Created using a modular system – developed by BIG and CJ Group – the Sneglehusene housing project is part of the Nye neighborhood, in the north of Aarhus, Denmark’s second-largest city.

The overall design was based on the Dortheavej Residence, that BIG and CJ Group previously created in Copenhagen. The project contains townhouses, multi-bedroom apartments, and studios that range in scale from 50 to 150 square meters, for a total of 93 homes.

Composed of a total of six blocks from one to four stories, curved in a spiral around a pond and a green boardwalk in the center of the project, the “Sneglehusene” is conceived as a “porous wall”. Two kinds of stacked modules are repeated to create a characteristic checkered pattern, also underlined by the timber board cladding.

“Our modular concept has made it possible for us to maintain simplicity in the execution despite the construction's complexity, and we have been allowed to improve the concept with all our experience,” said BIG partner Finn Noerkjaer.