It Insists Upon Itself Lois

Much like Peter in season 4 episode 27 of Family Guy titled “Untitled Griffin Family History”, I did not care for the 8 House. “But it’s won so many awards, it’s a celebrated work of residential architecture” some may say to which I would respond “Fine, fine, architecture. I did not like the building”. While the forms were interesting and the concept it was built upon was superb, the execution was shockingly poor.

Great Tour, Terrible Building

Our class received a guided tour of the building during our trip to Copenhagen earlier in the semester and after looking at pictures beforehand I found myself quite excited for the tour. After all, google paints a pretty picture of the building, always photographed in perfect form, and presenting article after article heaping praise onto it. When I finally arrived at the 8 House, however, my view quickly changed as I saw the craftsmanship was nothing short of shoddy. Our tour guide was a very sweet older woman who was absolutely fantastic and tried to show the building in a good light, however there is only so much she could’ve done. The Aluminum panels, shown in most pictures to be sleek and uniform turned out to feature some less than beautiful streaks of brown corrosion flowing down the side coupled with inconsistent spacing that suggested construction by Stevie Wonder. As we walked around the ramp circling around the inside of the building sporting an admittedly beautiful view, we were told that the ramp in question was actually legally too steep and is dangerous for those on bikes or wheelchairs. The solution for this was to make zig-zags out of the pavestones to suggest those who are physically impaired take a sideways angle similar to that of skiers traversing a steep slope. Thankfully as you labor up this perilous slope you have a great view of the park featured in the middle of the 8. A beautifully designed communal green space that invites you to sit in the sun and perhaps read a book.

This feeling of sanctuary quickly goes away however, when you realize they seemingly ran out of money for the second park which features haphazardly placed mounds of dirt and little else.

After ascending the ramp we were greeted with a door leading up to a room offering a 360 degree birds eye view of the area which, to my surprise, the door consisted of an exposed and unfinished 2×4 nailed to a few sheets of aluminum which refused to open or shut properly. One would think that surely under the hood is where all the budget went and the building must have some fantastic facilities. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Although the building was built in 2006 the residents have already had to pay to replace all the pipes as they continued to burst. This combined with the frequent flooding brings to question whether they built condos or an overpriced Danish waterpark.

Surely It’s at Least in a Good Location?

One would assume that the location would help to set this building apart, however, even the location is full of flaws. The neighborhood consists of similar condo buildings, which, while helping to address their housing problem in Copenhagen, caused a multitude of other issues. As the area developed quite fast, they quickly realized there was no infrastructure to support the influx of people. The area features one undersized grocery store, very few restaurants, and such a small school that families are forced to send their children to private school. Additionally these condos which were already considered luxury have tripled in price since the building’s opening. The building also sports what would be a very convenient restaurant in the corner if it wasn’t constantly closing due to a flooding basement. There also isn’t any parking available on site so if residents should wish to own a car they’ll have to pay a hefty 120 Euro a month at the parking garage across the road.

Quite Convincing Architecture

All this being said, I do admit the forms in the architecture are quite impressive. While I’m not a fan of the overuse of metal cladding which I believe gives the building a soulless feel, the shapes and concepts are wonderful. It offers a very nice view of the marsh it sits on and has water features and parks which work to try and bring nature into the building. While the building covers 61,000 sqm and houses 476 residences (Arch Daily, 2010), it doesn’t overpower the area and seems to form around its environment. The green roof on the building is also a very nice touch as it adds some much needed color to the otherwise gray palette and helps the area to feel fresh. These great forms have not gone unnoticed as the building has brought home many awards including the 2010 Scandinavian Green Roof Award (Arch Daily, 2010),

2012 AIA Institute Honor Award for Architecture (Arch Daily, 2012) and may others. It truly is a shame that such great design was executed so poorly as I would otherwise love the building. Unfortunately it does seem that they cut corners with the construction of the building and failed to consider the residents when designing the space, electing to focus solely on the architecture. Due to this it makes the building abhorrent from an engineering standpoint leaving a bitter taste in my mouth

-Ryan C

References

Arch Daily. (2010, October 20). 8 house / BIG. ArchDaily. https://www.archdaily.com/83307/8-house-big

Arch Daily. (2010, August 19). 8 house: BIG win for BIG. ArchDaily. https://www.archdaily.com/73947/8-house-big-win-for-big

Arch Daily. (2012, January 9). BIG’s 8 house honored by the AIA. ArchDaily. https://www.archdaily.com/198730/bigs-8-house-honored-by-the-aia