Kajplats, Malmo – Swedish living concepts

March 8, 2007

When Malmo became only a bridge and a tunnel away from Copenhagen, it started to develop rapidly. Investors saw the opportunity of financing large scale housing projects (for the inhabitants of Copenhagen interested of escaping the big city), the Calatrava’s Turning Torso being the most daring of all. But it wasn’t the only one. The old city docks provided an excellent place for a series of apartment buildings, each one being built by a different architect. Considering the windswept location and the people’s need to variation the architect Klas Tham, designed a plan that reveals for each building a different angle, thus creating sheltered spots for the people that walk through the front promenade. Wingardh was one of the architects who participated at this project, designing the Kajplats 01 apartment building. The front volume consists of 3 five story blocks with 2 apartments (primarily duplex) per floor. Its large windows bring optimal natural light into the rooms. The variation of the elevation seems to be a simple a-b-b-a pattern. Situated alongside the promenade, this is the highest part, forming a wind barrier for the 2 lower buildings in the back: a three 3 story block that articulates the building at one of its ends and a long two-home building on the other side of the garden in the back. This last volume experiences the “moss landscape” which is a result of Wingardh’s conviction that nature should be a part of every building (”There should be a dialogue between culture and nature, but a certain sense of decay is interesting.”). Of corse the pieces of moss traped between two glass plates havent been popular with every tenant. The shadows of the voids provide a conterpoint to the uniform facades of the long building, whereas the geometric shape of the living units contrasts with the circular garden.