update - Hilton Hotel on the harbour

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Work is moving forward to convert the old Nordea Bank offices for a new Hilton Hotel on this prominent harbour site by Knippelsbro. Now you can see just how high the extra story will be and you can see just how the hotel will break through to the quay - to colonise it as an attractive new feature - a valuable commercial asset - for the new hotel.

And in return ……… the city gets some new steps down to the quay from the bridge.

The old office building was much too big and, with hefty concrete cladding, brutal and ugly but in part it was those things for clear reasons. When it was constructed in the 1950s, the harbour was a working port and not a tourist destination and this was the offices of the Burmeister & Wain ship yard that was crucial for providing jobs for the city and was a major player in the post-war effort by the country to restore the economy. Looking pretty was not on the design brief.

But right here, right now, if the Hilton Group had cleared the site and started again, a scheme for a building of that size and in that position would not be given planning permission.

And then they pushed the boundaries by asking for and getting permission to add an extra floor on a building that was already too big.

Until last year I lived in an apartment buildings to the south, behind the church, and looked out across the top of the trees in the churchyard with a clear sky line broken only by the church tower and with no one looking in. Then work started and the Nordea building took a deep breath and puffed out and began to loom over the trees.

Those apartment buildings are not the most stunning design but they are well designed and carefully designed to create pleasant living space and good streetscapes on land where there had been dry docks and sheds that no one could see a way of preserving after the yards closed. More to the point, planning controls kept the apartment buildings to the same overall height as the gutter or eaves of the church …. so not to the overall height of the church roof and not to the overall height of the spire but to the height of the body of the church. That development showed at least some respect for the historic buildings that still do and still should dominate the area.

In the general sweep of things I'm only a visitor to the city so it is not my place to be offended on behalf of københavnerne - who are certainly more than capable of defending their own values - but there seems to be something basically undemocratic about these huge international hotels that break the spirit if not the letter of Janteloven. The Hilton will make use of the nearby metro - though I guess most guests will arrive by taxi - and the ferry is at the back door to serve hotel guests and the quay will make a ‘picturesque’ backdrop from their harbour-side café or bar but I'm not exactly sure what citizens get back in return. Presumably, that huge glazed new top floor will be expensive restaurants and spaces for events but how many people in the city will ever use that unless they go just once to see what is up there. They don't need another ‘new perspective’ to see over their own city or a viewing platform to look down on their fellow citizens.

 

the Almindelig Hospital on Amaliegade

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Almindelig Hospital - the General Hospital - in Amaliegade that opened in 1769 and was demolished in 1896

the apartment building on the site was designed by the architect Ole Boye
note: the arch is a side entrance into the royal palace

In April 1769 a hospital or almshouse for the elderly and the poor opened on Amaliegade.

It was a massive building that could provide a home for 700 paupers … possibly then a third of the poor in the city. Of those in the hospital, some 200 were too sick to work but many provided an income for the hospital by spinning wool and flax.

What seems so amazing is not so much the scale of the building or even that this is clear evidence of a coherent policy for social care in the city in the 18th century but this new building was at the centre of the main street in Frederiksstaden - the 18th-century extension of the city northwards - and was just metres from the grand houses of what was, just thirty years later, to become the royal palace of Amalienborg.

Nor was it the only hospital in this part of the city for the much grander Frederiks Hospital, completed in 1758, was on the opposite side of the street. That building is now the home of Designmuseum Danmark.

By the 19th century some 1,200 people were crammed into the buildings of the General Hospital and when the cholera epidemic struck the city in 1853, over 500 of the patients in the hospital died within the first month.

That catastrophic loss of life led to the construction of a large new general hospital, with small wards around courtyards, that was built outside the city defences, close to the lakes, and the hospital in Amaliegade was demolished in 1896.

A large apartment building designed by Ole Boye was built on the plot.

