With the recently approved new zoning plan, the transformation of Fisketorvet adheres to new challenges and demands for the city, providing a sense of presence to local Copenhageners and visitors alike. Befitting one of the most well-connected locations in the city, new volumes will bring timeless possibilities for future use. Healthy urbanism, thus, inspires 360-degree open and active facades at street level to promote life between the building and the city – an active playground for play, pleasure, and practicality.
Formerly a remote location in Copenhagen, Fisketorvet has now become a supercritical nexus point of bustling traffic. Cars, pedestrians, cyclists, trains, metros, and busses juxtapose its neighbouring waterfront. As both a design challenge and solution, the design is approached “inside-out” where the language of what exists creates future possibilities.
One example is the introduction of a new residential area at the adjacent Havneholmen. The two bicycle bridges Bryggebroen and the iconic Cykelslangen have connected Kalvebod Brygge with Islands Brygge across the harbour, making Fisketorvet the natural connection point between the historic Meatpacking district on Vesterbro, the newly opened IKEA City department store and the city's expansion to the south.
The new facade design takes the materiality of the old shopping centre as its point of departure and revives the brick facades with ceramic slats in warm tones. With a dynamic carpet-like texture, an organic sweeping movement embraces the entire building mass and unifies the structure to shape a new user experience for pedestrians, providing a new pathway for exploration, shopping or travel.
