Scan Magazine | Special Theme | Nordic Architecture & Design Special – Denmark Inside the Irma block.
used to house hundreds of employees before falling more or less out of use. Today, it does again, and it has completely changed the surrounding milieu. Coffee bars have shot up and the building’s ground floor, which houses a number of cafés and restaurants, opens up into the pavement, blurring the borders between the building and the city. Noticeably, the restructured Irma block is also the home of Årstiderne Arkitekter’s Copenhagen office and its 82 employees. “Other examples of the firm’s sustainable thinking include the Himmelbyen project, where we are working closely with a consultant to achieve a more sustainable construction and reusing wood from other old building sites for façade cladding. Our landscape department is also working on numerous large projects, using and cultivating water in different ways to contribute to the landscape projects,” explains Olrik.
Copenhagen into the city its inhabitants want. The firm is also transforming the historic centre of the city to adapt to the new demands of residents, companies and retailers. Many projects involve restructuring unused or faded historic buildings to avoid their destruction and, once again, turn them into an active part of the surrounding environment. The firm seeks to incorporate the idea of reusing and reviving old buildings and materials to create a more sustainable architecture.
“For me personally, sustainability is a core part of the architectural thinking, to design and work in a sustainable way. On a larger scale, talking about sustainability, we have a lot of people working with old existing buildings in the old part of Copenhagen. They’re rethinking their use, making them more efficient and, by doing that, making it possible to give them new lives,” Olrik explains. Årstiderne Arkitekter did this with Irma’s old headquarters, a block that
Årstiderne Arkitekter also works closely with many clients to ensure that their project qualifies for the highest possible standards within certification systems such as DGNB (the German Sustainable Building), for which Årstiderne Arkitekter offers all services in relation to certification procedures. Facts Årstiderne Arkitekter was founded by Per Laustsen in 1985. Årstiderne Arkitekter employs approximately 226 people, 82 of who work in the Copenhagen office. The company undertakes more than 500 projects every year. Årstiderne Arkitekter works closely with developers and project managers and always has a designated contact person on each project. Årstiderne Arkitekter has special teams of landscape, urban-planning and space-planning architects, who ensure that buildings fulfil their function in as well as between and around their urban setting.
Irma exterior.
36 | Issue 105 | October 2017
Web: www.aarstiderne.dk