The city council of Herning, Denmark, has chosen our proposal for a new car show-room & service center to be the project erected on a site often nicknamed as Hernings “most attractive”.
The geometrically characteristic building will stand as an iconic figure by the main road at the city’s threshold, housing a 2000 m2 showroom and a 2400 m2 service center.
The rhombic volume of the building is divided into two halves by a diagonal cut; a dynamic and lucid showroom facing the main road contrasted by the stable mass of the service center behind. The showroom is conceived as a continuous spiraling ramp from the sub-street level up to the roof – and is expressed in the showrooms tilting facades.
The diagonal cut between the showroom and the service center creates a visual connection between the shopping center north-west of the building and the green areas to the south-east.
The project is developed for the client Bjarne Nielsen in collaboration with CC Contractor, Finn Balle & B. Moesby Engineers. Read more about the project on the city councils website.
The project was awarded 1st prize in an invited competition in 2006. It is a 22.000 m2 strip mall located in Kauptún, Garðabær, Iceland. The design and construction period was 2006 until 2009, the contractor is Sýsla ehf and the design team was a collaboration between KRADS and Ask Arkitektar.
Located in a suburban retail-park the shopping center stands at the foot of a grassy hill, on which there’s planned a mixed-use development. The concept is simple and utilizes the topography of the site. By merging the building with the hill above the “backside” of the house is rendered invisible. The two main facades of the house – which in this case are the front facade and the roof – are then given distinctly different characters. The green roof becomes a natural extension of the hill above while the front façade is given a super-commercial appearance.
A modern colonnade is created along the front façade where 7meter high illuminated billboards are incorporated in the load bearing structure. The billboards serve both as signs for the shops in the center and furthermore they provide the colonnade with shelter from the winds and the frequent horizontal rain-showers in Iceland.
Together with C. C. Contractor, KRADS is designing a BONES takeaway restaurant in Aalborg.
