Scheduled for completion in early 2017, the 27,000-square-metre Bryghusprojektet is a mixed-use development on the site of an old brewery, which will include residential units, community spaces and a playground.

In the middle of the development will be the new offices for the Danish Architecture Centre, an organisation set up to spread knowledge about architecture and the built environment.

The centre will be surrounded by its own subjects of study and research, explains Ellen van Loon, who is OMA's partner-in-charge on the project along with the firm's co-founder Rem Koolhaas.

"Instead of stacking a mixed-use programme in a traditional way, we positioned the Danish Architecture Centre in the centre of the volume, surrounded by and embedded within its objects of study: housing, offices and parking," said van Loon.

The centre will include exhibition areas, research facilities, conference rooms, an auditorium, a bookshop and a cafe.

OMA's design for Bryghusprojektet, which is being funded by the philanthropic Realdania Foundation, was first revealed in 2006.

The Dutch firm is currently going head to head with Danish firm BIG in a competition to transform a convention centre in Miami, USA, while work is nearly complete on the OMA's Shenzhen Stock Exchange in China – see all architecture by OMA.

Images are courtesy of OMA.

Here's some more information from OMA:

The Bryghusgrunden Project is located on the harbor on the site of an old brewery, the Bryghusgrunden, one of the few remaining areas with the potential to link the city to the waterfront. The building itself will straddle the busy Christians Brygge ring road, creating new urban connections for pedestrians and cyclists between the waterfront and Denmark’s houses of government.

Construction begins today on the OMA-designed Bryghusprojektet in Copenhagen, Denmark. The 27,000 sq m mixed-use project will accommodate a new headquarters for the Danish Architecture Centre (DAC). The building will act as the missing link between the city centre, the historic waterfront and the culturally rich Slotsholmen district of Copenhagen.

OMA partner-in-charge Ellen van Loon explained: "Instead of stacking a mixed-use programme in a traditional way, we positioned the DAC in the centre of the volume, surrounded by and embedded within its objects of study: housing, offices and parking. The urban routes reach into the heart of the building and create a broad range of interactions between the different programme parts and the urban environment."

Situated among landmarks in the history of Danish architecture, Bryghusprojektet shares with the indigenous modernism tenets of simplicity, monumentality and urbanity. The site is bound by a cluster of historic monuments, including the Christiansborg Palace and the Old Brewery, whilst sharing the riverside with many other bold, contemporary interventions.

To capitalise on the site's potential, the building is an 'urban motor' to actively link the city and the waterfront. Providing a connection under the busy Christians Brygge, where entrances to the different program elements are strategically located, the site becomes both a destination and a connector at the hinge of the waterfront and the 'entrance' to the city.

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The building comprises a series of curved wings, designed to mimic the shapes generated by swirling water, and is clad in shimmering aluminium shingles that are reminiscent of fish scales.

Containing around 7 million litres of water, the Blue Planet is the largest aquarium in Europe and contains a total of 53 aquariums and displays, housing over 450 different species of fish and creatures that can be found in rivers, lakes and oceans.

Exhibitions are divided up between the curved wings and there is no fixed route around the building, which 3XN hopes will reduce queues for the most popular aquariums.

The main entrance leads into a circular foyer at the heart of the building, where visitors can look up through a glass ceiling into a pool directly overhead.

"Our wish was to bring our visitors all the way down to the world of the fish," said 3XN partner Kim Herforth Nielsen. "The design of The Blue Planet is based on the story about water and life under the sea. We visualise the construction as a whirlpool which draws visitors into the depths to the fascinating experiences waiting among fish and sea animals from all over the world."

Located on the waterfront near the city's airport, the aquarium is expected to attract 700,000 visitors a year.

3XN won a competition to design the Blue Planet in 2008. We first revealed images of the building back in November, when it was nearing completion.

Other recent projects by 3XN include the Plassen Cultural Centre in Norway and an experimental food laboratory at Copenhagen restaurant Noma. See more architecture by 3XN.

Photography is by Adam Mørk.

