Carparks may be a necessity for any dense urban centre, but that doesn’t mean they have to be a eyesore. And if Danish firm JAJA Architects has its way, they could even be serving a dual-purpose soon — by doubling as our leafy, local playgrounds.
In preparation for the 100,000 new residents it’s expecting by 2025, Copenhagen has been looking into different ways to pack as many people into the city as comfortably as possible. So as part of the this new initiative, the city asked local designers to turn your everyday carpark into “a neighbourhood attraction by designing a new facade.” As Wired explains:
Free from the usual constraints, Jaja Architects designed Park ‘n’ Play: a new outfit for the not-yet-built parking garage that’s part playground, part gym, part Hanging Gardens of Babylon. The main event — the playground — is on the roof, so the firm designed a set of staircases that snake upward around the garage’s exterior, creating a loud visual language seen from blocks away.
And nearly every inch of that garage is being put to work. The stairs leading up to the playground are embedded with clocks so climbers can time themselves, and they’re even laid out with graphics meant for “Crossfit-like” workouts.
As for the walls themselves, each side of the garage is covered in a different species of plant according to how much light it needs, and a frieze depicting the area’s history sits woven in between.
The Park ‘n’ Play will live in the soon-to-be-built Nordhaven district, which expects to hold about 40,000 people once it’s complete. And if this carpark is any indication, Nordhaven shouldn’t have any problem persuading people to settle down. [Wired]