Henning Larsen Architects recently made our end of year best buildings list for its unusual Eysturkommuna Town Hall and its newly-completed project, The Wave, once again shows the firm's flair for producing interesting designs. The residential building has an undulating form that's divided into five sections.
The Wave is installed on the edge of a fjord in Vejle, Denmark, and has a total floorspace of 14,000 sq m (roughly 150,694 sq ft). Each of the five waves hosts 20 apartments, with a floorspace between 97 - 198 sq m (1,000 - 2,130 sq ft), plus a penthouse that has a floorspace of 255 sq m (2,744 sq ft) over two floors. The apartments are fronted by glazing and skylights are also installed to maximize light inside. Some of the apartments boast their own balconies, too.
Its undulating design was informed by the surrounding hills, which are noteworthy in the relatively flat Denmark, as well as the lapping of the fjord's water.
"There is only one place in the world where this building can be, and that is at the harbor front in Vejle," says Søren Øllgaard, Partner and Design Director at Henning Larsen. "The building works here because it interplays with the surrounding hills, the architecture of the bridge and the lapping of Vejle Fjord."
The Wave's graceful appearance belies a somewhat troubled construction process. The first two sections were completed some time ago, but the project was then postponed due to the financial crisis in 2008 and remained incomplete. Now, 11 years after ground was first broken on The Wave, it's finally finished.
Sources: Henning Larsen Architects, Bølgen (in Danish)