Here's the latest project description from 3XN:

The Blue Planet

The whirlpool

Inspired by the shape of water in endless motion, Denmark's new National Aquarium, The Blue Planet is shaped as a great whirlpool, and the building itself tells the story of what awaits inside.

The Blue Planet is located on an elevated headland towards the sea, north of Kastrup Harbor. Located right next to the water, the whirlpool binds land and sea together. The building's distinctive shape is clearly visible for travelers arriving by plane to the nearby Copenhagen Airport.

The facade is covered with small diamond-shaped aluminum plates, known as shingles, which adapts to the building's organic form. Just as water aluminum mirrors the colors and light of the sky and thus the building has a very varied expression - like nature itself. As the flow of water, the building is flexible and dynamic, and this means that the lines of the whirlpool can be continued in future expansions.

Into another world

Visitors reach the entrance by following the first and longest of the whirlpool's whirls, already starting in the landscape. With a smooth transition the landscape surpasses for the building, while the outdoor ponds mark the unique experience that awaits the aquarium visitors as they enter The Blue Planet: the whirlpool has pulled them into another world - a world beneath the surface of the sea.

Flexible movement between exhibitions

A circular foyer is the center of motion around the aquarium, and it is here visitors choose which river, lake or ocean to explore. By enabling multiple routes the risk of queues in front of individual aquariums is reduced. Each exhibition has its own theme and entrance from the foyer, where sound and images are used to introduce the atmosphere of the different exhibition areas. The restaurant enjoys a magnificent view of the sea, which begins just a few meters away.

Complex Building Project

The Blue Planet is a building of high complexity, which at one time creates a one of a kind setting for a unique and economically sustainable cultural experience, while creating the framework for the complex ecosystem of some of the world's most sensitive animal species. 3XN has been the project manager for a total of fifteen sub-consultants. From the very beginning ambitions have been high, and the organic forms of the complex facade have been a challenge, which have required a strong collaboration between the consultants.

Above: floor plan - click for larger image

Above: section one - click for larger image

Above: section two - click for larger image

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The Amager Bakke Waste-to-Energy Plant was designed as a replacement for the existing Amagerforbraending plant. The huge wedge-shaped building will also generate power by incinerating waste. A 31,000-square-metre ski slope will trail down the roof of the structure, allowing it to double-up as a new visitor attraction.

A chimney will extend up from the top of the slope and will emit a smoke ring every time a ton of carbon dioxide has been released, intended to remind local residents of their carbon footprint. These rings will be illuminated by lasers at night.

The Amager Bakke plant will stand in an industrial zone near the city centre and is described by the architects as "the single largest environmental initiative in Denmark".

The ground-breaking ceremony took place on-site yesterday and was attended by officials from the City of Copenhagen and members of the local community.

Read more about the Amager Bakke Waste-to-Energy Plant in our earlier story on Dezeen. The project is also included in Dezeen Book of Ideas, which is on sale now for £12.

BIG, short for Bjarke Ingels Group, is also currently working on a 150-metre-high skyscraper for Vancouver and two twisted apartment blocks for Miami. See more architecture by BIG.

Here's a few words from BIG:

BIG celebrates the groundbreaking of Amager Bakke Waste-to-Energy Plant

Located in an industrial area near the city centre the new Waste-to-Energy plant will be an exemplary model in the field of waste management and energy production, as well as an architectural landmark in the cityscape of Copenhagen. The project is the single largest environmental initiative in Denmark and replaces the adjacent outdated Amagerforbraending plant, integrating the latest technologies in waste treatment and environmental performance.

Amager Bakke reflects the progressive vision for a new type of waste treatment facility and is conceived as a destination in itself.

The roof of the new Amager Bakke is turned into a ski slope of varying skill levels for the citizens of Copenhagen, its neighboring municipalities and visitors, mobilizing the architecture and redefining the relationship between the waste plant and the city by expanding the existing recreational activities in the surrounding area into a new breed of waste-to-energy plant.

Amager Bakke Waste-to-Energy Plant is included in our book, Dezeen Book of Ideas. Buy it now for just £12.

