Copenhagen
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Sam Boyle of 7N reflects on the 7N studio trip to Copenhagen last autumn, sharing his thoughts on the city and his photographs.


Last Autumn 7N Architects embarked on a study trip to the Danish capital of Copenhagen to visit various influential projects and civic spaces whilst indulging in some much-needed Danish Hygge. Most of us were already familiar with the city and its recognition as one of the most desirable cities to live in. For those who hadn’t visited before, the study trip was a chance to visit some influential precedent projects we regularly reference within the 7N studio. For those returning, our visit was a chance to reconnect with the city and explore it further.


A new project to most of us was the recently completed Israels Plads by Copenhagen-based COBE Architects, a multi-faceted sculptural intervention to a public square, once a thriving market place latterly dominated by a lifeless car park. Completed in 2014 as a result of a competition 6 years earlier, the 12500m2 plaza supports and facilitates a diverse range of activities and people; a playground to the adjacent school, an extension of the adjacent Orsteds Park; a place to play, to skate, to sit, to watch.


We arrived in the morning to a vibrant public square buzzing with activity. It was only when a loud bell rang and the crowd quickly dissipated that we realised we were effectively meandering through a playground – a playground for the school, but also a large urban playground for the city. The space is not what we recognise as a conventional school playground, there are no gates, no fences. Elevated sitting areas and sculptural planted areas envelop and fold around the main sunken space, with sporting facilities including a mini skate park and basketball court at its core.


Within a few minutes of arriving at Israel Plads, it’s almost impossible to conceive the animated public square once being the surface car park it had been for the last 60 years. The big move of pushing the car parking below ground not only reclaimed the public square, but redefined it by prioritising leisure, culture and social integration through facilitating the diverse range of functions and activities the square accommodates.


We continued our exploration in the direction of ‘Papirøen’ / Paper Island, a warehouse-covered peninsula located in the inner harbour once occupied, as the name suggests, by the printing Industry. Despite plans being drawn-up for the redevelopment of the area in 2012, the city took an unprecedented decision and decided to pause any planned development for a 5-year period. This was to allow the warehouse spaces to be leased at low rents to encourage new creative businesses, initiating a creative ‘pop-up’ neighbourhood – a risk that definitely paid off.


Papirøen quickly became a buzzing neighbourhood bustling with creative enterprises, exhibition spaces and the famous street food hall. It became a key node for the city, an informal place for all to gather, share and converse - young and old, local and tourist. Throughout the trip, we spent enough time there to enjoy the convivial environment ourselves. Pausing the development allowed the island to be inhabited and develop organically over time rather than redeveloping the land and then trying to reverse-engineer a community. This unconventional approach has allowed a diverse community to inhabit the island creating one of the most desirable and successful areas of the city, a place of significant civic value and unsurprisingly a much more significant land value.


Whilst on Paper Island we stopped off at the COBE Architects studio where we were kindly shown around their work space, introduced to some of their impressive projects and had a chance to explore their exhibition space. It is no coincidence that COBE are located here - in 2012 they won the design competition to masterplan the entire island. A model of their proposal dominates their exhibition space. Their proposal sees the entire island flanked by a public promenade, with new warehouses and a series of new civic spaces and amenities including a swimming pool and event / exhibition spaces. Peppered with commercial units and topped with housing, the ambitious mixed use redevelopment attempts to build on the foundations of its character that have evolved over the last 5 years of temporary occupation.


Temporarily inhabiting their own site and effectively then designing themselves out of an office, they plan to relocate north to Nordhavn once the wrecking ball arrives. A further unconventional move that at the same times makes complete sense – temporarily inhabiting your own site.


The real test will be what happens once the wrecking ball does arrive. The island closed in late 2017 with half of the buildings already razed to the ground. Will the re-established sense of place of Paper Island within the public consciousness of Copenhagen be strong enough to attract businesses and people back in the future? With the legacy of the pop-up / temporary occupation replaced by the permanent, will the Paper Island continue to attract and nurture the community that have put it on the map?


Copenhagen is no stranger to progressive urban thinking, having been the ‘laboratory’ for Jan Gehl and his contemporaries since the late sixties, establishing a value in collaboration between the Danish School of Architecture and the City, a relationship that has been instrumental to the development of Copenhagen ever since. Gehl’s extensive studies over a lengthy period helped the City understand the patterns of life which were taking place in its public spaces and tested methods with which to study these patterns.


Visiting progressive cities like Copenhagen encourages us to reflect on our own cities and lifestyle choices. It makes us question our own surroundings and inevitably forces us to identify what makes them desirable and livable cities (if that is indeed the case) and what can be done to make them better places to live.


Is the city you live in really the best that it could possibly be? What if our own surface car parks were reclaimed as public spaces and inhabited with useful amenity, putting people before parking? What if large regeneration projects in Edinburgh had a temporary interim life nurturing a new community that would then inhabit the delivered project? What if Architects were lighter on their feet and prepared to inhabit their sites, albeit temporarily?