 

the hospital was demolished in 1896

 

an unbuilt tram station for Rådhuspladsen

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Looking for old photographs and drawings of the buildings around Rådhuspladsen - the square in front of the city hall - I came across this amazing proposal by the architect Ludvig Clausen for large and elaborate tram station - a Sporvejsstation - that was designed in 1899 but was not built.

It would have been across the north side of the square so opposite the city hall and over the new metro station that opened recently.

In plan it would have been a large square building but with strongly chamfered external corners but with a courtyard that was a regular octagon. Tram lines would have entered through double arches on each of these corners and the trams would have crossed over in the centre, with pairs of lines crossing over like a cross of Saint Andrew, but also with curved lines on each side so that trams could come in and then exit through adjacent corners.

The four main elevations would have had arcaded loggias facing outwards and the building would have had three floors with a balustraded parapet. Windows on the main first floor are shown with architraves and pediments so it was a modern transport hub in the style of a renaissance palace in Italy.

And it would have been an enormous building … the plan shows it as wider than Helmerhus - the large apartment building with commercial space, designed by Arne Petersen and Henrik Hagemann, that was finished in 1893 and survives across the north side of the square.

The tram station would have been laid out to respect the alignment of what were then the most recent buildings on the square rather than being set square on to the city hall or being lined up with the older buildings along the east side of the square.

Note the 31 horse-drawn cabs that are shown standing in ranks on three sides and facing out and ready to take passengers into the city. This was clearly intended to be a busy and important transport hub.

The main tram lines were in and out of the square along Vesterbrogade, as you would expect, but also up and down Vester Voldgade, on the east side of the city hall, rather than along what is now HC Andersens Boulevard on the west side of the square. That only became the main street for traffic in the 20th century. A fourth tram line went out of the square and down Jernbanegade that was then not the street to Vesterport station, as it is now, but led to what was then the main railway station then on the north side of Vesterbrogade.

In the archive, there is a second drawing by Clausen for an alternative version of a tram interchange that is in the style of grand Danish architecture in the 17th-century, with polygonal turrets and cupolas, as if the architect had imagined trams driving in and out of Frederiksborg.

drawing in the archive of Danmarks Kunstbibliotek

the north end of Rådhuspladsen with Helmerhus to the right and, beyond, the shallow dome of Dagmarteatret opened in 1883 but closed in 1937 and was then demolished - the trams are there but, sadly, not the renaissance tram station

 

the Hirschsprung cigar shop on Gammeltorv

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The building on the west side of Gammeltorv, at the corner of Frederiksberggade, is under scaffolding and there is clearly a major restoration in progress.

The building, designed by the architect Johan Schrøder, dates from 1899 and has frontages to the square itself and to Frederikdberggade - although the street is better known as Strøget or The Walking Street.

Gammeltorv is a strange irregular shape with the building line on this side cutting back to the north-west corner so, although the building is more-easily described as L-shaped around two sides of an internal courtyard but, when seen from the air, the two ranges form a broad V shape.

In part for this reason, so to mask or disguise the angle, but also, presumably, because Schrøder understood the importance of the corner site, the corner of the building is rounded. That round shape is cut back in to form what is almost two-thirds of a rounded turret and that is emphasised with an order of attached pillars in dark stone at an upper level and by a prominent and ornate copper dome.

The main frontage is to the square with an elaborate stone doorway at the centre, with balconies above, but there is also a good frontage to Frederiksberggade and again with a central doorway but with a simpler surround with a pediment. These doorways gave access to apartments above but, from the start, there appear to have been shops on the ground floor to both the square and to the street.

The most important of these shops was at the corner with its entrance on the corner at the base of the turret. This was a cigar and tobacco shop owned by Hirschsprung & Sons and had a significant interior that was designed by Povl Baumann and Kaare Klint that was installed in 1916-1917.

That interior won an important City Architecture award in 1918 but very little survives … even internal walls have been removed to incorporate the space into adjoining shop units.

