Skæring Bæk – The Natural Communities / 2020

Located by Skæring Bæk just north of the Danish city of Aarhus I have been awarded in an open competition for a new residential area done in collaboration with Kaelea Ann Sim Sand from Kæjlig. The project is named ”The Natural Communities”, and the layout improves the natural qualities of the site, and at the same time it intends a high level of safety and social interaction in between the houses.

The area is a mix of villas, row houses and multistory housing with different sizes to attract different types of people and in that way create an area with a high level of social diversity. The different units are all based on the same base module, which by its positioning to each other and the landscape creates unique and interesting spatial qualities. At the same time, it makes the concept very affordable to realize for the client by reusing the same standard solutions and details. The buildings are structured as 5 U´s with the intention of creating the best use of the existing qualities of the landscape and create smaller informal meeting places as part of the big social community. The lowest buildings in 1 story in the southern part by a creek (Skæring Bæk) and with mini-towers in up to 5 stories in the northern part of the land next to a larger-scale commercial neighbor. By doing so the project adjust to the local scale and fits in in a balanced and natural way. The U´s are subdivided in smaller units to provide the citizens with multiple shortcuts in between the structures. The effect is a neighborhood where everyone easily and safe can get around and get to know the other people living in the area. The access to the area is through a “broken” road layout with three smaller side streets. This layout reduces the speed of the cars, and at the same time it creates a more interesting visual experience. In addition, many trees will reduce the impact of parked cars along the streets. Here, it is the pedestrians and the nature that is in focus.

The project is done at Simsand Architects and was awarded with a 4th place (purchase) out of 56 proposals.