All cities have a lot to learn, and gain, from witnessing the transformation moves that cities like Copenhagen have achieved - ultimately prioritising quality of life whilst taking calculated risks along the way. Who doesn’t want to to live in a city that actively invests in its people and places, continually striving for a better way of living and a better city to live in?


Once you scratch the surface, it’s clear that the success of Copenhagen as one of Europe’s most desirable cities to live in and visit is not the result of chance. It is rooted in bold city-wide decision making and a forward-thinking approach driven by an intent to change and cultivate how the people of Copenhagen live, work and play for the better.


What if such an approach to city-making was adopted in our home city of Edinburgh? 7N architects have developed similar approaches for regeneration projects such as the Growing This Place strategy for Spiers Locks in Glasgow.

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National recognition for 7N’s Rowanbank Gardens project. Our project with @artisan_real_estate has been shortlisted in the Residential Development of the Year (Scotland) at the prestigious Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Awards 2024. This is enormously rewarding recognition of the design qualities of the 126 new family homes in the West of Edinburgh. With some purchasers starting to occupy the building, we are excited to see this project reach completion in the coming months and we will share more shortly. @rankinfraserlandscapearch @atelier_ten
Delighted to share that 7N Architect’s HubStation won the award for ‘Outstanding Project Under £20m’ at the Spotlight Rail Awards 2024 last night. Congratulations to all of the team! Our HUB Station designs for sustainable stations that connect communities can be used across the UK and are the result of 7N Architects ongoing collaboration with @networkrail, @arupgroup, @gt_llp and @lucinsider Visualisation by @pillarvisuals
7N are celebrating a double planning success with the granting of permission for ‘The Foundry’ at Inverlair Avenue in Glasgow and ‘525 Ferry Road’ in Edinburgh. These schemes will provide a combined 510 new homes on key brownfield sites in both cities. They are the result of extensive collaboration with our clients @calahomes Cala Homes (West) and @artisan_real_estate and we are excited to take them both forward. Visualisations by @daakostudio
Happy International Women’s Day! Today we are celebrating the remarkable women who contribute to our studio and the wider industry. As part of our Inspiring Leaders Series, we have been fortunate to have had talks from a range of inspiring and successful women, organised by our Women in Architecture Group, including Lisa Findlay, Anna Mansfield, @cllrhollybruce and Collette Anderson. A special thank you to all of those who have given their valuable time to talk to us, and we hope to continue to #inspireinclusion and be inspired by women throughout the rest of the series and beyond.
Our winter newsletter is out! Check out our latest update for a window into some of the exciting things that have been keeping us busy and inspired. This edition: major milestones for New Eidyn, Haymarket Yards, West Town, and Edinburgh Green, as well as an award for HubStation See the link in our profile.
7N secure planning for Edinburgh Green Campus. We are pleased to share that @edinburgh_council Councillors have approved our Edinburgh Green proposals for Shelborn, a net zero carbon (in operation) workplace campus to be built at Edinburgh Park that will be a major step towards helping the city meet its shortage of Grade-A ESG office space. This development will be built to BREEAM Excellent and WELL Gold standards and will deliver over 800,000 sq.ft. of high-quality office space, new cafe space, Scotland’s largest EV charging hub, sports facilities and almost eight acres of new publicly accessible parkland. Work on site is anticipated to start later in 2024. This has been a wonderful project to work on and this milestone could not have been achieved without the close collaboration of the fantastic client and project team: @shelborn_am @optimisedenvironmentsltd @rydennews @cbre_uk @atelier_ten @swecouk @edmondshipwayllp @cavendishconsulting Woolgar Hunter MontaguEvans Visualisation by @daakostudio
Goal Setting for the New Year! 7N Architects we were really happy to have hosted our first @womeninproperty event last week! Nicola Barclay led a discussion on ‘Goal Setting for the New Year’, with some helpful tips and tricks on how to set and achieve your goals in 2024 with a manageable and positive approach. It was a great conversation and a privilege to be able to host in our office. We look forward to putting on more events in the future. Thanks to @thecafemilk for the delicious food and our very own @tokinikent for bringing everyone together.
Haymarket Yards Urban Campus 7N are delighted to share that a planning application for a 67,000 sq.ft mixed-use office building has been submitted for the eastern plot of the Haymarket Yards development on behalf of our client, Elgin Haymarket Ltd. The BREEAM Outstanding building will complement the previously consented adjacent office building to form an urban workplace campus that is focused on the wellbeing of the occupants. @cbre_uk @savills @edmondshipwayllp @atelier_ten @optimisedenvironmentsltd Woolgar Hunter Scott Hobbs Planning Visualisation by @daakostudio
