and modest fishing community. ‘Kaline’s House’ is one of these houses.

The Modern Seaweed House is not a replica of the building style of the past but a development inspired by the architectural history of Læsø. In contrast to the historic houses, on which the seaweed is stacked high on the roof, the Modern Seaweed House is more contemporary and tight in its expression. The visible seaweed has been stuffed into bolsters made of knitted nets attached to the façade in lengths. At the same time, seaweed is used invisibly for insulating floors, walls and ceilings enclosed in wooden cassettes. These prefabricated building modules comprise the framework of the house.

A sustainable resource

When seaweed was used in the past as a building material it was due to the fact that seaweed was found just outside the door, it was free, had a long-term durability, was very effective as insulation, naturally protected against vermin and putrefaction, and, finally, there was lots of it. These very preconditions make seaweed of current interest as a building material, especially in the light of the present attention to the topic of sustainability. The Modern Seaweed House fulfils expected 2020 demands, and, thereby, will have extremely low energy consumption.

At the same time, LCA (life cycle analysis) calculations have shown that the house actually has a negative carbon footprint. The almost exclusive use of organic materials, including seaweed used as both insulation and roofing material, causes the amount of CO2 accumulated within the house to exceed that which has been emitted during the production and transportation of the building materials.

In a broader view

With the ‘Seaweed Houses on Læsø’ project, Realdania Byg wishes to focus on the unique tradition of Læsø using seaweed as a building material – both the immediate need to ensure the architecture of the past and the at least equally relevant need to develop the architecture in a sustainable approach. This way, seaweed is also ensured for restoring the historic houses.

Realdania Byg’s project to develop and preserve seaweed houses on Læsø is one among a variety of existing projects that aim to secure the survival of the distinctive seaweed roofs on Læsø. The initiative is carried out in unison with enthusiastic inhabitants of Læsø, other foundations as well as the Danish Agency for Culture who are all involved in the effort to save this rather exceptional part of the cultural heritage of Denmark – and the world.

The Modern Seaweed House has shown that eelgrass has a lot of qualities. Besides its excellent insulating property and long-term durability, which in itself offer a lot of potential, it has been discovered through practical application that seaweed has exceptional acoustic properties. This creates surprisingly comfortable rooms while the ability to absorb and give off moisture contributes to regulate a good indoor climate. The numerous qualities provide a wide range of applications in modern, sustainable building.

The post The Modern Seaweed House by
Vandkunsten and Realdania Byg appeared first on Dezeen.

Danish architecture studio BIG has completed a sunken sports hall where an arching wooden roof doubles up as a hilly courtyard (+ slideshow).

BIG was asked by Gammel Hellerup high school to design a new building that could be used for sports, graduation ceremonies and social events. Rather than replacing the school’s existing courtyard, the architects decided to sink the hall five metres below the ground and create a decked surface over the top.

Concrete retaining walls surround the new hall, while a series of curving timber joists give the roof its arched shape.

Solid ash was used for the floor and is painted with colour-coded lines that denote basketball, football and badminton courts. A sliver of daylight penetrates the room through a series of skylights around the edges, while narrow lighting fixtures create stripes of illumination across the ceiling joists.

Basement corridors connect the hall with the existing school buildings. BIG also added solar panels onto the rooftops of these structures to generate heating for the new space.

Above the hall, the decked surface was conceived as an informal meeting area, with outdoor furniture installed so that students can work in groups or simply take time out between classes.

“Opposed to placing the hall outside the school’s building – thus spreading the social life even more – the new hall creates a social focal point and connection between the existing facilities of the high school,” explain the architects.

BIG is led by architect Bjarke Ingels. The firm recently unveiled designs for a Lego visitor centre and is competing with OMA over the redesign of Miami Beach Convention Center. See more architecture by BIG.

Other sports centres completed lately include a Japanese school building with an exposed timber frame and a gymnasium that swells outwards to let light in from above. See more sports centres.

Photography is by Jens Lindhe, apart from where otherwise stated.

Read on for a project description from BIG:

How do we transform a courtyard into a new social meeting point?

