What if apartments came with yards?
At VM Bjerget, a condo building still under construction in Copenhagen, each unit faces the sun. The apartments each wrap a big, usable terrace that is, in turn, edged with roof gardens. Danish outfit PLOT Architects designed the staggered units to cover a a light and airy parking garage, rather than make two separate buildings. While there is lots of parking, the building is less than a 5 minute walk from a new Metro station, so residents won't need to own cars to get to work.
We're thrilled to see more choices in urban living. People who want private outdoor space shouldn't have to drive to the suburbs. Quick-and-dirty Danish translations after the jump...
This L-shaped plan forms the basis for most of the units in the building; included in the gallery is one of the larger 2- or 3-bedroom plans and architects' renderings, along with pictures of the building under construction. And, yes, that's an artist's image of Mt. Everest that is to cover the sides of the parking garage, supergraphics style.
Units go up for sale in August. To be clear: these apartments are not meant for the masses. Prices are not yet available, but the building is in a pricey area of an expensive city.
Translations for a few Danish words that appear on the plans:
• entré = foyer
• bad = bathroom
• toliet = wc/powder room
• køkken = kitchen
• spiseafdeling = dining area
• stue = living room (or just "room" in general; Danes have a more flexible sense of space than Americans)
• værelse = bedroom or separate room
The building reminds me of Habitat in Montreal, an apartment complex designed by Moshe Safdie and built for the 1967 World's Fair. The complex was designed to illustrate a number of innovations. Among them were one of the first examples of prefabricated building technology, unique floorplans within a repetitive structure, and like the Danish building, the cascading facade facing a waterway, and each unit having a spacious terrace. Pictures of Habitat can be seen at these websites among others:
www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Habitat_67.html
http://cac.mcgill.ca/safdie/habitat/
view John H's profile
Bjerget means "the mountain" ... this place rocks!!!!!
view Pipsqueak's profile
Yes, it is a really innovative apartment building. I wouldn't mind living there myself.
view John H's profile
It looks like there could be about ten different levels/floors. I wonder if there are elevators? It doesn't seem like elevators could be centrally located. I wonder how they planned for people to get from floor to floor and to their apartments. there could be a lot of walking or climbing stairs. Although I wonder about the movment of people in the building, I love the idea of having outdoor space for each apartment.
view sushi's profile
I love it! - what a great design!!
(although I am concerned about neighbour disputes when upstairs hanging foliage grows down over your windows...)
view Violetsrose's profile