Urban Mediaspace groundbreaking ceremony
Urban Mediaspace groundbreaking ceremony
Schmidt Hammer Lassen - SHL
”One of the most important elements of the new Urban Mediaspace is to rethink the library as a public meeting place in the city. Urban Mediaspace represents a new generation of modern hybrid libraries with a long list of diverse potentials for use,” explains Partner at schmidt hammer lassen architects Mr Kim Holst Jensen.
The library is located at the outlet of the Aarhus River and is a part of the district plan to revitalize the former industrial cargo docks on the harbour front by connecting the area both visually and physically to the historic centre.
“With Urban Mediaspace as a significant focal point the multiple directions of the city are conveyed. The connection between the city centre and the harbour is pivotal,” underlines Kim Holst Jensen to explain the main concept of the project. The concept encompasses Urban Mediaspace as a pluri-directional hub in the new inner harbour featuring three public squares.
“The new Urban Mediaspace will encourage the exchange of knowledge and opportunities. Openness and a 360 degree view to the city is what best describes the design. The completely open façade creates a conscious connection between outside and inside, ensuring coherence with the context – the modern urban life, the historical city centre, the industrial harbour, the open surface of the water and the horizon,” explains Kim Holst Jensen. “Daylight is drawn into the building through atria and openings in the building creating a multitude of diverse spatial expressions together with the juxtaposed floor plates.”
The leading idea is a covered urban space where a large heptagonal slice hovers above a glazed prism. The urban space is resting on a square of ice flake-shaped stairs fanning out to the edge of the sea. The ice flakes create wide plateaus and accommodate recreational activities and outdoor events.
The library contains several divisions in staggered levels that cover literature and media areas, exhibitions, children’s theatre, interactive activities, public events and cafés.
Architectural background knowledge: Additionally about the space, the city and the house
Partner Kim Holst Jensen elaborates the visions of the project in relation to the location and main idea:
”Aarhus is a city by the ocean, and the history of the city is closely connected to the place where the river runs out into the Bay of Aarhus. With a sweeping approach the city’s special location by the sea connects the city and Urban Media Space with the North-South direction of the bay and the East-West direction of the river.”
Here, on a new urban position protruding between the river and the bay an epicentre is established as a covered space for culture and knowledge – symbolized by Urban Mediaspace and the future engineering college Navitas. These two bastions, which will be framing the city’s new harbour basin, are interpreted as privileged locations. The bastion concept is developed as a juxtaposed podium where citizens can take in the view of the water, the bay and the horizon by raising themselves above city level.
The link between the city centre and the harbour is created via a continuation of the promenade along the river around Urban Mediaspace and out on the harbour squares. The staging of the river mouth with a large stair made by plateaus to rest all the way down to the water changes this south turned area into a recreational excursion spot. Hereby, the river mouth – once so important – regains its significance in the city and becomes the new, vibrating urban pulse.
Organizing the urban concept around the river enables the linking and story-telling of the city’s big landscape story: The east-west running river landscape is hinged to the planned recreational rambla connecting the forests in the north and the south.
With one coherent concept, a new urban space is established between the river and the bay toward a number of public spaces for the citizens. The public spaces make room for alternative activities. The former edge of the city – the blocks along the coast – gets a clear platform which will no longer be considered isolated and cut-off from the water. The urban concept brings the water back to the city and the city back to the water.”
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