Vendsyssel Theatre & Experience Centre, Denmark

Info & Photography: Courtesy schmidt hammer lassen architects  

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schmidt hammer lassen architects win yet another architectural competition and will design the  Vendsyssel Theatre and Experience Centre in Hjørring, Denmark.

With several years of experience in designing cultural buildings,  schmidt hammer lassen architects, who recently won the competition to design the New Cultural Centre and Library in Karlshamn, Sweden; are currently finishing the New Concert and Congress Centre, Malmö Live, in Malmö, Sweden; and have taken on the task of a 15,000 square metre performing arts centre in Shanghai, China are now all set to embark on their new winning entry for a cultural centre in Denmark.

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With this 4,200 square metre building, Hjørring gains a vibrant cultural hub in which to feature the city’s various cultural activities. The winning design was submitted by a team including schmidt hammer lassen architects, Arkitektfirmaet Finn Østergaard, Brix & Kamp, ALECTIA, Gade & Mortensen Akustik, AIX Arkitekter, Filippa Berglund scenography, and LIW Planning.

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“We have designed a project where the architectural and functional concept has five main themes: integration in the city, openness, functionality, flexibility and materiality,” explains John Foldbjerg Lassen, Founding Partner at schmidt hammer lassen architects. “We have designed a significant building, which relates to its function in a pragmatic way. It invites both active use and quiet breaks and dares to be different, without stealing the focus from the existing qualities in the city.”

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The Theatre and Experience Centre consists of a complex of buildings – a city within the city. Its characteristic corten steel façade, with its warm rusty red colours, corresponds well with the area’s existing plaster and brick façades; thereby creating an aesthetic whole between the city, the front plaza and the theatre building.

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Inside, an open plan solution ensures visual and physical connections across the building. The boundaries between publicly accessible areas and the more traditional theatre functions are blurred. The building layout pays special attention to ensuring that all functions can operate optimally. At the same time, many areas can be joined and the circulation areas can be used as backstage facilities. 

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”The open plan ensures a high level of flexibility in the building, and only your imagination sets the limit for where and how the theatre productions can take place,” says Rasmus Kierkegaard, Associate Partner at schmidt hammer lassen architects. “Actors and staff are visible to the visitors in the building, and the building will appear vibrant even with only a few persons present.”

Completion of Vendsyssel Theatre and Experience Centre is expected in 2016.