Place: Roskilde, Denmark
Team: MASU Planning (Main advisor / Landscape architect)
Client: Municipality of Roskilde
Size: 20,000 m2
Timeline: Completed 2019
Jyllinge Recreative Square
Extending indoor community life into new civic square that brings everyday activity, movement, and gathering into the public realm.
By transforming the entrance area of the sports halls into a vibrant and flexible public square the project establishes a new urban heart for Jyllinge. By creating a high-quality outdoor space, the design makes visible the many activities previously contained within the buildings and provides a shared setting for everyday life, recreation, and local events.
A New Heart for Jyllinge
The warm yellow and red-toned brick pavement is a high-quality frame for daily life. It’s possible to move the fitness exercises outside or to sit down for a talk after practice, and the spacious square can also easily host a flea market or other town festivities.
The entrance to Jyllinge Sport Hall and the arrival square are centrally placed in the town surrounded by a school and a youth club. When the old sports hall burned down, it was replaced by a new and modern building. Unlike the other buildings, the new sports hall is open towards the town allowing bypassers to get a glimpse of the hectic activities.
The square reflects the high quality and welcoming atmosphere from the building and extends the indoor activities to the public space.
A subtle pattern in the brick pavement underlines the main flow and stay area, while concrete seating edges define the square towards the open green area and creates plenty of room for seating or outdoor excercises.
Three round planting beds and two large bences further divides the space with smaller more intime seating under the trees. Two small hills are playfull elements perfect to ride over on the was home from school.
A square flexible to future needs
With high-quality materials, we have created a solid frame to match the long term development in Jyllinge. In the future, sport and culture will be combined with the construction of a new library, which is planned to be built on the opposite side of the sports halls. The square will be the uniting element between the library, sports halls and the north-south pedestrian traffic.
The task was to create a flexible design towards the green area that easily can be adjusted to the future library building. There is no schedule for the library, and it was therefore crucial that the temporary elements appear harmonious and permanent.
One of the many qualities of brick is its flexibility. When needed the pavement can easily be changed and expaned without destroying the overall expression of the square. The concrete terrain walls can easily be re-arranged to fit a new situation.
