Primary School in Copenhagen
Tens of thousands of new apartments have emerged in the former industrial docklands areas around Copenhagen’s city centre in recent years. Among them, the Teglholmen peninsula in the southern port area of the city has evolved from a site with lots of heavy industry into a colourful mixed-use neighbourhood with administrative buildings, a university campus, residential buildings and some still-operational factories. This district school by architects JJW stands on a bend in the road in the heart of the peninsula. With its polygonal floor plan and its at-first-glance barely legible but strongly terraced form it breaks radically from the regular block and grid pattern of the surrounding buildings. Especially when approached from the back in the east the building is reminiscient of a cruise ship. A 16m-wide wooden staircase leads up to the second floor and narrower stairs and ramps lead from there to the uppermost level. The rooftop terraces are furnished with gym equipment, wooden seating, playground areas and two fenced ball courts and are alternatingly covered with wooden decking, artificial grass and rubber surfaces. Students have the opportunity to take active breaks on every floor. Despite the new building claiming a large part of the available plot the architects were able to accommodate twice as much open space as floor space on the project.
