The roof is on fire

Park ’n’ Play is a perfect example of how to overcome mono-functional parking garages.

Park ‘n’ Play is a new car park situated in Århus­ga­dek­v­ar­teret, the first phase of a major deve­lo­p­ment plan for Copen­hagen Nord­havn. The neigh­bour­hood is curr­ently under deve­lo­p­ment and will host a mix of new and exis­ting buil­dings in the future.

The starting point for the compe­ti­tion design was a conven­tional car park struc­ture. The task was to create an attrac­tive green façade and a concept that would encou­rage people to use the rooftop.

JAJA Architects transform the gray concrete framework into something friendly, which already radiates warmth and harmony through its materiality and surfaces.

Instead of conce­aling the parking struc­ture, JAJA Archi­tects proposed a concept that enhances the beauty of the struc­tural grid while brea­king up the scale of the massive façade. A system of plant boxes is placed in a rhythm rela­ting to the grid, which intro­duces a new scale while also distri­bu­ting the gree­nery across the entire façade.

The grid of plant boxes on the facade is then pene­trated by two large public stairs, which have a conti­nuous railing that becomes a fanta­stic play­ground on the rooftop. A mere railing is trans­formed into swings, ball cages, jungle gyms and more. From street level, the railing lite­rally takes the visi­tors by the hand, invites them on a trip to the rooftop land­scape and amazing view of the Copen­hagen Harbour.

Park ‘n’ Play is based on a stan­dard, pre-defined concrete struc­ture. The tradi­tional concrete parking struc­ture may appear cold and hard. As a natural conti­nua­tion of the area’s red brick iden­tity, JAJA Archi­tects propose to color the concrete struc­ture red. With this simple measure, the grey frame is trans­formed into a unique buil­ding struc­ture, which radiates warmth and inti­macy through its mate­ria­lity and surface, in harmony with the surroun­dings that are domi­nated by red roof tiles and bricks.

The crucial element of this parking garage is the accessible, playable and recreational roof.

The basic prin­ciple of an active car park is the idea of an acces­sible and recrea­tional roof offered to local inha­bi­tants and visi­tors alike. Visi­bi­lity and acces­si­bi­lity are ther­e­fore essen­tial when crea­ting a living roof.

The stair­case has refe­rences to Centre Pompidou, where the move­ment along the façade is an expe­ri­ence in itself. Along the back wall of the stair­case, JAJA Archi­tects worked with RAMA Studio to create a graphical frieze, which, in an abstract, figu­ra­tive form conveys the history of the area. 

The mix of parking garage, playground and attractive destination makes the project unique.

The red thread is a physical guide through the parking structure’s public spaces, which leads the visitor from street level, where the guide is intro­duced as a handrail on the stair­case. As a sculp­tural guide it almost lite­rally takes the visitor by the hand, and leads along the stairs to the top of Park ‘n’ Play and through the acti­vity land­scape on the roof. 

Here, it becomes a sculp­ture and offers expe­ri­ences, resting spaces, play areas and spatial diver­sity. Acti­vi­ties along the red thread are tradi­tional such as swings, clim­bing sculp­tures etc., but also more archi­tec­tural elements such as fencing and plants, which empha­sises or estab­lishes spaces while provi­ding shelter from the weather.