Kengo Kuma & Associates beat out the likes of BIG and 3XN Architects in a design competition for a new waterfront cultural center that will form part of Copenhagen’s artificial Paper Island (Papirøen). Chosen unanimously by the jury, Kuma’s winning scheme will offer leisure and recreational facilities housed within pyramidal volumes echoing the roof profiles of Christiansholm island. The buildings will also be built of brick in reference to traditional Danish craft.
Revealed earlier this year, Kuma’s designs for the Papirøen Waterfront Culture Center were created in collaboration with Danish subcontractors Cornelius Voge, Soren Jensen engineers and Niels Sigsgaard. The 53,820-square-foot complex will be developed as part of COBE’s competition-winning masterplan for Paper Island. The masterplan and the waterfront cultural center are slated for completion by 2021.
“The new Waterfront Cultural Center with Harbor baths at Paper Island is to highlight the significance of water in the history, culture and vibrant urban life in Copenhagen,” wrote Yuki Ikeguchi, Partner in charge. “Our focus in design is to create an experience, and not just a standalone object, in the form of the landscape, art and architecture that are unified and defined by the water. Our design proposal strives to offer the diverse experiences of water in various states and conditions such as reflection of light and shadow, steam and flow that appeal to human senses.”
The cultural center is located on a corner site and will offer expansive views of the water inside and out. Skylights punctuate the cone-shaped buildings to let natural light into the ground-floor pools. The perforated brick facade also allows diffused light inside.
Kengo Kuma’s competition-winning aquatic center connects land and sea in Copenhagen [Inhabitat]