Into the Danish mountains

  

Getting off the metro the mountains cannot be missed. Like proper mountains do, the building offers a clear landmark. Nice if you live there and never have to explain to your friends which of a series of anonymous building block they need to go. 

When you get close and no longer experience the mountain image, the holes with which it is created change the reflection of the face of the building. On a sunny day the building then seems to be covered by patches of clouds. 

And even on the inside it works great, maintaining the connection with the outside. On a sunny day you get a wonderful negative of the image you see on the outside. And for Adolf Loos adepts, the wall is not just decoration. Through the holes it provides natural ventilation for the car park.

Once inside the car park you can easily find your way to the apartments. The color coding of the floors shows right away where the car park stops and the housing starts. And the colors will help visitors with a lack of number-memory (like me) to find the right floor.

 

Walking around and through the building it changes face. There is the very present mountain walls, on the inside balanced by the colorful levels of the housing parts. When you walk around to the lower part the slope of penthouses with wood sides suddenly opens up. Each apartment has a large sun-facing terrace and it looked like in summer the whole slope will be green. 

Must be a great experience coming home from the city, see your mountain from far away, pass through the color-blasting corridors and enter your apartment with an unobstructed view past a terrace of wooden panels and plants.

 

All in all I found the mountain dwellings better than in the polished pictures. The whole building felt balanced and with a lot of attention for detail. The image at the entry of the car park of the deer on a stack of cars summarizes the building for me: cars provide the basis for a place to live in sync with our natural needs.

Architect: BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group)  |  Completion: June 2008  |  Location: Copenhagen.