Gammel Hellerup Gymnasium is, with its characteristic yellow brick buildings, a good example of a school building in a human scale and a fine architectural example of its time. The sports facilities have, however, become too insufficient and the high school is lacking a large, multifunctional space for physical activities, graduation ceremonies and social gatherings. The Gammel Hellerup Gymnasium, a self-owned governmental institution, wishes therefore to build a new flexible hall for the students’ usage with a particular focus on sustainability.

The new multi-purpose hall will primarily be for the pupils’ physical education and social development. The hall is placed 5 metres below ground in the centre of the school’s courtyard which ensures a good indoor climate, low environmental impact and high architectural quality. The characteristic soft curved roof wood construction will act externally as an informal meeting place that can host numerous activities from group work to larger gatherings. The edge of the roof is designed as a long social bench with easy access across the courtyard and is perforated with small windows to ensure the penetration of daylight. Solar panels placed strategically around the existing buildings provide heat for the hall. Opposed to placing the hall outside the school’s building – thus spreading the social life even more – the new hall creates a social focal point and connection between the existing facilities of the high school.

Project: Gammel Hellerup Gymnasium
Client: Gammel Hellerup Gymnasium
Collaborators: CG Jensen, EKJ, Grontmij
Budget: 50 mio DKK
Sise: 1,100 m2
Location: Hellerup, DK
Status: completed 2013

The post Gammel Hellerup Sports Hall
by BIG appeared first on Dezeen.

News: work has begun on the OMA-designed headquarters of Denmark’s national centre for architecture in Copenhagen.

Scheduled for completion in early 2017, the 27,000-square-metre Bryghusprojektet is a mixed-use development on the site of an old brewery, which will include residential units, community spaces and a playground.

In the middle of the development will be the new offices for the Danish Architecture Centre, an organisation set up to spread knowledge about architecture and the built environment.

The centre will be surrounded by its own subjects of study and research, explains Ellen van Loon, who is OMA’s partner-in-charge on the project along with the firm’s co-founder Rem Koolhaas.

“Instead of stacking a mixed-use programme in a traditional way, we positioned the Danish Architecture Centre in the centre of the volume, surrounded by and embedded within its objects of study: housing, offices and parking,” said van Loon.

The centre will include exhibition areas, research facilities, conference rooms, an auditorium, a bookshop and a cafe.

OMA’s design for Bryghusprojektet, which is being funded by the philanthropic Realdania Foundation, was first revealed in 2006.

The Dutch firm is currently going head to head with Danish firm BIG in a competition to transform a convention centre in Miami, USA, while work is nearly complete on the OMA’s Shenzhen Stock Exchange in China – see all architecture by OMA.

Images are courtesy of OMA.

Here’s some more information from OMA:

The Bryghusgrunden Project is located on the harbor on the site of an old brewery, the Bryghusgrunden, one of the few remaining areas with the potential to link the city to the waterfront. The building itself will straddle the busy Christians Brygge ring road, creating new urban connections for pedestrians and cyclists between the waterfront and Denmark’s houses of government.

Construction begins today on the OMA-designed Bryghusprojektet in Copenhagen, Denmark. The 27,000 sq m mixed-use project will accommodate a new headquarters for the Danish Architecture Centre (DAC). The building will act as the missing link between the city centre, the historic waterfront and the culturally rich Slotsholmen district of Copenhagen.

OMA partner-in-charge Ellen van Loon explained: “Instead of stacking a mixed-use programme in a traditional way, we positioned the DAC in the centre of the volume, surrounded by and embedded within its objects of study: housing, offices and parking. The urban routes reach into the heart of the building and create a broad range of interactions between the different programme parts and the urban environment.”

Situated among landmarks in the history of Danish architecture, Bryghusprojektet shares with the indigenous modernism tenets of simplicity, monumentality and urbanity. The site is bound by a cluster of historic monuments, including the Christiansborg Palace and the Old Brewery, whilst sharing the riverside with many other bold, contemporary interventions.

To capitalise on the site’s potential, the building is an ‘urban motor’ to actively link the city and the waterfront. Providing a connection under the busy Christians Brygge, where entrances to the different program elements are strategically located, the site becomes both a destination and a connector at the hinge of the waterfront and the ‘entrance’ to the city.