7N Architects’ masterplan for a 20 Minute Neighbourhood including 7,000 mixed tenure homes on the western edge of the City of Edinburgh has been submitted for Planning Permission in Principle on behalf of West Town Edinburgh Limited, a development consortium led by Drum Property Group. The masterplan for West Town embodies the principles of a 20 Minute Neighbourhood, providing a mix of uses within the neighbourhood including shops, workspace, schools, amenities, health services and community infrastructure to sustain most of the daily needs of the new community within a reasonable walking or cycling distance, with sustainable public transport links to the city and beyond. The design of the network of streets and spaces prioritises space for active travel and a strategic approach to centralised, shared vehicle parking in mobility hubs will support a range of sustainable transport options, including car clubs, cycle hire and centralised parcel delivery. The design of the high quality public realm, developed with @optimisedenvironmentsltd , is based on a people first approach to street design and an integrated approach to soft landscape which will create pleasant streets that facilitate walking and the spontaneous play and social interaction that comes with having a walkable neighbourhood. @wspuk @wallace.whittle @avison_young_uk
12 Days of 7N... day 12! 2023 marked our highest ever finish in the Urban Realm Top 100 ranking of architecture practices! We are very proud of all of our work that helped us reach this point, both the projects that we have shared over this month, and also the ones that we haven’t managed to fit in this series. Thank you for following along with us, we hope that you enjoyed it and we look forward to sharing more in 2024!
12 Days of 7N... day 11! 525 Ferry Road is an exceptional project for its aspiration to bring significant ecological benefits to an urban brownfield site. Located at a strategic public transport node in north Edinburgh, the proposals will remove the existing vacant office building and data centre so that the land can be refocused on providing much needed housing and public space in this developing part of the city. The project currently targets a net biodiversity improvement of 210%, largely through the planting of 111 new trees across the 3.4 acre site, something that we are especially proud of. Visualisations by @daakostudio @artisan_real_estate @jll REInvest Asset Management Axiom Project Services Quattro Consult Ltd MRG New Acoustics Direct Ecology Transport Planning Ltd. OFR Streets UK
12 Days of 7N... day 10! In November, we submitted our Edinburgh Green project for planning permission—an innovative reconfiguration of the office park typology as an environment that will enhance the health and well-being of both, those who work there, as well as the nearby community. 8.7 acres of richly landscaped parkland will be the focal centre of the campus, with a plethora of public amenities and multi-use spaces interspersed in amongst the 86,000+ GIA sqm of new sustainable office space. We look forward to this project starting on site in 2024! @shelborn_am @swecouk @optimisedenvironmentsltd @atelier_ten @edmondshipwayllp @cavendishconsulting Montagu Evans Woolgar Hunter
We are immensely grateful for the wonderful hospitality from the teams at @dulseseafood and @goodbrotherswinecellars, who hosted us for our end-of-year celebrations last Thursday. As we have shared with you throughout December, we are very proud of all that has been accomplished by the studio in 2023 and this was a great opportunity to toast the all of these achievements!
12 Days of 7N... day 9! One of the projects that we are most excited to see progress in 2024 is our scheme at 20 Haymarket Yards. This project demonstrates how we bring our placemaking expertise into the office sector to create healthy and inspiring workplaces that reflect the increased importance of the social and wellbeing dimensions of ESG for many occupiers and developers. Due to start on site in 2024, the project will create over 200,000 NIA sqft of BREEAM ‘Outstanding’ workspace in an exemplary environment. @edmondshipwayllp @atelier_ten @swecouk @optimisedenvironmentsltd @cbre @savills @orbit_agency Scott Hobbs Planning Woolgar Hunter
12 Days of 7N... day 8! In October, 7N attended the annual UK Passivhaus Conference held this year in Edinburgh. The range of insightful presentations highlighted how a Passivhaus equivalent standard could realise benefits that extend beyond simply reducing energy use, to improving living standards through improved air quality, healthier homes, and substantially lower living costs. We look forward to hearing more from Scottish Government in 2024 on how this ambitious initiative will be delivered. For more information on the Scottish Passivhaus Equivalent, please see our blog piece in the News section on our website. Figures from ‘UK Passivhaus and the energy performance gap’, June 2020, University of Bath.
12 Days of 7N... day 7! Cycling has always been important to 7N and our staff, an ethos that underpins our commitment to sustainability and creating healthy urban environments. We always strive to incorporate cycling infraststructure as major features of our projects, embracing their ability to create more cohesive and vibrant landscapes. This year, we have included over 1,700 cycle parking spaces in our planning submission and we are proud of every single one!
12 Days of 7N... day 6! Jordanhill is one of our longest running projects in construction as we convert the extensive campus of the former Jordanhill College into 400 new homes for our client, @calahomes. This year, we were able to deliver apartments within the historic David Stow building, a Category B listed structure that is rich with historic charm and character. To make this even more special, we were delighted that the project was recognised as ‘Renovation of the Year’ in the @scottishhomeawards - a wonderful reward for many years of work!
12 Days of 7N... day 5! This year we have been working very hard to keep up with our internal learning programme with an average of almost one event each week! Topics have covered a wide range of subjects and one thing that we are particularly proud of, is the establishment of our Women in Architecture working group. Tokini and Rachel have helped 7N to make strong connections with groups such as @womeninproperty, as well as inviting wonderful speakers Lisa Finlay, Anna Mansfield, and our own Collette Anderson to share their unique takes on the challenges and successes of their respective careers. Thanks for sharing your experiences with us!
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