Park ‘n’ Play

Car parks should be an inte­gral part of the city. But how can we chall­enge the mono­func­tional use of a conven­tional car park? How do we create a func­tional parking struc­ture which also is an attrac­tive public space? And how do we create a large car park that respects the scale, history and future urban culture of the new deve­lo­p­ment area Nord­havn in Copen­hagen?

Site

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. Actually, the area is known as the Red Neigh­bour­hood because of the histo­rical and charac­te­ristic red brick harbour buil­dings. The future deve­lo­p­ment will build upon this histo­rical trait and merge exis­ting charac­te­ristics into new inter­pre­ta­tions.

Project

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.

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.

Structure

Park ’n’ Play is based on a stan­dard, pre-defined concrete struc­ture. As a second layer, the design becomes the active filter on top of a generic, multi level car park. The struc­ture has a rational and indus­trial crudeness, which suits the area’s spirit and history. However, 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 green façade

Park ’n’ Play is a large volume in a compact, urban setting, and because of its proxi­mity to the surroun­ding urban spaces, the car park is predo­mi­na­tely seen from close-up. To provide scale to the large buil­ding, JAJA Archi­tects propose planted façades where a green struc­ture inter­acts with the buil­ding behind.

The green façade is made up of a plant “shel­ving system”, which empha­sises the parking struc­ture and inter­acts with the rhythm of columns behind. Plant boxes intro­duce scale and depth, and provide rhythm to the façade. The place­ment of plant boxes follows the grid of the parking house, and there is a box placed in a stag­gered rhythm for every second column, in the full height of the buil­ding. The system of plant boxes brings depth and dynamic to the façade, while also matching the neigh­bou­ring buil­dings’ propor­tions and detailing. The plant struc­ture covers all four façades, and provides cohe­rence and iden­tity to the whole buil­ding. The green façade is planned into a time perspec­tive, to provide for the quickest possible plant growth against the tinted concrete. The expres­sion of the façades is based on an inter­ac­tion between struc­ture and nature, the struc­tural vs. the organic, and provides an exci­ting inter­de­pen­dence between the two.  

Staircase and 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. A stair­case towards the open square provides a diagonal connec­tion between street- and roof level, and invites people to ascend along the façade. The course of the stair­case follows the building’s struc­tural rhythm, and each landing provides a view across the surroun­ding urban spaces and at the top, a view to the roofs of Copen­hagen.

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 narra­tive can be seen from street level, and followed more closely when the visitor ascends along the stair­case. Along here, alter­na­tive access points to the parking levels are estab­lished. The frieze tells a story of past and future, and becomes a modern tale of the area’s indus­trial history and its future as Copenhagen’s new deve­lo­p­ment by the harbour. The two flights of stairs on the Nort­hern and Southern façades stand out as vertical passages through the gree­nery, and clearly mark the connec­tion between street level and the active roof.

The red thread

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. The elevated acti­vity sculp­ture above the roof provides great flexi­bi­lity, and makes the exci­ting acti­vi­ties visible from street level. The sculpture’s journey across the roof conti­nues unin­ter­rupted, before leading back along the second stair­case towards the street. Combined the stairs through the green façade and the active roof make up a living, urban land­scape that invites for both rest, fun and exci­te­ment.

As such the struc­ture becomes a red thread through the project, and connects the façade, the stairs and the acti­vi­ties on the roof as one single element. Copenhagen’s new car park Park ’n’ Play already is a social meeting ground and an active part of its local envi­ron­ment – as an urban bonus for locals, athletes and visi­tors alike.