Profile: Bellahoj

Bellahoj is housing project consisting of two clusters of residential towers on 2.6 hectares (6.5 acres) located on the western periphery of Copenhagen. These buildings represent an unusual building type in Denmark: the “towers in the park” conceived and promoted by the modernist architect and urban planner, Le Corbusier. They were also influenced by similar designs for public housing that later became popular in Sweden.

The Bellahoj towers stand between 9 and 13 stories tall and are surrounded by landscaped open space including playgrounds and gardens. They also have a large space at the front of the project devoted to surface parking lots. These building were constructed in 1956 as social housing, winners of a design competition to explore innovative building styles for Danish public housing. Each story has two units, which are accessed via central core with stairs and an elevator. The location of the towers on the most significant hill in Copenhagen provides them with expansive views of the city.

The Bellahoj towers are a departure from the the typical style of Danish multi-family housing which usually consists of long, narrow buildings accessed by stairs; to this day they remain among the tallest buildings in the city. They represent a continuation of the trend in government-planned social housing flats toward large scale, rationalist site plans, with weakening relationships to streets and traditional block structures. However, the location of the towers in an idyllic setting, with well designed traditional parks, a nearby pond, and the majestic view of the city gives this development a better connection with its surroundings than many contemporary projects.

The towers continue to serve as social housing and on a walk through their ample greens one can see children and families playing, calling out in many languages. The buildings, like many constructed of concrete in this era, have had maintenance issues including problems with mold, leaks, and rotting window and doorframes. Not counting adjacent parkland, the gross neighborhood density within the development is 127 DU per hectare (51 DU per acre).

That's what the other side of the pond looks like, just so you know.

Sources:

Hiort, Esbjørn. Housing in Denmark since 1930. Copenhagen: J. Gjellerup Forlag, 1952. Print.

Larsen, Jacob N. "From Slum Clearance and Housing Renewal to Networking and Area-based Approaches: On the Origins of Contemporary Danish Urban Development Programmes." On the Origins of Urban Development Programmes in Nine European Countries. Ed. Helle Nørgaard. Antwerp: Garant, 2003. 46-58. Print.

http://www.sab-bolig.dk/da-dk/boligafdelinger/afdelinger-paa-en-liste/bellahoej-i-og-ii.aspx