construction work has started for the new IKEA store in Copenhagen

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Work has started on the construction of a new IKEA store on Kalvebod Brygge in Copenhagen - the main road running out of the centre and heading to the south west along the north side of the harbour.

The project, designed by Dorte Mandrup, was put on hold by IKEA for well over a year but parts of the concrete frame and the upper floors are now in place so you can see that it will be a substantial building.

The store will have a large garden across the roof that will continue a raised and landscaped walkway, started over ten years ago. When finished, there will be areas of garden above street level for over a kilometre from the SEB bank building by Lundgaard & Tranberg Arkitektfirma at Bernstorffsgade through to the new Cactus building by Bjarke Ingels - beyond the IKEA building on the west side of the bridge from Dybbølsbro Station to Fisketorvet - and then on to the new railway control tower at Otto Busses Vej.

The roof over the IKEA store has been described as a green lounge and there will be good views from here over the railway lines to Vesterbro to the north and to the city to the east.

Tall and thin concrete columns will support the canopy or bridge taking the garden over the top of Dybbølsbro and this strong vertical emphasis is taken across the main front of the store - on the front towards the railway - and around the pavilions that rise above the garden level.

This is a challenging site between the new Hotel Cabinn to the east and Dybbølsbro to the west - the high-level bridge that crosses from Vesterbro and the suburban railway station to the north to the shopping centre of Fisketorvet and the harbour to the south.

The site is about 65 metres deep and 240 metres from east to west - from the hotel to the bridge with a high raised bank across the south side that is the retaining wall for an exit slipway from Kalvebod Brygge and, to the north, on the other side of Carsten Niebuhrs Gade, are the tracks of the railway running in and out of the main station.

Dorte Mandrup

note: south to the top

left - the west end of the new store
centre - the slip road down to Kalvebod Brygge across the south side of the site
right - down the slip road and the buildings between Kalvebod Brygge and the harbour

friends and former colleagues accuse me of being uncritical of everything and anything if it’s Danish so, to redress the balance, I bring them here to Kalvebod Brygge to show them that Danish architects and planners can get it wrong …. very very wrong

 
 

below - the proposed IKEA store from the north with the bridge from Dybbøsbro station on the right and the Cactus building by Bjarke Ingels on the right edge and Hotel Cabinn on the left.
in the foreground is Carsten Niebuhrs Gade - between the main railway line and the IKEA site - and with the new bus station that is proposed for the strip of land against the railway.
Fisketorvet, with its distinct concave entrance, is beyond and the new metro station will be at the south-west end of Fisketorvet so to the far right
beyond the harbour is Amager