C. F. Møller Architects | Henius House

in Concept & Competition by editor — 8:24 pm | July 8, 20120 comments

240 new youth residences and 45 family homes on the former industrial site Eternitten in Aalborg, as part of the areas transformation from cement industry to new urban district. Aalborg has a great deal of youth housing, scattered throughout the city. The 240 new youth residences – called Henius House after Isidor Henius, who owned the Eternit cement factory site and laid the foundation for the industrial activities there – represent a proposal for a centralised, modern youth housing project that can offer something more, including a strong social community with many opportunities for common activities.

In addition to common kitchens and common rooms on the various floors, there will also be common fitness facilities, an Internet café and workshops, and outdoor areas suitable for social activities. The roof areas can for example be used for ball games or Friday parties. Six buildings in all, with four to five storeys each, will be oriented so that all residents are secured the best possible light and views of the area – which is on a ridge overlooking the city, the valley of Østerådal and the Limfjord strait.

The youth residences will have facades of grey concrete with exposed construction joints, inspired by the cement factory’s original rough industrial architecture on the site. The rough concrete panels are interspersed with protruding volumes, another characteristic of the former industrial buildings. These volumes contain the common facilities, which are indicated in various bright colours. The youth residences are flexible in their design to ensure optimal opportunities for future adaptations of the interiors, so that two youth residences for example can be merged into a family home or a shared flat.

Sustainability features include low-energy windows and highly insulated building envelopes, solar panels, ventilation with heat recovery, green roofs and rainwater harvesting.

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