Flexible walls, reclaimed bricks, and circular windows – explore the architectural details of Lifestyle Hub Aarhus and the vision behind them.
Lifestyle Hub Aarhus is for enterprises in fashion, furniture, design, and adjacent industries who value being part of and co-creating a creative community. Here, established brands live and work alongside entrepreneurs, students, and knowledge communities in an environment focused on development, collaboration, and innovation.
The Lifestyle Hub is a distinctive structure in the South Harbour neighbourhood of Aarhus. Dive into its architecture, the visions behind it, and the elements and materials that make the building unique.
The vision
Lifestyle Hub Aarhus was designed and developed with the intention of creating the central hub for the Danish lifestyle industry. Unlike internationally, with hubs found in e.g. New York and London, a dedicated space has been missing in Denmark despite the industry’s importance for Danish culture and commerce. The hub was envisioned as the place for new talent to enter the industry, and for enterprises large and small to meet, aiming to inspire lots of cross-collaboration and new networks. These visions are reflected in the building’s open and flexible architecture.
“After a two-year design process with the future tenants, we wanted to create and design a building representing the green transition facing the lifestyle industry. That is why, among other things, we chose to design a timber building and use sustainable materials, as well as materials from the 1950's that had never been used before, known as ‘New Old Stock.’ ”
One of the aims during the creation of Lifestyle Hub was to build with environmental responsibility in mind – to set a framework for and inspire the tenants to follow these principles in their own work. Therefore, biogenic solutions have been favoured throughout, and the building has received a Gold DGNB pre-certification.
Visually and architecturally, Lifestyle Hub had to both blend in with South Harbour characteristics and stand out from the rest of the area’s structures.
“Lifestyle Hub was allowed to have a fundamentally different pulse and take up more space in the streetscape through its profile as a timber building.”
The atrium and units
The building consists of four stories with an atrium in the centre. Clustered around the atrium, we find office units, meeting rooms, and kitchenettes as well as access to the main stairs and bathrooms. The ambition for the open design and the atrium was to create space for spontaneous meetings and networking from top to bottom, as it is possible to speak and hear across floors. This is the heart of the building with its pulse running through.
The atrium seen on the first floor.
Of course, being able to engage in deep work is still important, and this is reflected in the configuration of the individual units. Designed with acoustics in mind, they are fitted with sound insulation to avoid disturbances from the atrium.
The units have large windows facing the atrium, which both display the enterprising spirit and make it possible for businesses to contribute to life in the building even when the doors are closed. Each business can decorate their unit as they see fit, enabling them to create their own distinctive universe and showcase their style to the community. This is particularly valuable for the street-facing units on the ground floor, which can be used as showrooms.
Lifestyle Hub Aarhus seeks to embrace both large and small enterprises and enable recent graduates and entrepreneurs to set up on their own and grow their business. This vision is encapsulated in the flexible plywood partition walls of the units. Unlike standard plasterboard partitions, the plywood walls are easy to remove and stow away. This makes it possible for an expanding business to merge two small units into a larger one.
“One of the building’s key features is the many partition walls made of plywood, which create the individual units. We have designed the walls so they can be removed and reinstalled again and again, which means that, unlike plasterboard walls, they do not have to be thrown away unnecessarily. ”
Office unit with flexible partition walls
Timber and concrete
Timber has played a major role as the main material for Lifestyle Hub Aarhus, as the building was first and foremost conceived as a wooden structure. Glulam and plywood predominate floors, columns, beams, and vertical surfaces. While there is little variation in types of timber used, the range of varnishes used helps to create a stunning, visually diverse appearance.
“Everyone can see what the starting point has been – timber has a very clear presence.”
At either end we find the stabilising, concrete elements of the building, one of which also houses the main staircase. Concrete is better suited for the high footfall here and complies with fire safety standards.
Reused materials and New Old Stock
The ambition was to build Lifestyle Hub Aarhus with environmental consideration, for example by limiting the use of virgin materials. Roughly half of the red bricks covering the exterior are reused bricks salvaged from a demolished South Harbour building. To reduce carbon emissions in construction, the remaining bricks were fired using biogas.
This mix of new and old symbolically reflects the building’s users; the not-yet established entrepreneurs and the more experienced enterprises. The red bricks also connect Lifestyle Hub Aarhus visually with the South Harbour neighbourhood.
The rest of the building exterior is clad in aluminium sheets which can be reused in future.
Some of the features inside Lifestyle Hub Aarhus are ‘New Old Stock’, meaning materials that are old, but which have not been used before. The tiles in the bathrooms and kitchenettes are New Old Stock dating to the mid-twentieth century, which lends a unique and slightly retro vibe not usually found in modern buildings of this kind.
New Old Stock tiling in a bathroom.
Visible installations
One of the prominent features of Lifestyle Hub Aarhus is the visible installations throughout. This is both a functional and aesthetic choice. First, it is rooted in the ambition to reduce resource use in construction, as no additional materials are required for covering pipes and cables. Second, the visible installations lend the building an authentic, raw look that matches its South Harbour location. By not covering installations, the construction is laid bare, which symbolises and invites transparency – an important value to both Lifestyle and Design Cluster and its tenants.
Circular windows
At one end, Lifestyle Hub Aarhus is characterised by large round windows to the street and to the ‘artist courtyard’, inspired by nearby public baths ‘Spanien’ and other South Harbour buildings. This is another distinctive feature and symbolises circularity, which again is an important value to the building’s tenants.
Meeting room with circular window to the ‘artist courtyard’.
Rooftop terrace
At the very top, Lifestyle Hub Aarhus boasts a roof terrace. Despite the many taller buildings in the South Harbour, a south-facing view away from the dense cityscape is secured by the two-story building just opposite. Solar panels contribute to the building’s energy efficiency, while the green roof adds an organic touch.
Glossary
DGNB: is a globally recognised, voluntary certification system used to measure, promote, and collaborate on sustainability considerations across the built environment. The certification consists of a range of criteria to assess a building across social, environmental, and economic parameters. The criteria cover aspects such as biodiversity, indoor climate, environmentally hazardous and harmful chemicals, carbon footprint, social conditions, and durability. Projects can achieve Bronze, Silver, Gold, or Platinum certification, depending on their performance.
Behind Lifestyle Hub Aarhus:
Developer: A. Enggaard A/S
Architects: LOOP Architects, RUM3 Studio
Consulting engineers: Søren Jensen
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