Discreet pockets of greenery and a central courtyard that open out to the street are bracketed by the brick walls of Malling Dampmølle, a housing project in Malling. Designed by CEBRA, a Denmark-based practice, the housing design in a small Danish market town that connects to the city of Aarhus–comprising 52 dwellings–occupies the site of a 19th-century steam mill with the same name as the residential development. This historical context informs part of the planning for the low-rise, low-density residential design; as does the desire to maintain the visual language represented by the contextual built environment through the choice of material and the design’s formal manifestation. The undulating roof form of the brick clad-blocks screen reveals the landscape design to passersby in turns.

The design team hoped to promote the notion of collective life in the local community, through the public spaces and green oases that the residents are free to use as they please. Located in an area surrounded by single-family dwellings, the scope of the residential architecture and the facilities provided through the design allows the development to foster, as the architects describe, a voluntary community. The central courtyard facilitates this with the space incorporating a communal house, guest apartment, shared greenhouse and kitchen gardens. The other green areas, created by the arms splaying onto the site as a result of the irregularly shaped plan not only provide the residents in these phases with a view of the greenery but also facilitate natural light and ventilation in the respective apartment designs.

The planning, in itself a nod to the historical context and shape of the former industrial buildings on the site, follows the boundaries of the irregular site, resulting in a star-shaped form that creates distinct courtyards and a series of small private environments for the residents. These yards open towards the surroundings as the wings of the complex radiate out from the centre. Apart from the planning that induces a sense of community through its emphasis on open spaces, the roof design for the project distinguishes it from its surroundings.

The three-storeyed complex was conceived with a wave-like roof structure derived from an analysis of daylight conditions, to ensure that the variation of the volumes of the blocks would not create shadows in the open spaces. “By 'pulling' the roof surface up and down, the volume rises only towards the centre of the site not to cast shadows onto the adjacent private garden,” the architects explain. As they go on to detail, this distinctive shape of the roof also made it possible for the complex to accommodate a variety of housing units to cater to different needs. This in turn “supports and attracts social diversity with a mix of older and younger families with children, which is key to sustaining any well-functioning community,” the architects state.

The housing units include single-storey homes with direct access to the gardens and double-storey terraced houses that have direct access at the first-floor level. Each house looks onto a courtyard; with the central space surrounded on three sides by built mass creating an intimate communal gathering space for the residents. While the roof design creates a somewhat imposing boundary, the gabled roofs near the site boundary are deliberately lowered to make the scheme feel less monumental and intruding. In addition to scaling down the building volume, the enclosed spaces also create a protected buffer zone between the privacy of the homes and the public streets framing the development.

Viewed from the street, the units appear as a coherent structure that derives their visual language from the common terraced house typology in the immediate vicinity. Further, to maintain continuity in the urban fabric, the project finds its material inspiration in the built context – both in materials and scale. The exterior walls with dark exposed brick facades and shale-clad roof pitches are meant to be a contemporary interpretation of the surrounding buildings, with the traditional, long-lasting materials also requiring minimal maintenance.

Combining a unique approach to planning with an emphasis on courtyard architecture and intimate pockets of gathering, the development of the housing complex of Malling Dampmølle creates a light-filled, green space that asks residents to pause, revel in the importance of community in day to day life.

Project Details

Name: Malling Dampmølle
Location: Malling, Aarhus, Denmark
Site Area: 5,600 sqm
Consultants:
Turnkey Contractor: CJ-Group
Engineer: Arne Elkjær
Year of Completion: 2023