(Copenhagen, November 21, 2008) The Mountain Project was announced as the winning entry in the Housing Category at the 2008 World Architecture Festival in Barcelona.

How do you combine the splendors of the suburban backyard with the social intensity of urban density?
The Mountain Dwellings are located in the Ørestad, a new urban development in Copenhagen, Denmark. When commissioned to design a traditional housing block and a separate parking house, we instead decided to combine the two programs. The program consist of 2/3 parking and 1/3 living. What if the parking area became the base upon which to place terraced housing – like a concrete hillside covered by a thin layer of housing, cascading from the 11th floor to the street edge? Rather than doing two separate buildings next to
each other – a parking and a housing block – we decided to merge the two functions into a symbiotic relationship. The parking area needs to be connected to the street, and the homes require sunlight, fresh air and views, thus all apartments have roof gardens facing the sun, amazing views and parking on the 10th floor. The Mountain Dwellings appear as a suburban neighborhood of garden homes, floating over a 10-storey building – suburban living with urban density.

The design of the Mountain Dwellings began under PLOT (JDS + BIG). The construction administration was later executed by BIG with respect to the PLOT design.

Housing Jury Members
Nabil Gholam – Architect, Nabil Gholam Architecture & Planning, Lebanon
Eva Jiricna – Architect, Eva Jirinca Architects, UK
Peter Kudryavtsev – Editor, Building ARX
Bill Menking – Editor, Architects Newspaper, USA

“The jury was presented with a number of very strong projects. In total we viewed 13 different schemes and the great variety of housing types in this mix – high-rise towers, small garden apartments, mid-rise social housing projects, market rate flats and a 10-unit housing scheme in the shape of a meandering garden snake – made for a difficult decision as to which was the best project. It was a bit like comparing apples and oranges. Nevertheless we did decide on a single winner and three very good schemes were awarded a commendation.  The winning project Mountain Dwellings… in Copenhagen, Denmark was a daring 80-unit housing project that we honoured for its ‘enthusiasm’…. It portends a promising future for its young architect.”  -Text quoted from WAF 2008 Housing Jury Report by William Menking on October 22, 2008.

The Final Party for Copenhagen’s 2008 Distortion Party was held at Mountain.

CPH Distortion