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by BIG appeared first on Dezeen.

Above: House of Water

Commissioned by the city's planning department, Tredje Natur and PK3 were inspired by Copenhagen's long history of artificially constructed islands, many of which served as a navy base in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, to create the masterplan.

Entitled Blue Plan, it covers five zones in and around the harbour and is conceived as a public recreation area for residents and tourists, as well as an educational facility.

Above: House of Water

"The harbour bath is now so clean that the tourists and citizens of the city can both bathe and fish here - a privilege only a few large harbour cities in the world share," explained Tredje Natur's Flemming Rafn Thomsen and Ole Schrøder, describing how they imagine the space as "a showcase for Danish water technology". 

The first of the five zones is to be named House of Water and will comprise softly curving concrete islands, accessed by a traditional wooden jetty.

Above: Bird Island

Fugleøen, or Bird Island, will be a plant-covered islet that birds, small animals and insects can use as a habitat. "[This] island will be the obvious destination for bird lovers, angling enthusiasts, shell collectors, biologists and school classes to be taught biology, history and geography," said the architects.

Above: Krøyer’s Puddle

The third zone will be Krøyer’s Puddle, a harbour bath with heated inlet pools and sauna caves, while the fourth planned area is Operaparken, a temporary park outside the Royal Opera House where music will be projected for all to hear.

Above: Operaparken

Sportsøen is designed as a water sports island in the centre of the harbour and will feature scuba diving, swimming and kayaking.

Above: Sportsøen

"Research shows that there is a clear connection between the physical activity level of humans and the experienced accessibility to nature – the easier the experienced accessibility to nature is, the bigger desire for physical activity. Other research indicates that stays in nature have a positive influence on the mental health of humans and on the reduction of stress," said the architects.

Above: House of Water

Floating pathways and bridges will connect the new islands, and the architects will now work up a detailed urban analysis to move the project into the next stage of development.

Above: Copenhagen aerial photograph

Copenhagen's harbour makes up almost a third of the entire city and is set already set to change shape in the near future, following the construction of bridges and quays by Danish foundation Realdania and the opening of 3XN's Blue Planet aquarium.

See more stories about Copenhagen »

Here's some more information from Tredje Natur:

Blue Plan - An urban spatial perspective on the Copenhagen Harbor

Ambition

TREDJE NATUR, PK3 and the Municipality of Copenhagen have an ambition to make the Copenhagen Harbor a living, accessible, useful and recreational area in Copenhagen. The plan for this ambition, we call ”Blue Plan”. Blue Plan enters the development of the harbor into the historic development of the city but also showcases the contemporary recreational potentials and utility function of the harbor. With Blue Plan we wish to give the harbor of Copenhagen back to the Copenhageners!

Blue Knowledge

Copenhagen is founded by its central location by the water and the resources connecting to it. The plan is to reorient the city life and functions towards the harbor and through this, strengthen the recreational benefits of the place to the joy of the citizens, merchants and tourists of Copenhagen. This will, among other things, take place by reintroducing the city’s long tradition for creating new islands and islets. The islets will create new connection, both physically and between the citizens within, increase awareness of the nature we all depend on and they will contribute to branding the highly developed knowledge in Danish water technology.

Denmark is at the front when it comes to knowledge about water. In this way, Blue Plan makes the Copenhagen Harbor a presentation of the Danish water-technological successes and the know-how that connects to it. The harbor bath is now so clean that the tourists and citizens of the city can both bathe and fish here – a privilege only a few large harbor cities in the world share. By creating an accessible, recreational and experiment-oriented blue urban space, the Copenhagen Harbor can thus make itself a showcase for Danish water-technology.

Waterload on the Harbor

The climate is changing. We can forecast more short but violent rain storms like the ones Copenhagen has experienced in the past two summers. At the same time, rising ocean levels is an internationally recognized problem which in particular threatens the urbanized areas. Thus, the harbor is under pressure from both sides as the rain water must be able to exit into the harbor and at the same time making sure that the rising harbor water does not run into the city. The climate safeguarding of Copenhagen is of a previously unseen proportion and a new generation of architects are asking how the allocated money also can lead to a greener and more eventful city. In conjunction with the new water and climate adaptation technologies, the architects work to ensure a more coherent and eventful Copenhagen.

