Silo revival: two former grain silos on a Copenhagen waterfront are inventively remodelled into flats by adding external layers.For over 60 years, Copenhagen's south harbour was dominated by the hulking hulk·ing also hulk·y adj. Unwieldy or bulky; massive. hulking Adjective big and ungainly Adj. 1. profiles of two grain silos, relics of the city's lost industrial past. Originally built during the Second World War as part of a factory complex making animal fodder from soya beans, the silos became redundant around thirty years ago, but have now joined the commonplace vogue for conversion of heroic functional structures into housing, a process that has also catalysed a languishing docklands neighbourhood. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Dutch architects MVRDV MVRDV Maas Van Rijs de Vries were commissioned by a Swedish developer to remodel the silos into upmarket apartments. Initially the aim was to fill the cylindrical voids with flats, but it quickly became apparent that punching apertures into the silo walls would compromise their structural integrity, so MVRDV and their Copenhagen collaborators JJW Arkitekter devised an ingenious alternative solution of hanging the apartments on the outside walls of the silos and wrapping them in a glass skin. Paradoxically, this process of inversion actually produces larger, lighter flats all with generous balconies, while the silos become soaring atria Atria The heart has four chambers. The right and left atria are at the top of the heart and receive returning blood from the veins. The right and left ventricles are at the bottom of the heart and act as the body's main pumps. , each capped by a lightweight roof of transparent Texlon pillows. Varying in size from 90 to 120sqm, the 84 apartments that wrap sinuously around the twin silos are arranged over eight floors. The height of the original structures (45m) has resulted in flats with some of the best views in Copenhagen, neatly circumventing local planning restrictions that tend to restrict new developments to six or seven storeys. Decks for the flats are supported on a massive cantilever beam that penetrates the silos at first floor level and is anchored to the foundations by a series of tension rods. Apartments are fluidly planned in the resulting new perimeter zone, with minimal internal walls and wide balconies that even in Copenhagen's nippy nip·py adj. nip·pi·er, nip·pi·est 1. Tending to nip: an exuberant, nippy puppy. 2. Sharp or biting: nippy cheese. 3. climate act as enticing outdoor rooms. The two atria are treated in an identical manner, each with a lift shaft and sets of staircases that connect with access walkways for each level. With their starkly monochrome palettes and vertiginous ver·tig·i·nous adj. 1. Affected by vertigo; dizzy. 2. Tending to produce vertigo. vertiginous adjective Related to vertigo, dizzy stairs, the soaring interiors recall the perplexing per·plex tr.v. per·plexed, per·plex·ing, per·plex·es 1. To confuse or trouble with uncertainty or doubt. See Synonyms at puzzle. 2. To make confusedly intricate; complicate. , illogical fantasies of M. C. Escher Maurits Cornelis Escher (June 17 1898 – March 27 1972), usually referred to as M. C. Escher, was a Dutch graphic artist. He is known for his often mathematically inspired woodcuts, lithographs and mezzotints. . The grey concrete of the silos is preserved as a reminder of the project's raison d'etre, but their stark contours are now fleshed out by an armature armature, in art: see sculpture. Armature That part of an electric rotating machine which includes the main current-carrying winding. of habitable layers, like plump, buzzing honeycombs attached to a tree trunk. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Hopefully the spirit of invention and industry that clearly informs this project can survive the development's determinedly upmarket positioning and it will not become another affluent gated ghetto, like so many contemporary attempts to recast former docklands. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] |
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