BISPEBJERG

As part of a team consisting of Arkitema K/S, Aart Arkitekter A/S, Narud-Stokke-Wiig, Arkitekter og Planleggere AS, Moe & Brødsgaard A/S, DK, Center For Idræt og Arkitektur, Handiplan Plus, Ulrika Stigsdotter Kollision participated in the competition for a new hospital and psychiatry at Bispebjerg in Copenhagen.

Our role in the project was primarily to develop strategies for creating an urban environment at the hospital grounds by adding functions and activities, which would make the area into a health city – and not just a hospital. These strategies were developed and qualified in workshops with members of the team and adapted to fit the overall plan of the hospital as the main function of the area.

Among the strategies suggested were the use of shared spaces and creating an infrastructure, which would support wayfinding; Establishing small squares and parks combined with rooftop gardens to supplement the grounds planned by Martin Nyrop, the architect behind the existing hospital; Implementing small MoveLabs scattered around the area promoting various forms of exercise and adding retail shops and cafés mirroring hospital functions. We also suggested adding an external ‘layer’ of shops, office space, hotels for patients and other functions to a large parking facility and consequently creating a ‘mountain’, which would serve as a landmark for the area and a new public space with terraces facing the city. We also suggested a citizen participation strategy, based on temporary activities, inviting local citizens to contribute to establishing activities in the area in the development phase. The idea was that these activities would help define the area and become permanent over time.