Dorm with a view
Students at Syddansk Universitet need not fear some dreary dorm, and can instead look forward to residential architecture that will no doubt contribute to a very special life studying: many common rooms and marvelous views out over the surrounding flat lands of Denmark’s Funen island in Odense. The ground floor is home to a café, for example, and on the top floor there’s a lecture hall, group rooms and needless to say a ballroom, too.
C.F. Møller Architects masterminded this extraordinary dorm: The 15 stories of the tower-like “Campus Kollegiet” are rendered less massive by staggering the volumes – they resemble a stack of boxes. The advantage of this fanned shape is quite obvious for all to see: Each of the 250 rooms has its own balcony and a free view of the Funen countryside, something famous local poet and writer Hans Christian Andersen likewise loved.
The plain and yet refined bricks used for the façade stem from the masterful hand of Denmark’s very own Petersen Tegl, which to this day makes the brick by hand, meaning that the special wishes of architects and developers can be considered. “We decided for this building to commission special bricks in a subdued blue, as we wanted a brighter, more even brick than the subdued blue in Petersen’s standard line. The result: a brick in a light grey that has a fine yellowish-green shimmer when viewed up close. The copper-zinc alloy with its warm, metallic hues likewise alludes to the uni,” explains architect Julian Weyer, a partner at C.F. Møller when describing what he had wanted when it came to the bricks for the facade. To counteract the tower having the feel of a monolith, the architects also resolved to have the masonry perforated by a fine brick pattern: During the night, light thus falls through the narrow openings into the rooms inside, and the high-rise’s closed frontage starts to gleam. (am)
