Christensen & Co. Architects has designed a brand new culture house and library for the small town of Viby, in Denmark. Conceived as a sort of living room for the city, the project will be a “place for lingering and staying”, introducing social zones and an open architecture to the urban space.
Created by Christensen & Co. Architects, in collaboration with Primus Architects, the Viby Library and Cultural House is the newest addition to the city. The cultural building integrated into the area’s existing architecture and in the future plans for the district, takes on color, scale, and choice of materials from its neighboring buildings. In fact, the cultural house supports and strengthens the several implemented urban plans, by becoming an epicenter, unifying the many new initiatives in the cityscape.
Drawing inspiration from the history of the city, the design of the façade “comes from the cooperative dairy plant that was previously placed at the site. The gable of the culture house with the distinctive roofs is a modern interpretation of the dairy’s profile in the cityscape, while the façade’s white ceramic tiles is a reference to the dairy plant’s industrial wall tiles.”
Ensuring an open and dynamic space, with easy access, the ground floor of the project will host citizen services, café, and flex-room for workshops. The library, placed on the first floor of the cultural house, is designed as an interconnected open floor with all spaces linked together.
The social zones and openness between the different areas have an impact on the citizens. We want to stimulate and encourage curiosity. Thus, we’ve created a house where you want to stay, go explore in the library or participate in the workshop activities – even if you just had to pick up a new passport in the citizen service. -- Christensen & Co. Architects, who have created the project in collaboration with Primus Architects.
On another hand, planned with sustainability as a design driver and linked to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the project is set to be certified within the DGNB sustainability system. The different implemented strategies focused on materials introduced a resource-conscious concept for an energy-efficient building and a building that can strengthen an active local community, and created a space for the many kinds of activities that will take place in the new cultural house and library.
- Project name: Viby Library and Cultural House
- Architect’s Firm: Christensen & Co. Architects with Primus Architects and STED cph,
- Project location: Søndergade 11, 4130 Viby, Sjælland
- Completion Year: Summer 2021
- Gross Built Area (square meters or square foot): 1400m2