Will DESIGNGROUP Architects, responsible for the design work for renovation of the building, create something more appropriate with their refurbishment? They were the design team responsible for restoration of the building immediately opposite, on the other side of Frederiksberggade, so together these buildings form the entrance to the west part of Strøget and this could mark the start of a significant and overdue improvement to this section of what is a major street.

earlier post on the cigar shop June 2018

DESIGNGROUP ARCHITECTS

the building from Gammeltorv

Frederiksberggade or Strøget - The Walking Street - cuts across east to west between Gammeltorv - with it’s ornate fountain - and Nytorv with the 18th-century city hall on the west (here left) side.

the Hirschsprung building is on the west (left) side of Gammeltorv and on the north side of Strøget forming a V-shaped building with an ornate green copper dome on the corner.

scaffolding around the building has heavy tarpaulins that are printed with interesting historic images from the collection of Copenhagen Museum … here a view of the building from Nytorv with Gammeltorv beyond and taken before the buildings on the south side of Frederiksberggade were rebuilt.

Østerport building appears to be in limbo

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Work on the shop and office complex adjoining Østerport station appears to be in limbo.

Very odd and inappropriate dark pink glass cladding was actually taken off the new building last summer but what is left is a strange anaemic shell … like telling someone their new trousers are completely wrong and inappropriate and making them take them off but then leaving them standing there in their Y-fronts. Everything just looks wrong.

Now Arkitekturoprøret / Architecture Rebellion - a lobby group with the motto Lad os bygge smukt igen / Lets build beautiful again - has voted this the ugliest building in Denmark from the last five years.

It's difficult to see how or why this development has gone so wrong but it does raise important issues.

One reason - though not an acceptable excuse - might be that this not a new building but is an extensive remodelling of existing buildings to the street frontages but with a new addition in what had been a back service area. Were the planners less critical of the scheme and did they apply different criteria than they would have done if it had been a new building on a new site?

There was a brutal concrete block of shops here that are still at the core of the main range facing Oslo Plads but with a new façade and new offices above and there were earlier buildings back along Folke Bernadottes Allé - the main road to Nordhavn and Hellerup - and there the new work is even stranger, sitting across the top of the old as if it was intended to be some sort of symbiotic relationship but it looks more like a science-fiction horror movie where the new is swallowing the old and is simply waiting for a bout of indigestion to pass before finishing the job. The new building is a squat tower block in the angle of the earlier buildings that manages to loom over and overshadow the station platforms but is slightly but only slightly less obvious from the road. 

Surely, with such a prominent location, controls should have been much tighter.

Even a good building that is well designed is not a good, well-designed building if it is in the wrong place or does not respect and enhance the street or the district in which it is built. And this building seems to have broken most of the conventions without knowing what to put in their place.

Too often, architects and/or a developers see their most important aim should be to produce a unique/novel/trend-setting building that ‘pushes the boundaries’ and establishes the name or the reputation or, worse, is to be used as bait to lure in a prestigious tenant but when ego projects go wrong then boy do they go wrong.

 

the new work from Folke Bernadottes Allé …. even with the raspberry pink glass cladding removed, this is a very weird building

Oslo Plads - the new development in a post from April 2019
curious - a post here in August 2019 when the cladding was removed
the restoration of the railway station at Østerport

 

another new hotel

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The former offices of Falck on Bernstorffsgade are being converted by new owners - the Arp-Hansen Group - into a hotel or rather into a luxury hostel with 1,650 beds that is to be called Next House.

All original cladding has been removed and work has started within the original concrete frame that will be retained.

With Cabinn City just 65 metres away on the opposite side of the square; a large Marriott hotel immediately to the south, just 140 metres away; a new hotel, The Spectrum, that will have 632 beds, being built a block away to the east and, 500 metres to the west, The Tivoli Hotel with 679 rooms next to the new Cabinn Hotel Dybbølsbro that will have 1,220 rooms when finished, then why have planners allowed yet another hotel here? Surely, this building would have been ideal for the student housing that is desperately needed in the city even if such a development had needed tax breaks or financial support from central or city government?

