HOUSE OF THE WEEK: Bjarke Ingels Group's 8 House, Copenhagen

Looking out onto the Kalvebod Faelled on the edge of the Copenhagen Canal in Southern Ørestad, 8 House is the largest ever private development to have been undertaken in Denmark and comprises 61,000 square metres of residential space as well as 10,000 square metres of retail and office space. Designed by Danish outfit Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), its fundamental design principle is that all types of families and people can be accommodated within the building – young/old, nuclear/single-parent households and growing/shrinking families. Progressive in this ambition, people are accommodated in flats and townhouses which have been variously put together in non-traditional forms and tied together in a literal bow-shaped plan with two communal garden courtyards. Retail and office spaces are located on the lower floors, while there is a promenade and cycle track to the 10th floor. The building has been shaped according to access to views and light, so that one corner is dropped to ground level.

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