The direct experience of the possibilities the technologies create for the recreational activities will promote the branding of the city and the Danish know-how. At the same time the useful and recreational blue urban spaces can function as a reminder to us Danes of the invisible consummation we have of the scarce water resources of the world – not in the form of a pointing finger but by making it apparent that we in Denmark actually can make a difference here and now.

Strategy – Water Surfaces, Connections and Edges

Blue Plan is thus a tale of the harbor of the future where the possibilities of the water and the recreational benefit carry the leading role. This tale is unfolded in the plan through three concepts that will each participate in qualifying the harbor and water potentials:

Water surfaces – the most important quality of the harbor is the water. A central concept in Blue Plan is to create opportunities to interact with the water by creating safety and room for a number of different water activities and experimental offers such as walks on the bottom of the harbor in a network of glass walkways or biology classes under the surface in glass bells.

Edges – another concept that will strengthen the recreational and useful role of the water is a cultivation of the edges between water and land. The distance between the edge of the quay and the surface must be reduced and the direct accessibility developed. This must happen by the creation of new islets and islands in the harbor, remodeling edges to stairs, creating stone quays or establishing floating bridge and walkway systems on the water surface.

Connections – the third and last concept is about qualifying the connections in, along and across the harbor. The course of the harbor is in many places disrupted and the visitors are forced to move back and forth in the same path instead of around. By strengthening the harbor connections, possibilities are created for more coherent, eventful and circular patterns of movement on the harbor. This can for example happen by connecting Nordre Toldbod and Langelinje so the promenade becomes a circular walkway, by creating new islands in the harbor that can create life and movement across the water and by creating dynamic and varied walking paths extending from the upcoming four bicycle and pedestrian bridges.

From HAFN to CPH

The earliest traces of urban development around Copenhagen can be dated back to approx. year 700 and consists of various remnants of boating bridges found by Gammel Strand and Kongens Nytorv. But the foundation for the merchant town of Copenhagen was laid about 1000 years ago. At that time the area was still mostly consisting of moist tidal meadows and low islets – a moraine formation shaped by the latest ice age providing shelter for a humble trade center for the trade between Denmark and Scania. Around year 1100, King Valdemar the Great delegates ”Hafn”, as the city was called, to the bishop Absalon of Roskilde.

Hereafter, the development of the city gains speed. In a short amount of time Copenhagen grows tenfold because of the rising sales of fish, the easy access to transport by sea and the advantageous location in between Roskilde and Scania. Copenhagen is now center of trade in the area.

Concurrently with the growth of Copenhagen and the city becoming an important power center, the Copenhagen harbor is narrowed. From the 1550’s and onwards a series of artificial islands and islets were created such as Slotsholmen, Bremerholmen, Nyholm, Frederiksholm, Arsenaløen and Dokøen which all served as base for navy activities. In 1617 Christian IV gets the acceptance of the Council to found a new town in the harbor, that of Christianshavn. Other examples of artificially created islands and islets in the Copenhagen Harbor are Trekroner, Kastellet, Teglholmen and Sluseholmen.

A Blue Urban Space Perspective on the Copenhagen Habor

Copenhagen is founded because of its central location by the water and the resources connecting to it. With Blue Plan TREDJE NATUR, PK3 and the Municipality of Copenhagen wishes to reorient the city life and functions towards the harbor and through this, strengthen the recreational benefits of the place to the joy of the citizens, merchants and tourists of Copenhagen. This will, among other things, take place by reintroducing the city’s long tradition for creating new islands and islets. The islets will create connection across, both physically and between the citizens within, increase awareness of the nature we all depend on and they will contribute to branding the highly developed knowledge in water technology of Denmark.

