☉ The Seagrass House is a winning proposal by Nordland Arkitekter for By & Havn in 2021. It is located in Copenhagen Denmark in an urban setting. Its scale is large with a surface of 20.000 sqm. Key materials are concrete and wood.
The Seagrass House imagines completely new ways to connect parking, sustainability, city life and urban farming.
The project creates a new local hub for mobility, recycling and urban nature wrapped in seagrass as the primary facade material. The design of the new parking house combines architectural motifs from the area and bridges the area’s past, present and future.
The site historically formed the western shoreline of Amager island before the area was reclaimed from the sea. Therefore, the context of the new parking house has previously been a coastal stretch with shallow sea areas and an abundance of seagrass. This site-specific narrative about the area’s development is continued in the project, where seagrass is used as the primary facade material in a contemporary way.
A new recycling station for local residents forms part of the ground floor program with a connected lively and inviting outdoor space that can be used for small markets, exchange stations, experiments with recycled materials and other social activities. In front of the recycling station, a sculptural public staircase invites passersby up to the project’s roof farm with views overlooking the city.
The rooftop farm will create a platform for communities in the city to engage with urban food production and recreational activities. The farm has a gently shaped landscape that invites for activity and stay. Pavilions incorporate a restaurant, food school and greenhouse for shared use.
The scale jumps in the façade give the project a recognizable motif that can be clearly read from a distance, while materiality, details, integrated lighting and niches create a wealth of experiences along the facades and in the building’s edge zones.