shl has won the property development competition in conjunction with Swedish developer Midroc and engineering/architect consultants Sweco.
The project consists of a 16,900 square meter congress and hotel facility and 17,100 square meter housing. The new facilities will play an important part in the ongoing development of the promenade running the length of the city waterfront.
The building is characterized by a deformation of the grid into a crystalline expression that has coined the nick name ‘The Salt Crystals’. The 12-story hotel volume in the south east corner with its light, generic and broken facades is designed to become the new landmark of the city.
The congress center starts in three stories at the opposite end and grows gradually to become the 12-story hotel. The hotel has 230 rooms. The Congress and Hotel Centre run along the sea promenade to meet the apartment blocks that are separated from the Congress centre by a small pedestrian street. The apartments have the same ‘salt crystal’ grid, while the facades have a shifting rectangular pattern to reinforce their open and light structure.
The two new structures are expected to be an important catalyst for the city life in the harbor area with cafes, shops and several squares and green spaces for the public.
According to project partner Kim Holst Jensen, they have derived design inspiration from the city’s block structure and are also considering the light Scandinavian features in the existing masterplan of the area since 1999.
