new buildings on the roof of Det Danske Filminstitut / the Danish Film Institute
/Det Danske Film Institute from the King’s Garden
Planning permission has just been granted for an extensive new development on the roof of the Danish Film Institute.
With two courtyards, this large building that covers a complete block in the centre of the city was built in two stages for the great Danish media company Egmont.
The first part - the west half of the block with a frontage to Vognmagergade - dates from 1912-1914 and was designed by the architect Bernard Ingemann. The second part - the east half that faces onto Gothersgade and looks over Kongens Have - the King's Garden - dates from 1926-1928 and was designed by the architect Alf Cock-Clausen. Egmont have a large office building opposite on the other side of Vognmagergade.
By the late 19th century, this part of the city, just inside the old defences, was tightly-packed with old houses around narrow and crowded courtyards that had become notorious slums. In the 1890s and into the 20th century the area was rebuilt. The courtyards and buildings were demolished and a major new street, Christian IX's Gade, was laid out, at an angle, to cut through the old area to the corner of the royal gardens, with new offices, new institutional buildings and large new apartment blocks were built on either side.
Gothersgade 55 - the east part of the Egmont building - is now occupied by Det Danske Filminstitut who have three cinemas here to show classic films under the name Cinemateket and there is also the library of the national museum of film with its reference archive of magazines, books and film posters.
The extensive work on the roof will create a new, cinema with 127 seats and there will be extensive terraces and pavilions for a cinema foyer and a café and areas for displays and exhibitions of historic film artefacts from the film museum.