The recreational potentials of the harbor

The Copenhagen Harbor today make up – despite the many backfillings of the harbor fairway – still almost a third of the total area of Copenhagen. Yet, only a few areas are accessible to the citizens of Copenhagen and even fewer appears as recreational areas which encourage stay. The harbor is today quite oppositely strongly dominated by big scale company domiciles and hotels with the harbor bath on Islands Brygge and the area around Skuespilhuset and Ofelia Beach as a few of the exceptions. With Blue Plan the Copenhagen Harbor is transformed into a blue and recreational urban space adapted to human scale. An urban space with a multifarious animal and plant life which invites to a stay in and by the water creates possibilities for different forms of activity and offers sensuous places of sojourn.

Blue Plan thus puts action behind knowledge and enters the development of the Copenhagen Harbor in the fight for a better and more health-promoting urban environment. Research shows that there is a clear connection between the physical activity level of humans and the experienced accessibility to nature – the easier the experienced accessibility to nature is, the bigger desire for physical activity. Other research points towards that stays in nature have a positive influence on the mental health of humans and on the reduction of stress. The recreational visions of Blue Plan for the harbor can in this way carry a decisive role in heightening the general wellbeing and level of health.

The harbor as a contemporary commons

In the book ”Fælledskab” (common-ity), Tor Nørretranders and Søren Hermansen describe how the community connection to the place, the intimate and social life slowly has been lost in the contemporary society. According to Nørretranders and Hermansen, the ”eye-level- perspective” has disappeared in our cities and decisions have been removed from those they in fact influence. If this development is to be turned around and humans yet again shall experience a togetherness with, care and ownership of the local area, society must promote and care for an already growing trend – that of the fælledskab or common-ity. Common-ity is described in the book as a combination of the two words commons and community. Communities are valuable according to Nørretranders and Hermansen but they need a task, a purpose that binds it together and strengthens it – a commons.

200 years ago, commons were open grass areas where everyone could send their animals to graze freely. In the book the common is reintroduced as a resource and as a means for reconnecting with the intimate, local and social life. Examples of contemporary commons can be communities of food supplies, child caring, yard maintenance, wireless networks, sports arenas and green energy supplies. With Blue Plan, TREDJE NATUR, PK3 and the Municipality of Copenhagen wishes to make the Copenhagen Harbor into a contemporary commons by creating a series of purposes that different types of communities can form around. This could for example be by creating new and better possibilities for fishing, sport, water activities, bird sanctuary, apiculture, teaching and communication. By cultivating the common-ities on the harbor, Blue Plan can contribute to increasing the togetherness and co-ownership in the city.

Benefits of the harbor

Denmark is at the front when it comes to knowledge about water. In this way, Blue Plan makes the Copenhagen Harbor a presentation of the Danish water-technological successes and the know-how that connects to it. The harbor bath is now so clean that the tourists and citizens of the city can both bathe and fish here – a privilege only a few large harbor cities in the world share. By creating an accessible, recreational and experiment-oriented blue urban space, the Copenhagen Harbor can thus make itself a showcase for Danish water-technology – a technology market that globally has an annual turnover of a four digit billion figure (in Danish Kroners).

Five new blue urban areas

Blue Plan specifically presents four areas that will strengthen the recreational value of the harbor. These five areas we call House of water, Fugleøen, Krøyers Pøl, Sportsøen and Operaparken and are all created by making room for the great visions in the name of pragmatics through the game “what if…” Way too much architecture has wrestled its way out of great visions in the name of pragmatics but in the work with Blue Plan we have put the energy and drive that lies in these visions to use in order to, through this, create a rethinking and different urban space. The game is in this way used as a can opener for all of the conserved ideas and realizable dreams many share for the harbor and urban space.
The result of this game with visions is vitalizing, sensuous, playful and hybrid blue urban spaces which do not limit themselves by traditional understandings of the harbor role and look. Urban spaces, which both draws on the historic heritage of the city and makes room for new forms of use and life.

