Exciting homes with great spatial diversity, high architectural quality and a forest setting

FRIIS & MOLTKE designed a proposal for the ‘NYE’ neighbourhood with the title ‘Løvhusene’.

The basic architectural concept of the project comes from the Scandinavian forest. Moss-covered hillocks and majestic, towering trunks with crowns, which filter the light and create shimmering patterns on the forest floor.

The houses are arranged like a little village in small clusters around a central space - a community. In between, the buildings allow the landscape and paths to seep through the common area, which takes on the character of a clearing in the forest.

In order to guarantee views and daylight in the clearing, the lowest-lying houses have been kept at one-storey, while the houses highest up on the slope rise to three storeys. Together they create shifting building heights and the sloping site generates a varied settlement, which breaks down the scale and adapts to nature.

In contrast to the soft shapes of the countryside and the forest, the mossy forest floor is taken over by distinctive concrete plateaus of various levels. In some places the hard surfaces act as terraces, in other places as floors for houses, over which sculptural, floating wooden boxes form the ceilings. Wide windows allow the forest floor tree trunks to come right up to the façade, creating an intense feeling of proximity and atmosphere.

The houses have a simple, well-proportioned appearance. On the outside, the floating boxes have vertical wooden cladding, while the underside exposes wooden ceilings with a warmth and glow. Both the façades and structure of the houses are timber built.

Winner of WAN Awards - Future Projects 2017.