Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) has completed new alternative low-cost typology for students and academics in Copenhagen's harbour, remaining an underutilized and underdeveloped area at the heart of the city. The first 680 square-metre Urban Rigger has arrived in Copenhagen providing 12 affordable and sustainable student homes to the city’s young academics. 

Named Urban Rigger, it was manufactured at low cost and high quality in a Polish shipyard, Urban Rigger helps an endangered industry while offering a solution to the growing demand for affordable student housing all over the world. 

''Recent years have demonstrated a substantial and sustained increase in the number of student applicants throughout Denmark. As the number of students continues to grow, additional student housing will be needed to accommodate them,'' says the designers of BIG. 

BIG puts forward a few strategies that allow cities to expand. By introducing a new typology optimized for harbour cities, BIG introduces a housing solution that will keep students at the heart of the city. 

The standardized container system has been developed to allow goods to be transported by road, water or air, to anywhere in the world in a complex network of operators at a very low cost. By making use of the standard container system, the studio is offered the framework for an extremely flexible building typology.

By stacking 9 container units in a circle, BIG will be able to create 15 studio residences which frame a centralized winter garden; this is used as a common meeting place for students. The housing is also buoyant, like a boat, so that can be replicated in other harbour cities where affordable housing is needed, but space is limited.

An Urban Rigger is a unique, design protected, patented, floating, flexible, C02 neutral and mobile property totaling 680 m2, which is spread over 300 m2 of housing (9 + 3 individual student residence a respectively. 23m2 – 27m2), a 160 m2 common green courtyard, Kayak landing, Bathing platform, BBQ area, as well as 65 m2 communal roof terrace. Downstairs below sea level, the 230 m2 pontoon (basement), Comprising: 12 storage rooms, technical room and common fully automated laundry.

Project Facts

Name: Urban Rigger
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
Program: Housing
Status: Complete
Size: 680 sqm / 7,319 sqf
Project type: Commission
Client: Udvikling danmark A/S
Collaborators: BIG ideas, danfoss A/S, grundfos DK A/S, hanwha Q cells ltd., miele, niras A/S, dirk marine/house on water

Project Team
Partners in charge: bjarke ingels, jakob sand
Project leader: joos jerne
Team: Aaron hales, adam busko, agne tamasauskaite, aleksandra sliwinska, andreas klok pedersen, annette birthe jensen, birgitte villadsen, brage mæhle hult, brigitta gulyás, carlos soria, christian bom, david zahle, dimitrie grigorescu, edda steingrimsdottir, edmond lakatos, elina skujina, finn nørkjær, ioana fartadi scurtu, jacob lykkefold aaen, jakob lange, kamila rawicka, lise jessen, lorenzo boddi, magdalene maria mroz, nicolas millot, perle van de wyngert, raphael ciriani, stefan plugaru, stefan wolf, tobias hjortdal, toni mateu, tore banke, viktoria millentrup

All images courtesy of Urban Rigger

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