The post Construction begins on OMA’s
Bryghusprojektet in Copenhagen appeared first on Dezeen.

News: Danish studio Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) and American firm Ralph Appelbaum Associates (RAA) have been chosen to design a Lego visitor experience centre in Billund, Denmark.

Scheduled to open in 2016, the Lego House will tell the story of the famous Danish toy brand while offering educational and play activities for children and families.

BIG founder and partner Bjarke Ingels said: “It is one of our great dreams at BIG that we are now able to design a building for and with the Lego Group.

“I owe a huge personal debt to the Lego brick, and I can see in my nephews that its role in developing the child as a creative, thinking, imaginative human being becomes ever stronger in a world in which creativity and innovation are key elements in virtually all aspects of society.”

Hans Peter Folmann, senior director of the Lego House project, said BIG and RAA won the competition because they had “the best understanding of the idea behind the Lego brick, Lego play and Lego value”.

“At the same time they possess a wealth of experience in architecture and museum design,” he added. RAA’s work includes the London Transport Museum and the Museum of Jewish History and Tolerance Center in Moscow, while BIG has won competitions to design a cultural centre in Bordeaux and a national gallery in Greenland.

Construction of the Lego House in Billund – also the location of the Legoland theme park – is scheduled to start in 2014.

Back in 2007, BIG presented a Lego model of to propose a cluster of high-rise buildings in Copenhagen – see all architecture by BIG.

Other Lego projects we’ve featured include 676 miniature Lego towers made by MVRDV and a Lego greenhouse built in London’s Covent Garden – see all news about Lego.

Here’s the full press release from Lego:

International architects to design Lego experience centre in Denmark

Denmark’s Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) and Ralph Appelbaum Associates (RAA) of America will team up with the Lego Group to design the physical home for “The Lego House” in Billund, Denmark.

The name has been decided for the Lego experience centre due to be built in Billund, Denmark. Scheduled to open in 2016, the facility will welcome approx. 250,000 annual visitors and will be called: The Lego House. Construction of The Lego House in the centre of Billund is expected to start in 2014.

”The Lego House will be a place where people can enjoy active fun but at the same time it will be an educational and inspirational experience – everything that Lego play offers. The experience centre will give us the opportunity to show how children learn through Lego play. We’ll be able to combine academic knowledge about the developmental aspects of play with the brick itself – enabling children and their parents to see and feel what Lego play offers. And woven into the situation we’ll be able to relate the story of our company in a dedicated way, reflecting our values,” says Lego owner Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen.

Two architectural practices have been chosen to design The Lego House: one is a Danish company, Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), the other an American, Ralph Appelbaum Associates (RAA).

“In our competitions for the project these two companies had the best understanding of the idea behind the Lego® brick, Lego play and Lego values. At the same time they possess a wealth of experience in architecture and museum design, and I’m looking forward to our companies’ teaming up to produce outstanding settings and exciting experiences for future visitors to The Lego House,” says Hans Peter Folmann, Senior Director, Lego Huset.

RAA is acclaimed for its work around the world on large-scale educational experiences, including US FIRST (home of Junior First Lego League), the London Transport Museum and the Museum of Jewish History and Tolerance Center in Moscow.

“We are thrilled to be part of creating the Lego house that will be devoted to the builders of tomorrow. Playing, learning and creating with Lego Group’s international team of architects, thinkers and builders is a cherished commission for any designer,” says Ralph Appelbaum.

Danish architect company BIG is among other projects known for the Danish Expo Pavilion 2010, the West57th Street courtscraper currently under construction in New York, and the soon to be opened Maritime Museum north of Copenhagen.

“It is one of our great dreams at BIG that we are now able to design a building for and with the Lego Group. I owe a huge personal debt to the Lego brick, and I can see in my nephews that its role in developing the child as a creative, thinking, imaginative human being becomes ever stronger in a world in which creativity and innovation are key elements in virtually all aspects of society,” says Bjarke Ingels, founder and partner, BIG.

The post BIG and RAA to design Lego
visitor centre in Denmark appeared first on Dezeen.