 

Kids’ City at the Danish Architecture Center

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Kids’ City is the big new exhibition at the Danish Architecture Center in Copenhagen.

This is essentially an exhibition in two parts. 

Around the walls are panels with photographs and assessments that look at recent buildings designed for children - so schools and the new hospitals for children - showing the best of Danish architecture and design and showing what has to be done to create the best possible space for children when they are learning or playing or when they are ill.

However, the main part - literally at the centre of the space - are a series of large structures for children that are a variation on the brilliant playgrounds found around Denmark in public spaces and the courtyards of apartment buildings and in schools where children are encouraged, in the best possible ways, to exercise and to learn through play.

Just watch children playing here and, yes, you begin to see that this is kids having a fantastic time but, much more than that, it is about a huge investment in our future.

This is where and how Danish children learn to take good design for granted but in that process learn that good architecture and the best possible design is a crucial part of their lives. That should establish expectations and nurture an understanding of the role of good design and trigger, we hope, the interest and then the enthusiasm and then the focus that will produce the next generation of great Danish architects and designers.

Kids’ City continues at Danish Architecture Center until 10 May 2020

 
 
 

Realdania - houses of the 20th century

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Realdania own important historic buildings throughout the country including a number of homes designed by some of the major Danish architects from the 20th century for themselves and their own families.

These have been restored by Realdania and they try to return the buildings to their original arrangement by removing later alterations if they are inappropriate and restoring interior schemes of decoration. 

Many of these houses are let to tenants but are open to the public at intervals. This is a list of some of these homes of architects that are open in the Spring. Please check with the Realdania site as numbers of visitors to each property are limited and for some houses it is necessary to book a ticket before the day the house is open.

Realdania also produce excellent guidebooks and these are available free on line … the name of the house is a link to more information on the Realdania site and images are links to the relevant pages to download the guide book.

 
 


House by Eva og Nils Koppels for Jørgen Varming (1952)
Skovvej 35A, Gentofte 
open 6 February 2020

 
 

House for JW Friis by Kay Fisker (1917)
Valnøddevænget 10, 3000 Helsingør
open 26 February 2020

 
 

House designed and built for himself by Arne Jacobsen (1929)
Gotfred Rodes Vej 2, 2920 Charlottenlund
open 3 March 2020

 
 

House designed and built for himself by Bertel Udsen (1956)
Bjælkevangen 15, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby
open 11 March 2020

 
 

House by Karen and Ebbe Clemmensen (1953)
Solbakkevej 57, 2820 Gentofte
open 18 March 2020

 
 

House by Viggo Møller-Jensen (1939)
Borrekrattet 7, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby
open 15 and 22 April 2020

the house is about to be restored and is opened to give people an opportunity to see the house before work starts

 
Møller Jensen.jpeg
 

House by Halldor Gunnløgsson (1958)
Rungsted Strandvej 68, 2960 Rungsted Kyst
open 16 April 2020 

 
 

House by Poul Henningsen (mid 1930s)
Brogårdsvej 72, 2820 Gentofte
open 27 April 2020

 
 
 

retrofitting balconies is a problem

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Walk around Copenhagen and you realise that this is the city of balconies … many of the buildings from the 18th and 19th centuries have elaborate balconies and, on modern buildings, balconies can come in almost any shape or size or form.

But there is a growing problem with retrofitting balconies on buildings that did not have them originally and particularly when basic, box-like, metal balconies are added across the street frontage of a building.

read more

 

reopening

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Frihedsmuseet / The Freedom Museum or Museum of Danish Resistance in Churchillparken, at the entrance to Kastellet, was destroyed in a devastating fire in 2013.

Fortunately, almost all of the collection was saved and a new museum has been built on the site. Designed by Lundgaard & Tranberg, the main galleries will be below ground.

