Hand sculpted and seemingly floating, soft white roofs covering transparent glass pavilions characterise the award-winning Nørreport Station. With roughly 250,000 people bustling through Copenhagen's main traffic nerve daily, its structure's key architectural values were to create a perfect passenger flow, increase accessibility and ease way finding, all while uniting the station with the urban life that surrounds it.
With Copenhagen being the epitome of a cycling city, the station’s architects ingeniously integrated its bike parking to avoid a chaotic atmosphere. The organically shaped so-called ‘bicycle beds’ are sunken 40cm below the pavement, increasing capacity to 2,500 bikes while securing unobstructed sightlines across the plaza. The beds also correspond in shape with Nørreport Station's roofs, giving the illusion that the latter have been dug out and lifted into the air.
Rounded shapes in materials like white concrete, granite, glass and stainless steel make the three forecourt areas feel inviting and graceful. Large multifunctional towers, rising as luminous landmarks in the dark, ventilate the underground platforms and provide information. Although not noticeable at street level, the four sloped roofs are covered in low greenery, absorbing the run-off from sudden cloudbursts while also adding to the view from above.
