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The just completed 8 House, probably named for its bow-tie shape, is the newest and final addition to Bjarke Ingels Group's trilogy of housing projects with developer Hopfner Partners. The building, located in the Orestad neighborhood of Copenhagen, is the largest private development in Denmark. The essential "ingredients of a neighborhood are stacked in horizontal layers and then twisted, imitating the condition of a city block, where buildings and houses co-exist. In this one, though, you can ride your bike from the ground all the way to the 10th floor.

Thomas Christofferen, the 8 House Partner in Charge, says:

The apartments are placed at the top while the commercial programme unfolds at the base of the building. As a result, the different horizontal layers have achieved a quality of their own: the apartments benefit from the view, sunlight and fresh air, while the office leases merge with life on the street. This is emphasized by the shape of 8 House which is literally hoisted up in the northeast corner and pushed down at the southwest corner, allowing light and air to enter the southern courtyard.

We like the idea of a "three-dimensional neighborhood," as Bjarke Ingels describes the concept. Perhaps the project starts to get at new ways we can live communally—at the center of the figure 8 are 500 m2 of shared facilities for residents. We imagine this might include a gym, a concierge desk and a pool, but what about kitchens? Gardens? Party-sized living rooms? Woodshops?

While we're talking about BIG, we should also mention that Bjarke was just awarded for the European Prize for Architecture, to be delivered on November 5th in Madrid. Try not to hate him for being only 38.

Many more seductive, heroic images of the new building follow.

Photography by Jens Lindhe.