CPH Shelter - Affordable Shipping Container Compact Units for Students Have Livingroom, Place to Sleep, Bathroom and Kitchenette, Copenhagen, Denmark








Construction
Floor Plans
Renderings
About Vandkunsten Architects

ProjectCPH Shelter
ArchitectsVandkunsten Architects
Project groupSalma Zavari, Søren Nielsen, Katrine West Kristensen
ContractorLogik & Co
LocationCopenhagen, Denmark
Year2015-2018





Thanks largely to its status as a hotbed of contemporary design innovation, the city of Copenhagen has become one of the most desirable places in the world to live. Yet, as has been seen in places like Manhattan, increased desirability can come at a cost to local residents. Due to rapid growth and a successful university system, Copenhagen has fallen upon a shortage of both student housing and land available for traditional development. The only open, affordable land in the city is located within ports – but it is currently zoned to be protected from any permanent construction projects.

Enter Danish company CPH Containers and architect Søren Nielsen, a partner at Danish firm Vandkunsten Architects. By creating a structure of shipping containers, the team has created a student village that acts a temporary complex, able to vacate the land upon short notice with its close proximity to existing transportation infrastructure.


CPH have preserved the container’s inherent transportability through easy access to bolted joints and the placing of insulation on the interior of the containers. Since the structure requires little on-site construction, the site can be left behind exactly the way it was found. With this strategy, the company can provide much needed housing in an area previously considered unusable.

For CPH, the student village is an extension of their CPH Shelter designs, which act as standalone residences and contain many of the same strategies and techniques as the village. In the student village, the units are designed to take maximum advantage of their compact floorplan without sacrificing comfort or amenity. The unit’s central room is created by cutting a 40-foot container in two halves and pulling them two meters apart, creating a large living area flanked by two niches for the bedroom and bathroom. The bedroom alcove faces the living room and features a daybed that can be used as seating and sleeping, thereby saving the space traditionally dissolved by the redundant functions of a sofa and a bed.


One of the recurring struggles in container home design is finding an interior material palette that is compatible with the container’s aesthetic while contributing to the homes’ versatility and comfortability. To resolve this, Nielsen chose to outfit the interiors with wood surfaces. Due to its naturally porous cell structure, Wood provides moisture-balancing properties and little temperature radiation, creating a comfortable sitting surface that is neither too warm nor too cold. Choosing wood also means that less durable, toxic surface treatments such as paint and synthetic plastering can be avoided. By using the same board dimensions for wall and floor treatments, a box-like atmosphere is created, and the anticipated need for disassembling the two parts of the plan can be elegantly solved by hiding joints behind the easily-dismantlable boards. More innovation can be found in the ceiling, where low cost fire-proof fiberboards are mounted using standard aluminum profile brackets, also contributing to the unit’s dismantlability.


As for the unit’s window pattern, Nielsen believes that while natural light is essential for a home, more light does not always equate to better light: “What creates a comfortable light climate is a balance between lighter and darker places. Even a very small residence should contain both qualities. The darker places provide security and comfort, the lighter places provide clarity and energy.”


Perhaps most important was finding a breathable insulation system that could be mounted on the interior surfaces to preserve the container's transportation capacity. To combat the issue of condensation, CPH selected wood-fibre insulation batts coupled with automated mechanical exhaust systems in the bathroom and kitchen. The capillary action of the wood-fibres draws moisture to the outer surface of the batts and onto the inward profile of the steel. This surface can be sprayed with an antibiotic treatment to prevent any light mold from forming. The complex also strives to achieve as low a carbon footprint as possible, sourcing local containers and reused materials whenever possible.


CPH anticipates that the land housing their student village will someday be rezoned and available for traditional development. When that day comes, the village will be disassembled, transported, and reassembled in a new untapped location. By retaining the inherent qualities of the container, CPH has also created an architecture that fills a much needed gap in Copenhagen’s housing market.

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Description by Vandkunsten Architects

With a vision to solve a current problem with affordable housing for students in the cities, a young startup approached the office. Their vision was to provide student housing by converting discarded shipping containers to sustainable and affordable homes. We accepted the challenged and have developed concepts and built prototypes for two units.

The compact units have a livingroom, a place to sleep, a bathroom and a kitchenette. Two test homes have been built in Copenhagen brownfield, Refshaleøen. Cph Shelter is a showroom and is ideal as a summerhouse or a movable allotment hut, and a unit that would work for terraced housing and for larger groupings of student villages (prototype 2).

Vandkunsten has made the Masterplan for Cph Village. Stage 1 was completed during the summer of 2018.



Renderings







About Vandkunsten Architects





At Vandkunsten Architects we design with an understanding of the past and with respect the future. Housing, buildings, and cities must be at eye level and make room for communities.

Vandkunsten is an architecture firm with opinions and attitude. We only design projects we believe in. But once the work is done, the architecture is not ours. It belongs to the community.

At Vandkunsten, we focus on people. Homes, buildings and cities form the setting for human life and activity.

At the risk of sounding extravagant, we reserve the right to think and believe that good architecture has the capacity to make society more liveable.

That does not imply that architecture should make a spectacle of itself. Our architecture rarely draws attention to itself but seeks to engage in a dialogue with the people and communities that use it.

For nearly five decades, we have challenged the routine practices of the construction trade and consistently sought to create architecture that embraces social and sustainable goals.

The process always begins with history, with what already exists. Architecture should be shaped by the existing conditions and adopt a human orientation.

Prizes and awards

Our five-decade-long effort has been acknowledged with numerous awards and accolades from Denmark and abroad.

Selected national awards

  • 2018: Architecture of the year - Lisbjerg Bakke
  • 2016: RENOVERprisen - prize for best refurbishment
  • 2015: Nykredits Sustainability Prize
  • 2014: The Eckersberg Medal
  • 1990: Nykredit Prize

Selected international recognition

  • 2009: Alvar Aalto Medal
  • 2007: Sveriges Arkitekters Bostadspris
  • 1996: Fritz Schumacher Medal
  • 1992: Kasper Salin Prize

Vandkunsten has been nominated 5 times for the Mies van der Rohe Award

AddressKrudtløbsvej 14, 1439 København, Denmark
Phone+4532542111
Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/vandkunsten/
Emailvandkunsten@vandkunst.dk
Website http://www.vandkunsten.com/


Hours Open
Monday9AM–3PM
Tuesday9AM–3PM
Wednesday9AM–3PM
Thursday9AM–3PM
Friday9AM–3PM
SaturdayClosed
SundayClosed


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CPH Shelter - Affordable Shipping Container Compact Units for Students Have Livingroom, Place to Sleep, Bathroom and Kitchenette, Copenhagen, Denmark
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