Comments on: VM Building

By: seier+seier

seier+seier — Thu, 07 May 2009 05:36:30 +0000

the VM houses is an interesting project in a problematic new part of copenhagen, ørestad, which is situated so close to the centre of town that it could easily have been integrated into the existing urban fabric but which was instead planned as a suburb with green and urban spaces equally unappealing.

in general, units in the ørestad plan are very large (c. 120 flats pr building) and entirely independent of each other, bureaucratic decisions made to please investors but resulting in very poor urbanism.

the VM-houses was the only project to engage critically with the flawed plan and ultimately the only project to succeed architecturally out there.

the plans of the two blocks of flats are twisted into the shape of the letters V and M, hence the name. these are not arbitrary shapes, they are derived from an analysis of sun, views, scale and space-making between the houses, issues that the masterplan ignored.

as such, we are looking at a basic funktionalist approach, even if PLOT achieved just a little more funk than what is commonly seen in scandinavia.

in questions of large scale urbanism, the shape of balconies loses much of its importance. their triangular plan is experienced, to some degree, as an extension of the angular geometry of the buildings. they are loud but not incoherent.

By: archdaily

archdaily — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 23:35:54 +0000

VM Houses are two residential blocks formed as the letters V and M. The blocks are formed as such to allow for daylight, privacy and views. The vis-à-vis with the neighbour is eliminated by pushing the slab in its centre, ensuring diagonal views to the vast and open, surrounding fields. All apartments have a double-height space to the north and wide panoramic views to the south. The logic of the diagonal slab utilized in the V house is broken down in smaller portions for the M house. In this project, the typology of the Unite d’ Habitation of Le Corbusier is reinterpreted and improved; the central corridors are short and receive light from both ends, like bullet holes penetrating the building. The VM Houses offer more than 80 different apartment types that are programmatically flexible and open to the individual needs of contemporary life – a mosaic of different life forms.

By: Copenhagen X

Copenhagen X — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 23:33:51 +0000

To solve how to give the greatest amount of light and the best view to the largest number of residents.
Each apartment in the V-shaped building has a pointed, triangular balcony with a panoramic view of the south and rooms as much as five meters high. To make sure not to limit the amount of light and to give a feeling of spaciousness and airiness, the rooms have no partitions. Spaciousness and airiness were also taken into account outside. The V-shaped building is raised on five-meter-tall columns, giving the northern courtyard a light and open look. The building’s south side gives VM residents a warm, sunny front garden.

The innovative design of the VM buildings makes room for individuality. The V-shaped building has 40 different types of apartment, and the M-shaped building has 36, and most are on several levels. Like blocks of different sizes and shapes, the apartments intersect in a way that makes room for architectural surprises but also makes furnishing them a challenge.