STATUS
IDEA
CLIENT
Centerplan
TYPOLOGY
Culture, Work
SIZE M2/FT2
45,000 / 484,380
SHARE
Visible from Copenhagen’s Central Train Station, the City Hall Square and the Tivoli Gardens, the Scala tower is situated in the cultural, commercial and infrastructural heart of Copenhagen.
BIG’s proposal for the Scala Tower is a reinterpretation of the historical Copenhagen tower, consisting of two elements: a base relating to the scale of the surrounding buildings, and a slim tower contributing to the skyline. The proposal manages to combine both private and public in a sliding scale from the street to the rooftop in one continuous movement.
The prominent site in front of Tivoli’s main entrance with the historic skyline on one side and the modern towers on the other.
Copenhagen used to be called the city of towers. The city’s coat of arms portrays 3 towers rising above the water. But the city’s love for towers had faded away.
A quick study of the historical spires of Copenhagen reveals a change from the traditional to the modern towers. The modern towers are generic extrusions of rectangular floor plans, while the historical towers are spires emerging from urban blocks well integrated in the city fabric.
BIG proposed a building with a starting point in the historical Copenhagen tower which is made up of two basic principles: a base that relates to the urban space and life unfolding near the building, and a slim steeple that reaches towards the sky and becomes part of the Copenhagen skyline.
The generic lamellas of the façade skid out becoming steppes and terraces providing informal seating, spectator stands or other forms of urban accommodation.
Each sheet of glass is proportioned like a mega brick. As the regularity of the brick pattern interacts with the transforming outline of the warped tower, it generates a moiré effect of interference.
The melted tower is like the post-modern skyscraper in reverse. Rather than concentrating all energy on a funky silhouette or a catchy head piece, the top is moving towards the pure diagram of a slim modern tower, proportioned for optimal performance and maximum daylight. But from the waist down, the building twists and turns to create as many public qualities in its interface with the city.
At street level, a terraced landscape invites people to relax and take in the city making the Axel Square once again an attractive, urban public space – like a Danish version of the Spanish steps in Rome.
Bjarke Ingels Andreas Klok Pedersen Karsten Hammer Hansen Camilla Hoel Eduardsen Ville Haimala Daichi Tanako Sara Sosio Christian Bratz Simon Lyager Poulsen Julia Szierer
AWARDS
Chicago Athenaeum International Architecture Award
COLLABORATORS
Adams Kara Taylor