HOW - House of Water

”The wish of a better reputation will not create a better country but create a better country and it will automatically transmit a better reputation" has been said by one of the world’s leading experts in national branding. Or said with other words; strong brands are created by meaningful visions, through actions and by interacting with its surroundings. And that is the ambition of the Rethink Water-project.

Imagine if the Danish water-businesses worked together to create a House of Water on the Copenhagen Harbor? A place where all visitors could engage in the urban space and at the same time learns about the global water challenges and solutions. Knowledge, water and nature are melted together in a new type of contextual architecture that gives more to the city and the harbor than it takes. A remarkable design in soft concrete folds creating both room and landscape to interact with the water.

Fugleøen (Bird Island)

Imagine if a bird island was in the middle of the harbor. A green island surrounded by a stone reef that takes you back to the landscape that surrounded the first settlements in Copenhagen; an island where the plenty biodiversity and unregulated development of nature is the pivotal point.

Fugleøen is the dream of creating an unregulated island in the middle of the Copenhagen Harbor which can serve as a transmitter of the historic landscape that Copenhagen is built upon, which can attract a rich bird life and which can be used for experimenting with the local bio diversity. The island will be the obvious destination for bird lovers, angling enthusiasts, shell collectors, biologists and school classes to be taught biology, history and geography and for regular citizens who only wish to enjoy the possibility of the long afternoon sun and at the same time experience the unregulated nature in the middle of the Copenhagen Harbor.

Krøyers Pøl (Krøyer’s Puddle)

Imagine if the Copenhagen Harbor invited to a stay close by the water, in the water and under the surface. Krøyers Pøl is the dream of a performative area which combines the next generation harbor bath with the utility function of the water.
Krøyers Pøl becomes, with its dynamic floating island sculpted in concrete, a contemporary interpretation of the city tradition of artificially created islands and islets. The floating islands which are to be placed outside of Nordatlantens Brygge, blurs the edges between water and land and creates new connections in the harbor, via raised isthmuses, between islands and quay areas. As next generation harbor bath, Krøyers Pøl offers itself as a blue urban space that allows the bathing people direct access to the harbor water surface, the possibility of bathing in small heated inlet pools and room for relaxation between the hot stones of the sauna caves. But Krøyers Pøls closeness to the water also creates unique opportunities to explore the utility function of the harbor.

A part of Blue Plan is to transform the area around Krøyers Pøl into an attractive place for the many fish and plant varieties of the harbor. Combined with the direct access to the water surface, Krøyers Pøl can become an attractive place for angling, harvesting of water plant and fish farming. The location of the project right outside the world renowned Michelin restaurant noma will present the Copenhagen Harbor as a clean and attractive resource for many of the national and international guests of the restaurant. A harbor which supports the Nordic gastronomic ambition of minimal distance between soil and table – from the harbor to noma. With Krøyers Pøl the harbor is thus made into a display window of the Nordic ingredients and the sustainable development of Copenhagen.

Sportsøen (Sports Island)

Imagine if there was a sports island in the middle of the harbor. An island where the attraction of the harbor, the water surface, is bursting with activities which invites the citizens out onto the water and creates new eventful sports opportunities right there close to nature.

Sportsøen is the dream of continuing the Copenhagen historical heritage in a contemporary and activity based context which links the experience of nature and sport close together. By creating a new island in the harbor which offers facilities to a wide range of water sports, the island qualifies the water surrounding it. Sportsøen will pull the life down into the harbor and make it an attractive place for scuba divers, swimmer, jumpers, kayakers, winter bathers and other forms of water sport enthusiasts. The “soft” users of the harbor need a secure place where they do not have to fear the large fast-moving boats and harbor busses. This is solved by placing Sportsøen in the middle of the harbor fairway which creates a natural division with space for the functional use of the harbor on one side and the recreational use on the other.

Operaparken (Opera Park)

Imagine if the rich sounds of the Royal Opera House were audible in an opera park that connects the Royal Opera House to its surroundings. A sound park that offers seducing, sensuous musical experiences on the edge of the harbor.

