The "Crystal" is located on a vacant lot between buildings close to the main shopping street right in the center of Aarhus, Denmark.

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Key requirements to the design were: great illumination by natural light while maintaining enough privacy for the residents, creating adequate apartment sizes as well as a shared roof terrace.

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By calculating the solar envelope for the lot with the chosen height, a geometry is created receiving the most sunlight possible while developing as little shadows for the surroundings as possible. Therefore, subtractions to the extruded geometry have to be made. Still responding to the adjacent geometries, most of the edges react to the different building heights and ridge positions.

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The choice of a fully glazed facade supports the great illumination by sunlight. Additional moveable wooden panels, adapted to the floor height, enable shadowing of the inside to avoid an overheating of the apartments as well as solving vis-a-vis problems. Moreover, it gives plants a place to grow on. The shared roof terrace renders the "Crystal" a unique quality, overseeing the whole city as well as creating a place for the residents to interact with each other and grow plants.

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Shaped like a diamond or a rearranged prism, the building feels alien to the neighborhood through its design. Nevertheless, the building fits by its reaction to the surrounding geometry.

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Through its design, the "Crystal" combines great natural apartment illumination with a unique shared roof terrace in the center of the city of Aarhus.