How, in a densely built-up district, can one best create open spaces for sport and games? In Copenhagen’s Nordhavn this question is posed with an urgency that cannot be ignored. With new housing and workplaces, each to cater for 40,000 ­people, the former free port is destined to handle the lion’s share of ­population growth in the Danish capital in the years to come. Conversion and construction work has been going on here since 2012 and at the southern end of the port area closer to the city the first results can already be seen. With a FAR of 1.8 the development is dense and relatively small in scale, in a typical inner city manner.

To avoid streets filled with parked cars By & Havn, the city’s own project development society, erected an eight-­storey car park building at the central location Århus Torv, which houses a supermarket and recycling station on the ground floor. For the design of the roof and the facades the building ­client set up a separate, invited competition, from which Jaja Archi­tects from Copenhagen emerged as winners. In all the architects were asked to design about 4800 m2 of facade and an area on the roof about half as large again.