Det Grønne Strøg - the green line - will continue through Kaktustårnene / Cactus Towers
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Kaktustårnene or the Cactus Towers at Dybbølsbro will not be finished until the summer and it is still difficult to see how the high landscape of Det Grønne Strøg / the Green Line will transition across from the roof of the new IKEA store - still under construction - and then drop down steeply to the level of the entrance to the NEXUS building.
From the street and from the shopping centre of Fisketorvet, you can see what appears to be a large, square slab of concrete set at a sharp angle at the base of the towers and that forms, in part, the roof of a large, open, lobby or entrance into the towers and supported on high and slender columns. Drawings show that there will be a sharply-winding path dropping down between the towers through planting.
The towers were designed by BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group - and they have experience of forming steep landscapes at 8Tallet in Ørestad and on the roof of the Bakke or incinerator which is steep enough for a ski slope.
When finished this summer, there will be 495 apartments in the towers that are wedge shaped and each has a striking and sharply-angled balcony.
There will be a few apartments with two rooms but most are single studio rooms of just 33 square metres and have been described as providing "Micro Living" so it is slightly ironic that publicity material promotes the location as next to a new IKEA store when the furniture in the apartments is fitted and with little space for anything else. They even seem to have a bed that is, it appears from drawings, to be a mattress on the large windowsill.
Marketing of the apartments is aimed at young, single, people and there will be communal spaces in the towers for meeting and eating but they might also appeal to professionals who want a base for working in the city during the week but return home at weekends.
Copenhagen has a chronic shortage of housing for students and for single young professionals so it will be interesting to see how quickly tenants are found but my guess is that living in Kaktustårnene will be popular and fashionable.
