Gemini Residence is a residential building on the Islands Brygge

Islands Brygge

Islands Brygge is a harbourfront area in central Copenhagen, Denmark, located on the north-western coast of Amager. The neighbourhood is noted for its waterfront park Havneparken, which is one of the most popular areas along the Copenhagen harbourfront and the location of one of the Copenhagen...

 waterfront in Copenhagen

Copenhagen

Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...

, Denmark

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

. Built to the design of MVRDV

MVRDV

MVRDV is a Rotterdam, Netherlands-based architecture and urban design practice founded in 1991. The name is an acronym for the founding members: Winy Maas , Jacob van Rijs and Nathalie de Vries...

, the building has been created by converting two former seed silos

Silo

A silo is a structure for storing bulk materials.Silo may also refer to:* Silo , a 3D modeling software* Silo , a defunct chain of retail electronics stores* SILO , used in Linux...

. It is located at the end of Bryggebroen

Bryggebroen

Bryggebroen is a pedestrian and bicyclist bridge which spans the inner harbour of Copenhagen, Denmark. The bridge connects the harbour-front development of Havneholmen in Vesterbro with the Islands Brygge neighborhood on the island of Amager. Designed by Danish architectural firm Dissing +...

, connecting Amager

Amager

Amager is a Danish island in the Øresund. The Danish capital, Copenhagen, is partly situated on Amager, which is connected to the much larger island of Zealand by five bridges.-History:...

-side Islands Brygge to Zealand-side Vesterbro across the harbour, and close to the southern end of Havneparken

Havneparken

Havneparken is a public park located directly on the waterfront in the district of Islands Brygge in central Copenhagen, Denmark. It is one of the most lively and popular places along the Copenhagen harbourfront...

.

With a reference to the twin silos that have given the building its shape, Gemini Residence takes its name from the Astrological sign

Astrological sign

Astrological signs represent twelve equal segments or divisions of the zodiac. According to astrology, celestial phenomena reflect or govern human activity on the principle of "as above, so below", so that the twelve signs are held to represent twelve basic personality types or characteristic modes...

 Gemini

Gemini (astrology)

Gemini is the third astrological sign in the Zodiac, which spans the Zodiac between the 60th and 89th degree of celestial longitude. Generally, the Sun transits this area of the zodiac between May 21 to June 20 each year...

, the Latin name of the Zodiac

Zodiac

In astronomy, the zodiac is a circle of twelve 30° divisions of celestial longitude which are centred upon the ecliptic: the apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year...

 sign The Twins.

History

Dansk Soyakagefabrik (English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

: Danish Soybean Cake Factory) was a soybean

Soybean

The soybean or soya bean is a species of legume native to East Asia, widely grown for its edible bean which has numerous uses...

 processing plant establishing in the Islands Brygge area in 1909. It produced oil

Soybean oil

Soybean oil is a vegetable oil extracted from the seeds of the soybean . It is one of the most widely consumed cooking oils. As a drying oil, processed soybean oil is also used as a base for printing inks and oil paints...

 and animal feed

Compound feed

Compound feeds are feedstuffs that are blended from various raw materials and additives. These blends are formulated according to the specific requirements of the target animal...

 and grew to the largest employer in the area, in the 1950s employing 1,200 mainly local workers. The two silos now converted into Gemini Residence were built in 1963. After the plant closed in the 1990s, the area was redeveloped to a new district with both residential and office buildings. The conversion of the two seed silos was carried out from 2002-05.

Building

The converted twin silos were raw concrete cylinders

Cylinder (geometry)

A cylinder is one of the most basic curvilinear geometric shapes, the surface formed by the points at a fixed distance from a given line segment, the axis of the cylinder. The solid enclosed by this surface and by two planes perpendicular to the axis is also called a cylinder...

, standing 42 metres tall and 25 metres wide. The hollow cores of the silos are used for the infrastructure of the building, stairs, elevators and hallways. The two silos are connected on each floor, giving the building a basic layout resemblying the infinity symbol

Infinity

Infinity is a concept in many fields, most predominantly mathematics and physics, that refers to a quantity without bound or end. People have developed various ideas throughout history about the nature of infinity...

, ∞. The two rotunda

Rotunda (architecture)

A rotunda is any building with a circular ground plan, sometimes covered by a dome. It can also refer to a round room within a building . The Pantheon in Rome is a famous rotunda. A Band Rotunda is a circular bandstand, usually with a dome...

s are capped with a Texlon

ETFE

Ethylene tetrafluoroethylene, ETFE, a fluorine based plastic, was designed to have high corrosion resistance and strength over a wide temperature range. ETFE is a polymer, and its systematic name is poly. ETFE has a very high melting temperature, excellent chemical, electrical and high energy...

 roof for natural light, creating a lobby

Lobby

Lobby may refer to:* Lobby , an entranceway or foyer in a building* Lobbying, the action or the group used to influence a viewpoint to politicians* Lobby , a thick stew made in North Staffordshire, not unlike Lancashire Hotpot...

 area as tall as the building itself, within which residents and visitors can move up and down.

The apartments have been clipped to the exterior of the silos. The apartments have floor to ceiling windows and balconies

Balcony

Balcony , a platform projecting from the wall of a building, supported by columns or console brackets, and enclosed with a balustrade.-Types:The traditional Maltese balcony is a wooden closed balcony projecting from a...

 along their entire length. At the foot of the silos, the raw concrete has been left uncovered to highlight the origian and history of the structure. This creates a marked horizontal overhang

Grade (climbing)

In rock climbing, mountaineering and other climbing disciplines, climbers give a climbing grade to a route that concisely describes the difficulty and danger of climbing the route...

 above the quayside esplenade passing below, while the narrow chasm

Canyon

A canyon or gorge is a deep ravine between cliffs often carved from the landscape by a river. Rivers have a natural tendency to reach a baseline elevation, which is the same elevation as the body of water it will eventually drain into. This forms a canyon. Most canyons were formed by a process of...

it leaves at ground level creates a passage between dockside and streetside.