VM Mountain

Location: Ørestad, Copenhagen
Client: Axel Frederiksen, VM Bjerget A/S
Team: Stig L. Andersson, Friedemann Rüter, Malene Krüger
Collaborators: BIG, Skjølstrup & Grønborg
Design phase: 2005
Construction: 2008
Area: 2,5 ha.

Many home buyers are faced with the choice between an apartment and a single family house. There are many aspects to consider, when faced with the big decision of choosing a new home. One question is: Do you want to live in green surroundings with private garden in one of the suburbs? Or do you want to live in the centre of the city with a balcony or public parks as an alternative to the garden?

The VM Mountain in Ørestad offers the best of both worlds: a home close to the city and a spacious roof garden with a view over Ørestad City Park. SLA has detailed the roof gardens, so that they are green all year round and require minimal maintenance. The carefully selected plants can all tolerate the Danish climate and flower at different times of the year in all the colours of the rainbow. The roof gardens are placed on top of a publicly accessible multi-storey car park, but the dense planting makes the building look like a verdant mountain slope.

The gardens are supplied with an environmentally friendly watering system that uses rainwater from the VM Mountain. In this way the residents need not spend free time on gardening. In stead they can enjoy the privacy of the roof gardens. Every garden is separated by a wall, and the garden is enclosed by hedges so wide that it is impossible to look down into the apartment of the neighbours below. The roof gardens thereby provide space for barbeques or sunbathing in secure and relaxing surroundings in the middle of Ørestad’s urban setting.

The VM Mountain’s apartments with roof gardens are the perfect choice for those who wish to live in the centre of the capital and at the same time profit from a private and maintenance free garden.