Year: 2007
Location: Ørestad, Copenhagen, DK
Size: 31.700 M2
Status: Proposal, Europan competition
Visualisations: SLETH
Photos: SLETH

SLETH’s proposal ‘Urban Lobby’ envisions a new model for the future of suburban life in Ørestad: a dense and hybrid urban structure that reimagines familiar suburban typologies. Rather than spreading outwards as in typical suburban sprawl, the project stacks three distinct programmatic layers vertically: a shopping mall, a continuous office deck, and a rooftop layer of patio housing. Combined in a single, high-density block, the three typologies are transformed into a new urban organism that fosters public life and interaction.

At the base of the structure, an inverted shopping mall and office program creates maximum activity at street level. This compact foundation is open to its periphery and to a series of inner atriums, creating a porous transition between the building and its urban surroundings. Above the commercial base lies an elevated public plaza. A generous and open space that acts as a collective entrance lobby for the entire block. This plaza functions as a buffer between the housing units above and commercial office functions below, offering a new type of covered, semi-public urban space.

The plaza is perforated by large atriums accessible from all sides and is crossed by staircases leading to the housing and office levels. It becomes a dynamic and layered urban field, populated with activity zones, temporary commercial structures, and sports areas.

On top of this structure sits a landscape of patio housing. The roofscape of this uppermost layer is designed as a continuous zigzag surface covered with solar panels. These panels not only provide renewable energy for the entire block but also create passively heated winter gardens for each dwelling, turning the roof into an integrated energy-generating landscape.

The building’s structure is organized across three levels. The lowest level consists of a compact two-story base that houses the commercial and office programs. This level accommodates all major load-bearing elements and is designed to handle both vertical and lateral forces through a robust system of walls and cores.

Above this base, the open plaza level serves as a structural intermediary. Vertical loads are transferred through a combination of a column grid and load-bearing walls, while stability is maintained through three structural cores that connect all levels from the housing units above down to the foundation. 

The housing level above the plaza is laid out as a grid of structural walls that support floor slabs and the zigzag roof. This part of the building is envisioned as a steel frame construction with a 7 x 9 meter module, discreetly integrated into the apartment layouts and facades. The floor decks are made from prefabricated hollow-core concrete slabs, which serve both as structural floors for the apartments and terraces for the patios. The roof and housing structure are supported by a combination of columns located at the grid intersections and the three continuous cores.

Urban Lobby represents a bold reinterpretation of suburban development, proposing a dense and multifunctional building typology. By rethinking the spatial relationships between living, working, and public life, SLETH creates an urban environment and vibrant center for the suburban city of the future.