The city of Vejle in Denmark recently, November 12th 2005, inaugurated the multi-storey parking facility TRÓNDUR. It’s a remarkable feat of functional design. That it is possible to turn a concrete, nightmarish, parking facility, into a well designed and even beautify piece of architecture, that fits well into the urban landscape utilising glass, concrete and typical Danish red-brick masonry, is no small feat. The attention to detail is remarkable, for instance the use of the city crest as a design element on the outside railing.
The facility is flanked by two stairwell towers, one with 300 painted glass slabs, the other with a similar number of unpainted glass slabs. This has a function as well, since you’re never in doubt in which end of the building you entered or exited, making it easier to locate your car. Another detail is seen in the lift, where each floor has it’s separate colour made clearly visible with neon lights, this serves a function, since you automatically associate a floor with it’s colour, this is a detail I’d like to be taken to the outside. Each floor has the number of the floor shown by a neon light shaped as a number.
The facility has been named Tröndur in honour of the famous artist Tröndur Patursson, who originates from the Faeroe Islands in the North Atlantic. Patursson has a reputation of working with art on a “large scale”. The large scale artwork by Patursson on the facility, is the 300 slabs of painted glass, that adorns one of the stairwell towers, covering a total area 310 m2, rendering the work the largest glass painting in Denmark.
Facts:
Price-tag: 40 million DKK
272 parking slots – 266 ordinary and six reserved for disabled people. This increases the capacity of the available parking slots by 170 on the site, Volmers Plads.
The facility is a five storey building with a total floor area of 8,100 m2. The facade area is 2,100 m2.
Parking is toll based, but with no barriers in order to secure smooth and easy access, to reduce the risk of the creation of lines.
Toll can be paid in machines that accepts coins and major credit-cards. This ensures that you pay an amount, that is directly proportional to the duration of the time you were parked.
The facility is secure, due to the fact that there’s extensive video surveillance.
The facility has two stairwell towers for pedestrians . One of these is equipped with a lift.
Source:
Vejle Kommune – Næste store indvielse i Vejle: – Nordens smukkeste P-hus (in Danish)