Dorte Mandrup Architects, a Dutch architecture firm, is leading the 74,000-sm masterplan design in the city center of Copenhagen that will include a large hotel, commercial buildings, and residential buildings. The two largest aspects of the new masterplan are an IKEA store and two student-housing towers, designed by BIG and dubbed “Cacti.”
According to ArchDaily, the new IKEA store will be sans parking lot and will operate on the premise that customers will buy smaller objects and use bicycles to transport them home. Dorte Mandrup Architects will design the IKEA store as well as a low-price hotel that will spread 1,250 rooms across two volumes. The hotel would become the largest in the Nordic region.
BIG’s Cacti will feature stacked hexagonal cores, which create an aesthetic that provides the towers with their name. The towers will comprise 500 “youth rooms” and sit adjacent to the IKEA and hotel.