Year: First prize in competition 2016, completed 2024
Client: CPH City & Port Development, CØ P/S (Danica Ejendomsselskab, Unionkul Ejendomme, Nordkranen), NCC
Program: Mixed-use including condos, co-operative social housing, hotel and retail
Size: 45,000 m²
For 300 years, Paper Island – an industrial site previously dedicated to paper storage – was off limits to the public. Yet almost over night, it was then opened up to the public and transformed into the fourth-most visited public attraction in Copenhagen – a new district with street food halls, art exhibitions, fashion shows, concerts and flea markets. However, the urban life created here was always planned as a temporary urban experiment, as a new development was planned to reutilize this unique and valuable location in the city. The existing buildings proved to be in very poor condition, antiquated in terms of both maintenance and sustainability. The new design therefore had to be based on tearing everything down and building new structures from scratch, while staying true to the fundamental belief in the power of transformation – in this case not the transformation of an actual building, but of an urban and invigorating mood. The new Paper Island is based on the re-imagination of the unique spirit of the place.