Operaparken is the dream of a temporary recreational use of the large grass area by the Royal Opera House. A dream of taking the fine culture to the masses by turning the inside out of the Royal Opera House and provide the visitors of the park with the opportunity to listen to the enchanting and dramatic world of the opera. Operaparken, with the music, its blossoming cherry trees, magnolias and plants which can live in the salty microclimate, will offer a sensuous wholesome experience out of the ordinary.

The temporary park will also work to create a natural connection between the Royal Opera House and its surroundings – a connection which can invite new groups of users inside a world that otherwise might appear strange. In the coming years, new connections are formed across Copenhagen via the four new bike and pedestrian bridges which are to connect Nyhavn with Christianshavn and Holmen. Operaparken will, as an extension of these, make up a new public destination which can attract life to the area and support the work of combining the city closer across the harbor.

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by Tredje Natur and PK3 appeared first on Dezeen.

Set to open in the spring, The Blue Planet aquarium was designed by 3XN to mimic the shapes created by swirling water and different exhibitions will be contained within each of the building's curved arms.

"We wanted to create an adventure, a story about being carried under water into an unknown world full of fascinating experiences," said architect and partner Jan Ammundsen. "With this in mind, we came up with the idea of a whirlpool."

"However, it is one thing to create a story and a building that looks like a whirlpool, but the real challenges lay in creating a design that also has architectural value and quality, something that is elegant and hopefully can stand the task of time. So making the story and the aesthetics go hand in hand has been the main challenge," he added.

The 9000-square-metre building is located on the waterfront, close to the city's airport, and is expected to attract 7000 700,000 visitors a year.

A circular foyer at the centre of the building will feature a glass ceiling, allowing visitors to look directly up into a pool above their heads.

This year 3XN has also completed a riverside cultural centre in Norway and converted a warehouse into an experimental food laboratory at popular Copenhagen restaurant Noma.

Photography is by Adam Mørk.

Here's some more information from 3XN:

The Blue Planet - Denmarks New Aquarium
Copenhagen, DK

Inspired by the shape of water in endless motion, Denmark’s new National Aquarium, The Blue Planet is shaped as a great whirlpool, and the building itself tells the story of what awaits inside.

Into Another World

The walls and roofs form a single, continuous flow and the longest of the whirlpool’s arms follows the shape of the landscape and the building, moving into the land inviting visitors inside. As soon as visitors arrive at The Blue Planet, the building will convey a sense of the special experience that awaits them inside. Here, the whirlpool has pulled you into another world - a world beneath the surface of the sea. If you tilt your head backwards, you understand that you are really a part of this aquarium because the roof above the foyer is made of glass, and at the same time it is the bottom of a pool.

Flexible Flows Between Exhibitions

The Round Room is a centre of navigation in the aquarium, and this is where visitors choose which river, lake or ocean to explore. Each exhibition has its own face towards the Round Room, each with its own entrance, starting with a buffer zone – a platform where sound and images are used to introduce the atmosphere communicated in the ensuing exhibition room.

One with the Surrounding Landscape

In the landscape, the great whirlpool continues through the terrain, the pools and the sea surrounding the building. Like watery currents, the building is not static – the movement continues into the future by virtue of always allowing possible extensions to add more, simply by letting the lines of the whirlpool grow further out.

Complex Building Project

The Blue Planet is a building of great complexity, and 3XN has taken on the role as project manager for 15 sub-consultants - including Kvorning Exhibition Designers and the Australian aquarium experts AAT. Ambitions have been sky high from the outset, and the construction of the special double curved facade has been a development project in itself, which has proven a great challenge to all parties involved.

The Blue Planet is scheduled for completion in 2013.

Address: Kajakvej, 2770 Kastrup, DK
Client: The Building Foundation "Den Blå Planet" (Realdania, Knud Højgaards Fond, Tårnby Municipality)
Competition: 1st prize in invited competition 2008
Project development: 2010 - 2013
Size: 9.000 m2
Budget: DKK 630m / €84.6m
Architect: 3XN
Engineer: Moe & Brødsgaard A/S
Aquarium Specialists: AAT

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by 3XN appeared first on Dezeen.