Architects C. F. Møller and Tredje Natur won the competition to create Future Sølund, a residential complex with the main function of a home for the elderly who require daily care. The existing Sølund social service center should be replaced by an urban space that overcomes the traditional isolation of the elderly and allows different generations to communicate with each other and enjoy it.
On the shores of the picturesque Sortedam Lake, a building with a total area of 37,895 m2 will house 360 apartments for senior residents requiring special care, 20 apartments for the elderly, 150 for young people (20 of which are for young people with autism spectrum disorders) and many public spaces. from semi-private to public. As conceived by the authors of the project, this mixture of functions and typologies will give impetus to the development of the entire urban district of Nørrebro, creating a lively place for interaction between the elderly and young, residents, guests and service personnel.
The central courtyard of the complex - "Generation Square" - is the main space for meetings and communication of residents with each other and guests. The square is “ringed” by an inner “street” - a glazed gallery, on which, as befits a real city street, public “buildings” are located: hairdressers, cafes, ateliers, living rooms, playrooms, greenhouses, lecture halls. This gallery not only connects the spaces on the ground floor, but also connects the embankment with Rüesgade Street: this is how the interior merges with the exterior.
The apartments, workshops and rehabilitation rooms located on the ground floor, which require a more relaxed atmosphere, face the "Grove" - a forested area for walking - and the "Kitchen Yard" with cafes, gazebos and dining tables. The sunniest and quietest southeastern part of the building houses the main nursing unit. All ground floor apartments have their own outdoor terraces; if the apartments overlook the lake and the park area, the terraces are complemented by front gardens with a gate. A little further away from the main building is the "youth" building: it fences off the rest of the complex from the roadway and creates another alley, along which you can, by shortening the path, get into the park area along the street.
On the roof overlooking the lake, there is a recreation area and an open terrace under pergolas, whose arched profile is formed by the brick arches of the facade; a little in the back there is a vegetable garden. The jagged plan line and rectangular building plot allow for the creation of several gardens with different landscapes and small bodies of water fed by rainwater collected from the collectors. These green spaces are also open to everyone and should be part of the Copenhagen public space framework. The brick facades of the building echo the buildings surrounding the lake.
The layout of residential floors is of a corridor type, but this corridor is not a corridor at all, but another "city street" where there are cafes, winter gardens and libraries, and all the "houses" overlooking it have different facades reflecting the personality of the tenant: the entrance to each the apartment is recessed, and residents can decorate the resulting niche at their discretion. And, of course, there is a shop at every entrance. Regardless of the degree of freedom of movement - whether it is limited to the territory of the courtyard or a few tens of steps a day - each resident can dine in the dining room, listen to music in the common living room, stay in the winter garden or breathe fresh air on the balcony, even if he has no strength. to go down to the first floor: no further than 12-15 meters from each door there is one of these rooms. Thus, no one is deprived of society: even if he cannot get up at all, something exciting will always happen around that will support his interest in life.
The Sølund project transfers the properties of urban space to the interior layout, following the laws of forming a good city street, which maximizes the possible amount of interaction between residents. This attempt to prevent the isolation of a person in the area bounded by the front door of his apartment is the most important for a building of such a complex program.
