Community Connection

Featuring Vulcan Cladding, this residential development fosters community with shared facilities and a connected layout.

Project details

Architect: Werk Architecture

Builder: Walls A/S, Nordkranen A/S

Product: Vulcan Cladding - Flatsawn (Rhombus Profile 68x21), Uncoated

Timber distributor: Frøslev Træ

Photography credit: Frøslev Træ

Inspired by the progressive, cohabitating lifestyle of the artist William Morris, this Danish residential development, which makes use of Vulcan Cladding - Flatsawn is designed to foster community through shared facilities for exercise and leisure, and an activated street and waterfront.

The modern world tends to place families and individuals in silos, where many lack the ‘village’ needed for a full and meaningful life. Located on the rim of the harbour in Copenhagen, this development by Werk Architecture counters this isolation through a street front restaurant and cafe, which provide spaces for chance encounters between both residents and non-residents, and through outdoor areas that continue underneath the building with changing facilities for kayaking and swimming in the harbour.

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The architecture features many curves and rounded edges, which bring people together through connected sightlines and spaces to rest and meet within the development. This is accentuated further through shared fitness, sauna and communal kitchen and living rooms. Openings through the structures further this connection and invite passers by to engage with the buildings.

To reflect Copenhagen’s port tradition and also to ensure a robust exterior for this water-side building, the architects chose to use Abodo Vulcan Cladding for many areas of the development, especially the streetfront and the circular rooftop events space, which is echoed on the ground floor.

The Vulcan timber has been thermally modified during manufacturing, which enables it to stay straight and true even when exposed to sea air and weathering. With a flatsawn rhombus profile, this timber echoes the rough hewn woods seen on Copenhagen’s boathouses, which feature large wooden doors.

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Stubkaj Copenhagen Vulcan Cladding Abodo Wood 04

As a sustainable material made from Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC®) certified timber and a renewable alternative to Western Red Cedar, the choice to use Abodo Vulcan is also likely to meet the sustainability concerns of potential residents of this style of development and helped the project to become DGNB Gold certified, known as the global benchmark for sustainability among certification systems for sustainable buildings.

With a good deal of planting incorporated throughout, Stubkaj is alive with greenery and natural materials, and invites an active lifestyle and a healthy sense of village for its residents.