Here Now, Bike From the Street Up to a 10th-Floor Penthouse

The Wall Street Journal's Richard B. Woodward once wrote the following about architect-of-the-moment Bjarke Ingels: "Urban tower blocks don't have to be crammed with dreary rectangles." Well, looks like NYC's very own pyramid builder and Godzilla is living up to his rep: enter 8 House, a 650,000-square-foot residential/retail complex in Copenhagen—the largest private development ever to be built in Denmark. The winner of one of this year's AIA Institute Honor Awards for Architecture, 8 House "masterfully recreates the horizontal social connectivity and interaction of the streets of a village neighborhood through a series of delightful accessible ramps" that making traveling from the ground floor up to the 10th via a bike—and on a continuous pubic path, no less—a possibility. Also part of the bow-tie design: two interior courtyards, gardens, and—but of course!—green roofs. Arc Space has a few more photos and renderings.

· 8 House [Arc Space]