SONNESGADE 11
AARHUS DK
Size:
Team: Status: 1.800 m2
Søren Jensen, SLETH
Under development
MULTIFUNCTIONAL OFFICE BUILDING
Within the close reach of the city center and right on the verge of the railway cutting
through the urban structure the plot Sonnesgade 11 is situated.
The project is a 4 story commercial building for the use of mixed types of businesses,
primarily office space.
The building is designed as a 3 story house with a staircase that connects the ground and
the street to the roof in the house’s longitudinal direction. Under the house a gallery lobby
is placed facing the street.
Sonnesgade is significantly sloping with a decrease of approximately 3 meters within the
plot. The house is placed on the highest point towards on the railway cutting directly on
the ground. Towards Sonnesgade the house stands with the facade following the boundary
of the site to the street. The plot is interpreted as a space with a front yard and arrival to
the east - towards the street. Access to the building is from the east side via an external
staircase along the façade. On the west side of the house establishes a backyard for tenants
facing an existing retaining wall envisaged transformed into a green wall for the benefit of
the green environment surrounding the building and in the area.
Under the building towards the street a multipurpose open gallery function is established
and in the built-up slope a parking garage and storage is placed towards the trains.
Along with the retaining wall on the west side, and along the ramp to the basement, a
public access through the site from Sonnesgade for a future possible light rail stop.
The facades of the building are collection 6 different sides reflecting the many identities of
the surroundings split identities.
The project itself is a 1:1 realisation of the architecture and challenges of the office SLETH
as both landowner, developer and architects - based on the potential of Sonnesgade.
THE POTENTIAL OF ”SONNESGADE 11” the existing
Originally constructed for the Danish Dairy organisation and Peter Jensen cheese the buildings and
the site in Sonnesgade Aarhus have the latest 8 years existed as a “plot” more than a fully functional
building.
The location is the city core of Aarhus and at the same time placed on the edge overlooking the valley
where the trains are entering the city. The place has always been a meeting in between the living – and
the industrial city with city blocks on one side of the road and a mix of typologies and mostly industrial
functions on the other. This split identity is in many ways the perfect description for the site with
possible different readings of the place.
As one enters the plot a quiet brownstone single floor building is welcoming you surrounding a front
courtyard with garages and being clearly connected to the quiet street life of Sonnesgade. Continuing
towards the back of the building another courtyard occurs and reveals a clear contact to trains and
lively logistics of the Aarhus train valley surrounded by the green slopes up the street. The surprise is
only getting stronger when one enters the building. From the industrial rooms in the back of the house
a staircase is leading towards a basement not only one floor down but into a multileveled underworld
with spaces almost under the whole site. This basement was originally built as spaces for storing
cheese and goods related to the dairy industry. In the recent mostly used as a potential extra space.
Sonnesgade 11 is a site and cheese storage, experimental kitchen, electrician factory, storage for an
attorney and lots of official and unofficial events through the years…
Plot size : 1200 m2
Situation
Situation
Cityhouse
The Atelier
Industrial Vitrine
The Entrance
The 4 faces of SG11
Elevations
The 4 faces of SG11
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3 floor
2 floor
1 floor
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The Entrance
Beam
Vitrine
Atelier
Deck
Street elevated
Stone
Plot
Components
Interior
Vue