Dorte Mandrup & Brandlhuber

A project for a municipal sports center in Copenhagen. Following the ordinances on clearance and setback space, the cubature connects the volume of the sports hall with a sequence of four bordering fire-resistant walls. An extremely light roof covering of translucent polycarbonate makes a minimized support structure possible, which reflects the geometry of the inner room.

Within the framework of improving a district in Copenhagen a park and a hall for sports and cultural activities have been created, both of which suggest new ways of use through their unconventional forms. They contribute to urban renewal in that the population was included in the planning process and as they allow many social interventions. The contributions to the Holmbladsgade district on the island of Amager, close to the centre, are therefore not only valuable in terms of design, but also as attractions of the kind that develop a sense of community and help to form identity.

The park on the site of Prags Boulevard, which was once open to motorised traffic, was conceived by Kristine Jensen as open meeting space that can be used in a variety of ways. The long green strip has been furnished with green metal chairs and street lamps. The sports and cultural centre designed by Dorte Mandrup with b&k + Arno Brandlhuber on Holmbladsgade fills a vacant site. The design combines the volumes required by the brief with the four firewalls of the existing neighbouring buildings. The interiors of the new building are conceived as roofed, multi-functional urban space. The urban figure, the building’s crystalline geometry and the translucent building envelope, the visible load-bearing structure as well as the folded green “landscape” in the interior have the quality of something that has never previously existed.