the Vision of BispeBjerg Bakke - Realdania Byg

Living on the Hill
Slim columns in yellow and red brick. Balconies
in shiny glazing. And a copper roof
that twists and turns – awaiting the green
colouring that time and the elements will
bring. Bispebjerg Bakke is spectacular to
behold, but for Bjørn Nørgaard it was always
important that the building be spectacular
to live in; as we have said, the outside
and the inside had to be coherent.
Jesper Holm explains how the inside of
Bispebjerg Bakke was shaped: “In the beginning,
we tried out the sculptural model
on the types of apartments we usually
build, but that turned out to be pretty
hopeless. We then began to discuss how
people could live in the building, and arrived
at the ground rules that we’re now
using. We have constructed circular cores
that house bathrooms and ellipsoid ones
for the stairs and lifts. The cores provide
a rhythm that runs through the building,
making a reverse imprint on adjacent
flats, thus helping to prevent the creation
of uninterrupted rectangular spaces and
introducing organic forms into the building
as convex and concave shapes. This
also gives you spaces that not only make
external sense, but also internal.”
Peter Cederfeld: ”Round shapes are not
easy to furnish. Usually, the dining table
can only stand in one place, but it’s not
The Homes of Bispebjerg Bakke
When the first show house event was held at Bispebjerg Bakke, about 3,500 people
showed up to inspect this very different residential complex. The flats in Bispebjerg Bakke
are between 85 square metres and 238 square metres in size, with monthly rents ranging
from 8,197 to 24,504 Danish kroner. The flats are in one, two or three storeys, and all have
a least one balcony.
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