The building above ground - with the entrance, the shop and cafe and staircases and lifts down to the exhibition space - is reminiscent of a concrete pillbox. Fine wires will support greenery as camouflage. The museum is expected to open on 5 May.

Lundgaard & Tranberg Arkitekter
Frihedsmuseet

 
 

the Arne Prize 2020

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Six buildings or architectural projects in Copenhagen have been nominated by Arkitektforeningen - the Architects Association - for their Arne Prize for 2020 and the winner will be announced  on 22 January 2020.

This prestigious prize was inaugurated in 2007 and, to be considered, work has to be in the metropolitan area and to have been completed within the past year.

nominees for the 2020 Arne Prize ……

Karen Blixens Plads - university square
Architect: COBE

Cityringens metro stations
Arup

Holbergskolens Næste Skur - shed built with recycled materials

Sankt Kjelds Plads - climate neighbourhood
Architect: SLA

Havebyen Mozart 74 - private house
Peter Kjær Arkitekter

Venligbolig Plus - affordable housing
ONV Arkitekter

Arkitektforeningen

Karen Blixen Plads, a new metro station on Cityringen and Sankt Kjelds Plads

yet another new hotel

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The turn of the year - particularly this January as we move into a new decade - is a time to check back on what has happened over the last year and think about what might happen next year.

In Copenhagen there are several major building projects where work is ongoing and several projects still at the planning stage but many of the big projects in the centre of the city could have massive consequences for the city and for the people who live here.

This historic building, dating from the late 19th century, is close to Trinity Church and work has just started on converting it into a large hotel with some shop units.

A few years ago there were articles in newspapers stating that Copenhagen lacked good hotels but that is hardly the case now.

And surely, all these hotels are changing the character of the city and the nature of work here. Yes, hotels can make use of large old buildings that might otherwise not have an obvious new use and yes there are jobs but how many of these are long-term and well-paid jobs?

The huge strength of the city is that so many people actually live in the centre. Too many historic cities empty of ordinary life at the end of the working day and Airbnb and swish hotels and everything that go with them make a city a great destination to visit but maybe not such an easy place to live.

 
 

Ørkenfortet / Desert Fort, Christianshavn

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Work is moving forward fast on Ørkenfortet, the Desert Fort - the large office building that is at the centre of the harbour at the Christianshavn end of Knipplesbro - the central bridge that crosses the harbour between the centre of the city and Christianshavn.

The interior at all levels has been gutted and all original windows and all external cladding have been removed. Work has started on cutting down new internal courtyards or light wells within the concrete structure of the block and on removing hefty concrete retaining walls along both the street frontage towards Torvegade and at the level of the quay on the end of the building towards the harbour that formed a base for the building.

Ørkenfortet was designed by Palle Suenson (1904-1987) and was completed in 1962 as offices for Burmeister & Wain who were a well-established and major engineering and ship-building company in the city. However, the engineering works closed in the 1990s and many of the buildings were demolished and replaced with office blocks along the harbour and large apartment buildings along the canal to the south.

The building by Suenson was taken over by Nordea Bank in the 1990s but, in 2017, they moved to a new office close to the metro station at DR Byen further south on Amager and the harbour building is now being converted into a hotel with almost 400 rooms for the Hilton Group.

read more

Planning Statement - appendix to the Local Plan
updated news on the development from atp ejendomme

notes:

In Danmarks Kunstbilbliotek / the Danish Art Library in Copenhagen there is a drawing of the building by Palle Suenson Inv. nr. 53296 - a perspective from Knippelsbro

While tracking down information on the building I came across a web site that revealed that the building was given a nickname by locals who called it Røven or The Arse. Initially, I assumed that was because the building was thought to be butt ugly but actually it was because at lunchtime workers in the office came out onto the forecourt and sat along the parapet of the wall along Torvegade and, for people walking along the pavement below, the only thing that could be seen from the street was a line of backsides.

