One of Grundfos Dormitory’s remarkable characteristics is providing student housings in the heart of Aarhus’ new harbour front development – that is, a low cost residential building on a very attractive site.
Like many other industrial harbour fronts, the former con- tainer port of Aarhus is being transformed into a dynamic new neighborhood. Grundfos Dormitory is one of the first finished projects in the area that on completion will be home to 7,000 inhabitants and provide 12,000 workplaces. Its total site area amounts to 800,000 m2 making this de- velopment one of Europe’s largest harbour front city devel- opments.
A distinctive skyline
To reinforce the primary purpose of the building - to provide accommodations for students during their time of study - the project works with vertical stripes, both visually and organisationally. From afar the stripes act as a metaphor for books and make the building appear as a group of books on a shelf, while close up they resemble a condensed micro Manhattan with bundles of small towers. Each ‘tower’ is treated differently both inside and out with different ma- terials and window openings. This creates a variety of liv- ing accommodation, suitable for singles, couples or friends living together.
The ‘towers’ are designed to be different heights in order to incorporate technical facilities on the roof, accentuate the main entrance and provide a roof top terrace with a view over the waterfront and the city. These purely func- tional considerations end up giving this micro Manhattan a unique skyline of its own. The ‘towers’ are placed on the perimeter of the site establishing an open inner space that uses a simple design strategy to create an atrium with at- tractive functional as well as spectacular aesthetic quali- ties.
The infinite Atrium
The individual apartments are reached from balconies, which are encasing the 12-story atrium with mirror clad balcony fronts. The mirrors are transforming the sense of space by expanding the relatively narrow atrium with endless kaleidoscopic reflections of itself and the peoplemoving through it. The mirrors also contribute to a more activating common space by supporting the social aspects of a dormitory building. The reflections assist orientation across several floors from one location allowing you to see people or activities that are located directly beneath or above you.
In a similar way, the colours in the atrium enhance orienta- tion across floors. As an equivalent to the façade’s division into towers, the graphic and apartment door colours are used to form vertical bands of red, orange and yellow from the bottom to the top floor.
Besides being a low cost method to create striking spatial features, the mirrors also reduce the need for artificial lighting by reflecting a maximum of daylight from the large skylight all the way down to the lobby.
A full-scale building Laboratory
The Grundfos Dormitory is not only home to approx. 200 students - it also serves as a unique research facility for researchers from Aarhus University. The structure includes Denmark’s most comprehensive program for measuring and controlling a building’s energy consumption.
The research project under the title “Virtuel Powerplan for Smart Grid Ready Buildings” aims at developing an intel- ligent control system, which provides an optimal indoor climate with minimum energy consumption. The system monitors and registers temperature, humidity levels, CO2 emissions and flow of water, heat and electricity every six seconds around the clock individually for each of the 159 apartments.
In addition, the building shall be able to receive weather forecasts about temperature, wind and sunlight conditions in order to automatically regulate its collective heating and ventilation needs.
Ultimatly, the researchers aim at designing intelligent buildings, which respond to and even predict user needs based on supply and demand - e.g. regulating energy con- sumption behaviour compared to the current supply of electricity from renewable sources.
Grundfos Kollegiets særlige kendetegn er, at den rummer studenterboliger midt i Aarhus’ nye byudviklingsom- råde på havnen – dvs. en billig bygning på en særdeles attraktiv placering. Som mange lignende udtjente hav- neområder i andre byer skal den gamle containerhavn forvandles til en levende ny bydel. Grundfos Kollegiet er et fa de første opførte byggeprojekter i dette område, som i fremtiden vil være hjem for 7.000 beboere. Med en størrelse på 800.000 m2 er De Bynære Havnearealer et af Europas største havneudviklingsprojekter.
For at understrege bygningens primære formål - at forsyne studerende med en bolig mens de læser - ar- bejder projektet med lodrette striber, som på den ene side danner en metafor for bøger: På afstand får de byg- ningen til at ligne bøger på en reol. På den anden side får striberne bygningen til at fremstå som et kondense- ret Mikro Manhatten, når man kommer tæt på - et tæt bundt af små tårne. Hvert tårn er behandlet forskelligt både ind- og udvendigt med varierende materialer og vinduesplaceringer. Dette tillader store variationsmu- ligheder i boligtyperne, der rummer lejligheder til en- keltpersoner, par eller venner, der bor sammen.
Tårnene er udformet i forskellige højder for at kunne rumme de tekniske faciliteter på taget, skabe en syn- lig markering af indgangspartiet og danne plads til en tagterrasse med udsigt over vandet og byen. Disse for- skydninger, baseret på primært funktionelle hensyn, re- sulterer i, at dette Mikro Manhatten får sin egen unikke skyline.
Tårnene er placeret i periferien af grunden og dan- ner således et åbent indre rum, som benytter sig af en simpel designstrategi for at skabe et atrium med både attraktive funktionelle og spektakulære æstetiske kvaliteter.
De enkelte lejligheder nås fra balkoner, der definerer og afgrænser det 12 etager høje atrium med spejklædte balkonfronter. Spejlene ændrer rumfonæmmelsen mar- kant, idet de udvider det relativt smalle atrium gennem endeløse kaleidoskopiske refleksioner af rummet og de mennesker, der bevæger sig igennem det.
Spejlene bidrager videre til et mere aktivierende fælles- rum ved at understøtte de sociale aspekter i et kollegie- byggeri. Spejlingerne skaber bedre orientering på tværs af etagerne og tillader f.eks., at man kan se personer el- ler aktiviteter, der befinder sig direkte over eller under ens egen position. På en lignende måde benyttes farver som et middel til bedre orientering i det centrale rum. Som en pendant til facadens inddeling i tårne udgør grafikken og lejlighedsdørene vertikale bånd i røde, or- ange og gule farver.
Udover at være en billig måde at tilføre interiøret nogle iøjnefaldende rumlige kvaliteter, reducerer grebet med spejlene også behovet for kunstig belysning, idet de reflekterer mest mugligt lys fra det store ovenlys over atriet og hele vejen ned i bunden til entréen.
