Kilen Brygge

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Kilen Brygge

Location
Sandefjord

Size
25,000m²

Principal
Kilen Brygge AS

Year
2007

As time goes on, the project encompasses an entire city district. Although it is separate from the downtown area, it is certainly part of Sandefjord's new look. The district at Kilgaten will develop around a district square, Kilen Torg, as its main attraction. Cozy and open to sunlight, it is surrounded by a series of buildings with a diversity of functions. The district will have its content when the square is built; there will be a place. Building 3, the relatively small building in the north, scales down the development in its meeting with the square.

Building 4/5, with its large and clearly defined sloping roof surface, is solidly and strongly placed against building 7, the 11-storey high-rise, a slender vertical building with a relatively modest footprint, and marks the place of the square as the main element of the area. Squares, narrow alleys, water surfaces and quayside promenades form a versatile course of public spaces and lines of communication.

The challenge in this type of district development is always a question of getting the dimensions of public space right in relation to the amount of people invited into it. Oversized and barren areas, quays and wharves that are too wide in this context are well-known problems. The design of large buildings is architecturally demanding on exposed property, facing the sea, with no terrain to support them. Naturally, buildings must be relatively substantial on beachfront properties to justify capital expenditures. The costs of a foundation wall must be spread over a minimum number of floors.

This problem is compounded by the fact that modern residents want to park their cars close to a lift and expect the lift to be close to where they live. The garage requires an additional floor for itself and, closed and inaccessible as it must be, this complicates the preservation of a pleasant environment along the quayside. Another challenge for the builder is the careful detailing that is considered necessary for a sculpturally designed, aesthetically pleasing building. The development of a beachfront property requires special characteristics. The architect knows that contextually the building will often be surrounded by vessels of various sizes, and a relevant style must have a certain maritime connection. This is not a boat being built, but a building by the water. A change in pace is sought where development reaches the shoreline and crawls onto land.

British Airways Headquarters

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British Airways Headquarters

Location
Heathrow, London

Size
114,000m²

Client
British Airways

Recognition
1. Prize invited arch. competition 1989, British Construction Industry Award 1998, RIBA Best of British Award 1999, British Council for Offices Award 1999

Built
1998

To retain a human scale for a development intended to house 4,000 staff, we have divided the office accommodation into a series of "houses".

Designed to promote social interaction and informal meeting, the street 175 meters long, is the hub of the scheme.

To contrast with the buzz of the street, the office areas are designed to be calm, welcoming and informal within an ordered plan. Each of the office buildings is divided into two wings by a central lift lobby, which faces onto the street.

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A strong link between the internal and external environment is characteristic of the development, with views out to the courtyard and the landscape beyond, from the street, office areas and the restaurant.

From the exterior, Waterside is viewed as a series of buildings in the landscape, linked by a transparent glass enclosure. Grass mounds which create an undulating visual screen around Waterside, the stepped roofline and projecting sharp stone clad fins to office wings all serve to break down the mass of the complex.

Aker Brygge

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Aker Brygge

Location
Aker Brygge, Oslo

Size
170,000m²

Client
Aker Eiendom

Recognition
1st prize invited arch. competition. Oslo Council's Fine Art Award 1990. DIFA Award 2006

Built
1989

The challenge was to build “urban qualities”, the atmosphere of a living city, into the place: to give it identity, intimacy, drama, monumentality, friendliness, contrasts, humor and the feeling of joy – to ensure the buildings talked with each other across the streets, narrow passages and public spaces. The contact surface with the waters of the fjord has been exploited and pulled deep inside the mass of buildings via narrow passages and streets that run down the quayside and provide energy and life to the pedestrian areas .

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The four buildings are designed as city blocks and appear more like complex "building environments" than individual buildings. The "city blocks" provide a typical urban cross-section of functions: theater and a basement cinema. Shops on street level and and offices on middle floors with apartments with lush roof gardens. The result is a neighborhood where a kindergarden sits next to a night club, with activities for every age and every desire. The apartments are conceived as a complete residential complex covering the rooftops of the city, with sun and magnificent views, far from the noise of the busy streets below.