With the renewal to the existing 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 world's most "liveable" cities, new volumes 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 practical.
Formerly a remote location in Copenhagen, Fisketorvet has now become a super critical nexus point of bustling traffic. Cars, pedestrians, cyclists, trains, metros, and busses juxtapose its neighboring waterfront. As both a design challenge and solution, the design is approached “inside-out” where the language of what exists create future possibilities.
One example being 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 harbor, creating Fisketorvet the natural connection point between the historic Kødbyen district on Vesterbro, the new planned IKEA city department store and the city's expansion to the east.
The new facade design takes the materiality of the old shopping center 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 or travel.
Built back in 2000 in a previously isolated and remote location of Copenhagen, the former prominent fish market, Fisketorvet, has now become an urban destination in which the city has developed and expanded around the bespoke waterfront destination.
What originated as a traditional shopping centre, the design unfolds upon itself as a small urban plan. From transitional to intersectional, the design incorporates liveability, mobility, and recreation, lending a modest and modern name for Fisketorvet as a distinct and prominent figure in Copenhagen’s growing landscape.
The new building will be a driving element in the revitalization of the entire area which includes a planned direct integration of the new metro station.
A new area around the existing main entrance will lead to a public roof/park on top and connect to the new and improved Dining Experience corner offering one of Copenhagen's best views of the inner harbour.
New bike paths and walkways will run along the exterior of the site and along the water, where green pathways provide pedestrians a place for refuge and exploration.
Two bicycle bridges Bryggebroen and the iconic Cykelslangen have connected Kalvebod Brygge with Islands Brygge across the harbor, creating Fisketorvet the natural connection point between the historic Kødbyen district on Vesterbro, the new planned IKEA city department store and the city's expansion to the east.
