Jægergården City Hall Extension

Thomas Arnold

Description

In a project description, Kim Herford Nielsen, one of the architects involved in the Jægergården City Hall extension in Århus, compares public buildings with churches: “Just as the churches were the foundations of faith, the buildings of the welfare state must lend credibility to its functioning.”

Low-key and imposing, the new building fits into its surroundings. The office space was accommodated in a cube resolved and then cancelled by discontinuities, the building material and façades making this subtractive design process visible. Yellowish-white glass façades set the tone for the interior of the building, while the exterior façade of brick picks up local materials. Just as the cube together with the material of the façades carries on a dialogue with the surroundings, the central atrium attempts to bring public space into the building. The high-ceilinged space with its narrow stairways and bridges has a clear, almost cold regimentation that is structured by the predominant use of wood and by the lighting from the expansive glass roof. Meeting rooms in glass cubes that jut into the atrium represent the staging of grassroots proximity. The galleries in front of the offices create a link to the atrium and facilitate orientation in the building.

The discontinuities in the cube allow the arrangement of all the offices along the exterior façade. This way, all staff have naturally lighted and ventilated workplaces with an outside view. In addition to a window, most offices have a ‘light-giver,’ a translucent opening created by the double-layered façade and enabling a glare-free environment for the computer workstations.

The administrative work is carried out by teams. Small places in the corners of the building foster interpersonal exchange through the soft light coming through transparent walls and the comfortable spatial quality thereby created. They are used as the teams’ principle rooms and underwrite the identification with the teams’ own work areas within the building. Teams that deal directly with the public use these places as waiting areas. A restaurant on the top floor gives a view over the entire city centre.

The clear, minimalist order of the architecture aims to make the citizens believe in the community orientation of the administration and its trustworthiness. The architects counter the rigid cell structure of the offices with the common rooms in the corners of the building and, through the light, bright rooms, create a transparent, user-oriented administrative building.