“It’s hard to find anybody here who is opposed to the tower. Everybody thinks it’s a fantastic idea, and me too,” says Morten Dickmann, a reporter for the local newspaper. “The Danish news media tried hard to find someone opposed, but they couldn’t find anyone.” — The Guardian
Move over London—there's a new supertall tower (proposal) in town, and it is aiming to dwarf the current tallest building in Western Europe, Renzo Piano's The Shard.
The plan for this new mixed-use headquarters of fast-fashion company Bestseller was designed by Dorte Mandrup Arkitekter, but it won't go up in Copenhagen or Aarhus but in the tiny, rural town of Brande, population 7,000.
The project first made headlines in 2017 when the idea of a 320-meter skyscraper in the middle of the completely flat Jutland peninsula was introduced.
When Thom Mayne proposed a tower like this for a rural Swiss (iirc) locale two years ago he caught every kind of accusation of architectural misfeasance, including that old chestnut "male architect/phallus", with all seeming to ignore the fact that he was responding to a commission. This kind of structure in this kind of environment will always raise questions, but if done properly, answers many more. Rural Europe is less provincial than the U.S., it seems.
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Will IKEA buy the naming rights?
Introducing Flurg, the first home-assembled rural skyscraper. (Barren front plaza sold separately.)
If you need to build in remote rural areas, do so that you preserve as much land as possible, this is perfect. Look at all those sheep grazing sheepishly around the building :-)
this rendering doesn't seem to show a 320m tower... a typical tower that big could have 10,000 occupants. how do they get there in a town of 7,000, on a site that appears to have nothing but pasture and bike paths?
i feel like this is not quite credible. some promotional fiction maybe? none of it makes much sense. it's not interesting enough to justify the trouble, nor explained in enough detail to believe.
A bit more here:
https://www.designboom.com/arc...
BESTSELLER says that it intends to give something back to the local community by welcoming them to use the site. this public aspect comes in the form of a series of new buildings at the base of the tower, which will create a new town with planted rooftops.
I'm skeptical of projects that attempt to create new towns and communities on the fly, from scratch, especially company towns, which have had a checkered past. See Pullman's efforts in Chicago, years ago.
But yes, let's put grass on top!
When Thom Mayne proposed a tower like this for a rural Swiss (iirc) locale two years ago he caught every kind of accusation of architectural misfeasance, including that old chestnut "male architect/phallus", with all seeming to ignore the fact that he was responding to a commission. This kind of structure in this kind of environment will always raise questions, but if done properly, answers many more. Rural Europe is less provincial than the U.S., it seems.
I forgot all about the phallic angle (so to speak).
Lookin' good, Danish architecture firm! ;o)
Is there something rotten in Denmark?
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