 

photograph from 1965 showing Knippelsbro and Torvegade with the office building designed by Palle Suenson in the foreground and the engineering works of Burmeister & Wain beyond along the harbour as far as the canal and around the south and east side of Christians Church

 

retaining the frame

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work for the new Hilton hotel on the harbour where the concrete frame of an office building designed by Palle Suenson and completed in 1962 will be retained although all exterior cladding has been removed and the interior gutted

 

With the major redevelopment of the Ørkenfortet / Desert Fort building on the inner harbour, it would be interesting to see calculations for any environmental gain from retaining the concrete frame against the carbon footprint or cost from demolishing the building from the 1960s and disposing of that building rubble and then constructing a new building that would, almost-certainly, require substantial amounts of new steel and concrete.

Copenhagen, unlike many European capital cities, did not suffer from a massive and unrestrained programme of “urban renewal” in the 1950s and 1960s so there is a relatively small number of concrete and steel buildings from that period. One building that is being remodelled now is on Store Kongensgade - below - where the windows and framing of the street frontage have been removed and the interior has been gutted to expose the concrete frame before the building is completely remodelled to form student accommodation.

In the second half of the last century and even through into this century one model for developers was to assume a relatively short life for any new building … sometimes little more than twenty years. This is only acceptable in exceptional situations and, presumably, planning applications will now have to include environment impact assessments - not just for the impact on existing buildings around the site but the environmental impact of demolishing and removing any buildings on the site with an impact assessment and carbon footprint for new construction and clearly defined plans for later adaptation or for later reuse of those building materials.

restoration of the railway station at Østerport

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Østerport station is at the centre with its distinct hipped roof. The track to Klampenborg and Helsingør is to the north and the later tracks, along the line of the fortifications, to the south - the bottom left corner of the view. The road across the front of the station is here called Oslo Plads with the Nyboder houses to the south - the bottom of the view - and the edge of Kastellet - the earthworks of Kastelvolden to the right and the trees and lake of the public park of Østre Anlæg to the left. This was taken before work on the metro station was finished but the glass pyramids over the metro platform and the steps down into the station can be seen in front of the apartment building north-west of the station

photograph of the station from the marshalling yard to the south taken in 1896 - before building work was completed

the construction of the Boulevard line in 1917 to link Østerport to the central railway station. The corner of a building on the left is Statens Museum for Kunst with the trees of Østre Anlæg beyond and Østerport station in the distance

 

outline history of the station …..

1897 Østerbro Station  designed by Heinrich Wenck (1851-1936) completed

Station known to local people as Østbanegården

1917 Boulevardbanens / Boulevard Railway constructed along the line of the old city defences across the north side of the old city to connect Østerport through to the Central Station via new stations at Nørreport and Vesterport

1923 Østerport Station rebuilt under Knud Tanggaard Seest (1879-1972) chief architect for Danish Railways from 1922 to 1949

1934 suburban line to Klampenborg opened

1 July 2000 new service started with trains from Helsingør to the central station and then on to the airport and across the newly-opened bridge to Malmö. 

September 2019 Metro Station on Cityring opened

Danske Statsbaner - DSB or Danish Railways - have restored the railway station at Østerport with an extensive and major project that has taken two years.

The station was designed by Heinrich Wenck (1851-1936) and it was completed in 1897 as the terminus of the coast line from Helsingør to Copenhagen although, twenty years later in 1917, the Boulevardbanens or Boulevard Railway was constructed along the line of the old city defences across the north side of the old city to connect Østerport through to new stations at Nørreport, Vesterport and then on in a wide curve to the Central Station.

The railway lines here are below street level and the distinct station building runs across the top at street level and faces on to a broad street called here Oslo Plads but in fact a part of the busy main road out from the centre to Hellerup and on along the coast to Klampenborg.

The building takes the form of a large elongated hall parallel to the street with timber posts that support a large hipped roof. Inside there are two cross corridors, running back from the street with high barrel ceilings lit by semi circular windows set in large dormer windows in the front and back slopes of the roof.

