Auditorium for #COPENAGHENCALL Archicontest | GMG

To be a small town, Copenhagen is in the heart of the debate on world architecture, thanks to the prominent personality in the field of architecture and design, and to the national desire to create at the same time beautiful and sustainable buildings. The city has a venerable history in architecture and in 2008 won the award of "The best city in the world for Design" by the English magazine Monocle. The project area is part of a lively environment, surrounded by places of culture and importance for the whole city: in the span of 300 meters there are in fact Christiansborg Slot and Nationalmuseet (northeast), Københavns Rådhus (northwest), Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek (southwest).

The idea from which the project takes shape is to insert a completely dissonant element which at the same time is connected to the around of the design area. A monolithic volume in reinforced concreate crosses the trapezoidal area, placing as a hinge between the two very important cultural poles: Nationalmuseet and Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek. A fundamental element for this project is the social vocation, the wishes to create a meeting point for the community that does not remain confined only within the architecture, but also acts externally to the building. To allow this, the parallelepiped volume has been emptied inferiorly in order to create a space protected by the structure and  contemporarily open and surrounded by green spaces. In fact the Green is another main element in the project: in a densely constructed context, the  lack of green areas generates the need to enhance as much as possible the green inside. To do this, imagining starting from a situation of total green surface, a good portion of it was raised along with the building creating green roof. The upper part of the auditorium looks like a point of observation and a sculptural element, projecting the View from the structure towards the statue of Dante Aligheri arriving to The Glyptotek, Observable both from the inside of the room and in the upper area. To highlight this, the stone pavement outside the building is structured in such a way as to trace the visual cone which you have from the inside the building. The projection of the building on the pavement is underline by small Water mirrors which balance the space. They  are a clear tribute to the abundant amount of water surrounding Copenhagen.

The structure is organized on 3 levels:

By accessing the ground floor, you come into contact with the first meeting place, the coffee  bar. This environment is surrounded by an info point/ticket office with linked relax areas, archives and toilet. A glazed wall divides this environment from the next one, where a hall allows the connection with the other 2 levels. Here there are the wardrobe and the administrative area.

Entering the upper floor, you have access into the first cultural area: the exhibition hall, which overlooks the double-height area of the café bar. In this floor there are also a large deposit and toilets;

The top floor hosts the auditorium with capacity of 500 seats; it is possible to access it through a foyer that connects the private rooms (dressing room and storage) with the service environments (toilets and vertical connections).