NORD Architects design iconic sports facility together with the local users.
The first public accessible building in Ørestad City close to Copenhagen City is also the smallest building in this newly developed area. The sport facility is designed by NORD Architects in close co-creation with the users, to cater and promote informal sports activities.
“This Multi-purpose building is developed and designed to be a vibrant urban space that creates new communities and social sustainability within the giant structures of the big buildings and long boulevards in Ørestad City”, says Morten Gregersen, partner at NORD Architects.
The Multi-purpose Sports and Community Facility is developed through a process based on collaboration with a dedicated group of users, local stakeholders and inhabitants to cater specific local needs. During an open process in the early and developing phase, NORD Architects facilitated workshops where the users dealt with priorities of activities and functions.
The building is open 24/7 to the public, school classes and local sports clubs and is divided into heated and unheated areas, with the unheated part as the biggest multifunctional spaces for different activities as basketball and floorball and the heated part as a space for dance, yoga, material arts or floor exercises for smaller groups. The building is unstaffed and all activities and events are arranged and held by the users themselves whether organized in groups or private initiatives.
As opposed to the surrounding buildings, the lowest point of the Multi-purpose facility is facing Ørestad Boulevard, and in this way meeting and welcoming the people in the neighborhood on ground level. Furthermore, the building stands out due to its green roof and wooden materials.
“This place is a kind of shelter for local sports and social events and in this way an invitation to both creativity, activity and recreation. It is built as a light structure that welcomes openness and unpredictability in this otherwise fully planned urban area and we are sure it will generate social interaction and livability in Ørestad City”, explains partner Johannes Molander Pedersen.
The relation to the surrounding park emphasizes the inclusive and accessible character of the building, that has no back, but a long unbroken strip of windows making the activities inside, visible from the park – and reversed.