Over the years the interior had been altered with secondary walls subdividing the space but, with the restoration, waiting rooms and a large information office have been removed and suspended ceilings taken down to open out the space.

In the new arrangement, there is still a large station store, a coffee shop and office space but by using glass walls there are now open views diagonally through the building that creates a new feeling of this as an open and unified space.

Archaeological investigation uncovered the original colour scheme and this has been reinstated using linseed oil paint with deep iron red and dark blue green colours that give the interior a richness but without being overbearing … an effect that is in part achieved because the paint finish is matt rather than having the gloss of a modern paint.

The terrazzo floor has also been restored.

The original building had a deep veranda across the front and the ends but in the alterations in the early 20th century, the outer walls were moved forward to the front edge of the roof but it was not possible to reinstate those features.

It is where the building looks weakest because this later brickwork, along with poorly detailed windows, look too simple and too rustic or 'vernacular' for what is a major public building.

However, we should just be grateful that the building survived because in the 1960s there were plans to demolish the fine 19th-century station and replace it with a high-rise tower although, fortunately, that scheme was abandoned.

A strong feature of the new arrangement of the interior is the broad and open corridor that runs across the full width of the building to provide a clear access to the doorways to the staircases down to the platforms so circulation seems obvious and rational with good natural and good electric lighting and careful placing of signs and departure boards. At one end the corridor takes you out to the Irma food store - while keeping under cover - and at the other end there will access to take passengers out and down to the new metro station that opened at the end of September.

With the completion of the large new metro station, this restoration of the railway station is part of the complete re-planning of public transport for passengers coming into or travelling round or through the city.

Østerport will now be a major hub with an interchange between suburban trains, a regular service with trains to the airport and from there over the sound and on to Malmö and the new metro circle line and with local buses and links to the ferry terminal for the boats to Oslo and with the terminal for cruise ship further out at Nordhavn. For now these links are by bus or taxi but the metro station at Østerport will be the start of the next stage of the metro line with the completion of the M4 line to Orientkaj and then an extension to the terminal for cruise ships.

Passenger numbers for Østerport are expected to increase from 30,000 to 45,000 people a day.

The work on the restoration has been by KHR Architecture who designed the concrete shopping centre and the sunken office with a pyramid roof and a third staircase down to the platforms for the trains to Sweden that are all also being restored and extended.

the old Museum of Copenhagen

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the forecourt and the main range of the 18th-century building from Vesterbrogade

The Museum of Copenhagen will reopen in February but in a different part of the city - in a refurbished building on Stormgade close to the city hall - and there is now a growing controversy about the future of the building that they occupied on Vesterbrogade that is now vacant.

In the 1950s, the museum of the history of the city moved to this very fine house that dates from 1782 and was built as a new home for the Royal Copenhagen Shooting Society … a society had been established back in the 15th century to train citizens to defend Copenhagen. 

In the late 18th century, in their new building, outside the west gate of the city, there were gardens and shooting ranges that ran back from the house as far as the beach. However, in the 19th century, after the construction of the Copenhagen to Roskilde railway, that ran across the end of the shooting range and with the subsequent and rapid development of the west suburb, including apartment buildings on the south end of the shooting range and along what is now Istedgade, a high brick wall had to be built in 1887 across the end of the ranges to protect pedestrians walking across on the new road along the beach.

After the war, the Shooting Society moved out of the city to Solyst, north of Klampenborg, and the land and buildings on Vesterbrogade were acquired by the city. Much of the old garden and the shooting range behind the 18th-century house became what is now a very popular inner-city park and Vesterbro Ungdomsgård - a club and sports facilities for young people in this district - was built in 1952-53 across almost the full width of the garden and close to the back of the house so, although there is still an impressive forecourt towards the road, there is surprisingly little land behind the house for such a large and important historic property.

Inside, the house there are large and distinctive rooms with fine interior fittings so the property is protected and any new owner would be restricted in what they could do to the building and that could, in turn, limit how it is used.

