Location: Denmark
Year: 2016
Park ‘n’ Play is an intervention that refurbished the roof of a parking house into a living urban space with sports and play equipment. By creatively utilising multi-level parking structures, Park ‘n’ Play transforms underused spaces into vibrant hubs for sports, fitness, and leisure activities.
The fundamental concept behind an active parking structure is to provide a welcoming and engaging rooftop space for both locals and tourists. To create a dynamic roof, visibility and easy access are crucial. A staircase leading to an open plaza establishes a diagonal link between the street and the rooftop, enticing individuals to climb along the building’s exterior.
The handrails of the stairs, which the architects refer to as the “red thread,” guide visitors to the rooftop and serve as a key architectural element. This red thread is integrated into various rooftop elements, such as play equipment, seating, and spatial design features. Eventually, it becomes the handrail for the second staircase that brings visitors back down to the street.
In the former port area, many harbour buildings were constructed from red brick. To maintain a sense of continuity and respect for the area’s architectural heritage, the architects decided to build the car park from concrete tinted a similar shade of red.
Furthermore, the walls behind the staircases are adorned with a frieze that illustrates the area’s industrial history, further connecting the new structure to its historical context.
The car park features a functional concrete frame that serves as the foundation for a staggered pattern of planting boxes. These boxes wrap around the building and contain greenery, effectively concealing the parking spaces from view.
To give the large building a sense of scale, planted façades have been proposed. These green structures interact with the building behind them. The green façade consists of a plant “shelving system” that highlights the parking structure and interacts with the rhythm of the columns in the background. The plant boxes add scale, depth, and rhythm to the façade.
Following the grid of the parking house, plant boxes are placed in a staggered rhythm for every second column. They span the full height of the building and add depth and dynamism to the façade while also harmonising with the proportions and detailing of the neighbouring buildings. The plant structure envelops all four façades, creating coherence and identity for the entire building. Designed with a time perspective in mind, the green façade promotes rapid plant growth against the tinted concrete.
The façade expresses an interplay between structure and nature, juxtaposing the structural with the organic. The dynamic relationship between these two elements results in an intriguing and integrated design.
Image Attribution: ©JAJA Architects ©Photographer: Rasmus Hjortshøj/Coast Studio for JAJA Architects