MVRDV and ADEPT Architects are the masterminds behind this incredible Sky Village high rise. Designed as an acropolis of stackable green-roofed units, the structure recently won a competition to construct a new high-rise in Rødovre, an independent municipality of Copenhagen. The high-rise incorporates lots of sustainable design elements to reduce its environmental impact, and its main concept is centered around a system of individual units that can be stacked in various configurations to maximize available space and allow for easy structural changes in response to market demand.
MVRDV and ADEPT designed their Sky Village to include retail and office space, housing units, a hotel, and a park around the base of the building. Flexibility is one of the building’s key design elements, and its modular composition allows property managers to alter its structure to suit tenants’ needs.
If a retailer wants more space or if the village needs more office or residential units, “pixels” can be easily added to reconfigure the structure. Each pixel is about 60 sq meters and they all are arranged around a central core. The inclusion of retail, restaurants, and offices in a residential development allows people the ability to live where they work and play, making this in a true village, albeit a vertical one.
The base of the village was kept small in order to minimize the building’s footprint as well as to maximize the public plaza and adjacent park. Retail space and restaurants take up the slim lower floors, offices are situated in the intermediary levels, and residential units are terraced towards the north to give the building a curved profile. These terraces give each residential unit a sky garden with a sunny southern aspect. Finally a hotel sits at the top of the high rise with views towards central Copenhagen.
The Sky Village also includes many wonderful green building elements, like greywater recycling, 40% recycled concrete in the foundation, and the structure’s façade will incorporate a variety of renewable energy technologies.
MVRDV’s second project in Copenhagen (after the Frøsilos) is meant to merge the idea of the single family house and a village all into one vertical unit. The building is shaped to resemble Copenhagen’s historical spire and will be the first contemporary high-rise in the city.
Hmmm… if each one of these ‘pixels’ is an apartment, how do you get out of this building? do you have to go through someone else’s apartment to leave & enter yours?