JDS Architects is pleased to announce the nomination of its project Kalvebod Waves for the Big Arne Award. The award is given to completed works and initiatives that have raised the architecture of the metropolitan Copenhagen area in the past year. Kalvebod Waves is nominated for the award because it contributes to reuniting the city of Copenhagen with its harbor. To create this urban spot on the waterfront, JDS Architects teamed up with KLAR, Future Experience, U-turn and White Water Adventure Park.

From Islands Brygge to Kalvebod Waves

At the turn of the millennium, the center of Copenhagen was given an incredible breath of fresh air or rather fresh grass by the opening of Islands Brygge Park. The project injected some 28.000 m2 of outdoor space for all. In 2003, we, as PLOT (now JDS and BIG) designed the harbour bath project, which introduced a new concept of bathing and water sports to the capital. The success was immediate and the first real signs of the city turning itself back to its waterways became evident.

Kalvebod Brygge is situated opposite this popular Copenhagen summer hang out. Kalvebod Brygge has the potential to be Islands Brygge’s more urban addition but has, until now, been synonymous with a desolated office address devoid of life and public activities. The new urban waterfront is the perfect hub for summer festivals and water related activities.

When addressing this infamously gloomy and desolated side of the harbour, we put our focus on two major design aspects: to create urban continuity and to locate new public spaces on the sunny parts of the water. What has doomed the Kalvebod area until now were the long shadows drawn by the imposing structures fronting it. We studied the course of those shadows throughout the day and the year and located two main pockets of shadow-free zones. We decided to program those areas as both resting islands on the water and actual programmed spaces, containing until now the facilities of a kayak club. From there on, all we needed was to find an active way to reconnect those islands to the urban network and to make them relate to the city’s infrastructure.

JDS Architects

Julien De Smedt’s numerous prize-winning projects have helped to re-energise the discussion of contemporary architecture. The Founder and Director of JDS/Julien De Smedt Architects & MWA/Makers With Agendas has offices in Brussels, Copenhagen and Shanghai. Among other awards and recognitions, JDS received the WAN 21 for 21 Award in 2011, the European Steel Design Award in 2011 and the Maaskant Prize for Best Young Architect in 2009.  In 2004, JDS received a Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale for the Stavanger Concert Hall and was nominated for the Mies Van Der Rohe award. JDS has recently completed several large international projects, including the Holmenkollen Ski Jump in Oslo (Architizer A + Award 2013) and the residential project Iceberg in Aarhus (Architizer A + Award 2013 MIPIM Award 2013).

Info Kalvebod Waves on JDS Architects:
http://jdsa.eu/kal/

High resolution pictures: http://bit.ly/ZcK21V

Contact: press@jdsa.eu

Big Arne Award: http://arkitektforeningen.dk/artikel/nyheder/nominerede-til-aarets-arne-2014 (in Danish)

In 2014 JDS Architects will continue the construction of the following projects:

-a police station for AG Vespa in Antwerp (BE); completion February 2014 – jdsa.eu/apd
-a mixed-use project for the city of Lille (FR) of 7.000m2 – jdsa.eu/lil
-the Macdonald housing complex of approximately 100 apartments with a total surface of 7.500 m2 in Paris (FR)
-a 26.000 m2 multifunctional office complex in Hangzhou (China) – jdsa.eu/hang
-an office and commercial complex of 180.000 m2 in Qingdao (China)
-the Gwell complex of 800 studio units of 38.000 m2 in Gangnam, Seoul (South Korea) – jdsa.eu/gwell
-the Premier Campus in Istanbul (Turkey), an office and retail complex of 100.000 m2 – jdsa.eu/kag