Initially the building was offered on the commercial market for sale but, after some discussion, there is now a possibility that the house will either be retained by the city or it could be restored for a social or public function so that some public access would still be possible.

The battle now would seem to be between sections of the city administration who see the building as an important asset owned by and for the city that has to be kept in public ownership and control for the citizens and political factions who see it as financially astute to realise an asset that will have serious upfront and ongoing costs to restore and maintain but for now the building is unused and looks more and more unloved.

the gardens of the Royal Shooting Gallery

the old museum building from the air … the distinct grey-tiled roof with hipped ends of the main building from 1782 is approximately at the centre of this view with the forecourt towards Vesterbrogade running across at an angle at the top or north side of the view.
The L-shaped buildings and the square area of grass immediately below the old building are Vesterbro Ungdomsgård

photograph of the house and forecourt and the service range across the west side of the forecourt
Københavns Stadsarkiv, reference 20087

 

Reinventing Cities

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This exhibition was organised as part of the C40 World Mayors Summit in Copenhagen in October and shows the winning designs in a global competition for carbon-neutral and resilient urban regeneration.

“14 cities have identified together 31 under-utilised spaces to redevelop, including several empty plots of various sizes and abandoned buildings, historical mansions, underused markets, a former airport site, car parks to transform, and an abandoned incinerator and landfill.”

Through this competition, C40 and the participating cities invited architects, developers, environmentalists, neighbourhood groups, innovators and artists to build creative teams and to compete for the opportunity to transform these sites into new beacons of sustainability and resiliency with innovative climate solutions that combined noteworthy architecture and local community benefits.

  

Reinventing Cities continues until 15 November
DI (Dansk Industri) H C Andersens Boulevard 18, Copenhagen

Limbo AccrA at SPACE 10

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Concrete Skeletons: Exploring the Liminal Space of an African Metropolis

An exhibition at Space10 curated by Limbo AccrA with experimental media including sculpture and photography.

Rapid modernisation can mean that as new shopping malls and new apartments are built then buildings in older neighbourhoods are abandoned and buildings that have been started can be left unfinished …. left in limbo.

Limbo AccrA are based in Accra in Ghana and they take over unoccupied buildings and use spatial art installations to explore the role of architecture and they highlight rapid change in their city - the liminal spaces - in that time “between the what was and the what’s next.”

 

the exhibition continues until 22 November 2019

SPACE10, Flæsketorvet 10, 1711 Copenhagen
Limbo AccrA

 

P-hus Ejler Billes Allé in Ørestad Syd by JaJa Architects

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Copenhagen may well be the city of bikes but there are also some good car parks. This is the the new P-hus at the corner of Ejler Billes Allé and Robert Jacobsens Vej in Ørestad Syd with space for 600 cars. The facades with a grid or large-scale chequered pattern with Corten metal sheet on the upper levels and large areas of open or pierced-work brick for the lower floors was designed by JaJa Architects who also designed P-hus Lüders in Nordhavn …. the car park with an urban square on the top that opened in 2016.

 

The Viking Ship Hall in Roskilde

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There is growing controversy about the future of the Viking Museum in Roskilde.

The ship hall designed by Erik Christian Sørensen was completed in 1968 to house the remains of five Viking-age ships that were discovered and recovered from the Roskilde Fjord in the 1950s.

It is a stark concrete building - some would say brutal - but it provides a dramatic setting for the archaeological displays with a wall of glass that looks north out to the sea.

But there are serious problems with the concrete - with water damage and iron reinforcements too close to the surface - and, because the necessary repairs would be prohibitively expensive, permission has been given, with some reluctance, for the building to be demolished even though it was given protection status in 1998.

Now, a European conservation group has listed the Ship Hall as one of the top 100 modern concrete buildings in Europe and it is not clear quite what the museum and the government agency responsible for historic buildings - Slots og Kulturstyrelsen - will do now.