Description

Tingbjerg is a district of Copenhagen created during a period of urban expansion in the 1950s. Embedded in the city’s green belt, long three-storey residential buildings run in a north-south direction with shorter, similarly low-rise buildings spanning east-west. These are grouped around a district centre composed mainly of the sprawling complex of the single-storey school with its walkways, a swimming pool and a sports hall. A single high-rise building at the south-east corner signals its presence to those coming from the city centre, 8 km away, and creates a visual landmark visible from afar. The consistent appearance of the residential buildings and their considered, practical detailing reveals the attention given to its design by the architect Steen Eilar Rasmussen (1898–1990). Yellow clinker brick façades with light grey sliding elements for the large, double-sash windows and flat pitched, slightly overhanging gable roofs provide a calm setting for urban living in green surroundings, which was the case at the time when thousands of Copenhageners were rehoused to allow the redevelopment of the city centre. The “Fingerplan”, which Rasmussen and his “Dansk Byplanlaboratorium” (DBL for short) were instrumental in developing from 1945, before the programme was taken over by the urban planning office headed by architect Peter Bredsdorff, arranged these satellite or garden cities so that green areas could extend finger-like into the city centre. This concept still characterises urban planning in the Danish capital today.

In 2018, a new district library opened in Tingbjerg that also functions as a small cultural centre and meeting place. Designed by the Copenhagen architecture office COBE, the building has a distinctive triangular shape in plan and cross-section. Once a middle-class district, Tingbjerg is now a mixed community in which the proportion of non-Western European residents is five times higher than the urban average and the proportion of uneducated residents twice as high. The housing stock continues to be run by municipal housing associations, which have been endeavouring to make Tingbjerg a more attractive environment for its diverse residents. The district library is part of a municipal public building programme for districts in the periphery, in which new public buildings are intended to foster cohesion. The combination of a library with other services follows a pattern that has become increasing widespread since the 2000s – libraries should serve as meeting places.
Although the number of libraries in Denmark has shrunk dramatically – from around 8,000 at the turn of the millennium to just 484 in 2015 – visitor numbers have remained constant at around 36 million per year. While digital channels have widened access to information, the need for public spaces remains. Prior to construction of the new building in Tingbjerg – at a cost of 50 million kroner or around 6.7 million euros – local residents were consulted to incorporate ideas and suggestions from the community.

The sculptural volume of the building with its steep monopitch roof and triangular floor plan guides visitors arriving from either side to the unassuming glazed entrance doors, while presenting a four-storey glass and brick screen to the street. The building form is compelling, especially from the south side where, together with the sloping roof of the indoor swimming pool behind, it creates an interplay of lines and surfaces that makes the addition appear completely natural. The sloping floor plan and section also means it does not appear overbearing to the school yard. On entering, the library foyer is an impressive sight, with elongated, wood-panelled galleries rising steeply upwards from the entrance, their solid fronts concealing what lies behind on each level. This first impression invites exploration, and children who don’t want to be picked up yet will find plenty of hidden corners in the organisation of the space. Despite the generally closed character of this interior, individual, large openings create connections to the outside world, offering views onto the street, across to the swimming pool and over the roofs of the school pavilions.

Originally published in Bauwelt 5.2019, pp. 24-29, abridged and edited for Building Types Online, translated by Julian Reisenberger

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