Maritime Youth House | PLOT

Architects: PLOT = BIG + JDS Architects
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
Function: Boat house, play ground, youth house
Client: Kvaterloft Copenhagen, Loa Fund
Collaborator: JDS ARCHITECTS, BIRCH & KROGBOE
Constructed Area: 2,000 sqm
Project year: 2004
Budget: US $1,950,000
Photographs: Julien de Smedt, Mads Hilmer, Esben Bruun, Paolo Rosselli
Architects Homepage: www.plot.dk, www.big.dk, www.jdsarchitects.com

The site was polluted with heavy metals. To save budget the architects covered the entire site with a wooden deck (1600m2), so wasn’t necessary to clean the site first. The result is a public landscape of social functions surrounded by water on all sides. The building is shared by two clients, a sail club and a youth house. The youth house needed outdoor space for the kids to play; the sail club needed most of the site to park their boats.

The design is the literal results of negotiations between the two contradictory demands. Where the deck rises it allows for boat storage and, at the same time, becomes an exciting play area for the kids. The common room for daily activities is located in the front house, the workshop and storage is in the back corner building.

In contrast to the wooden exterior decks the floor in the community space is white concrete and a standard grey concrete in the workshop and storage area. This is meant to reflect the dominance of the outdoor activities; the wooden deck is the actual “room” of the Maritime Youth House.

Two very different users had to share the facilities: a sailing club and a youth centre with conflicting requirements: the youth centre wanted outdoor space for the kids to play; the sailing club required most of the site to moor their boats. The building is the result of these two contradictory demands: The deck is elevated high enough to allow for boat storage underneath while providing an undulating landscape for the kids to run and play above.

The interior of the building is very low key: the front room oriented towards the coastline, is used as a common room where most of centre’s daily activities take place. It utilizes a higher level of materials and detailing than the workshop and storage areas. The floor in the workshop is a standard grey concrete whereas the commons area has a polished Aalborg white concrete with white aggregate.

The presence of hard surfaces used on the interior is meant to contrast the wooden exterior, an inversion of what is commonly done (wooden interior, concrete and asphalt exterior). This is meant to reflect the dominance of outdoor activities of the youth house. The Maritime Youth House has therefore gained an additional ‘room’ which IS the wooden deck – it supports all the centre’s programs, indoor and outdoor.

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