The Carlsberg Foundation
On H.C. Andersens Boulevard in Copenhagen, directly opposite the Glyptotek, the Carlsberg Foundation and the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters have been headquartered since 1899 in a mansion designed by architect and professor Vilhelm Petersen. The historicist mansion, richly decorated in the classical style, was commissioned by Brewer J.C. Jacobsen and built by the Carlsberg Foundation, which still owns the building today.
Elgaard Architecture served as the lead consultant for the refurbishment, redesign and technical upgrading of the entire ground floor, which houses the Carlsberg Foundation’s secretariat, offices, boardrooms and meeting rooms.
The magnificent and richly decorated vestibule and main staircase have been restored and recoloured based on the findings of the paint archaeology investigations.
The project also included the redesign of six toilet facilities on the ground floor and third floor, as well as the establishment of a new accessible toilet on the third floor, improving accessibility throughout the building for both visitors and employees.
Year
2022-2024
Type
Full-service consultancy
Restoration and interior refurbishment
Client
The Carlsberg Foundation
Partners
Sweco Danmark
Eltang & Rygaard Konservering
For the Love of Light
Address
H.C. Andersens Boulevard 35
1553 København K
New Interior Design Referencing the Building’s Original Character
The Carlsberg Foundation’s headquarters was built in the Classical style and is of a high architectural quality. Externally, the building has a harmonious and symmetrical appearance, with richly ornamented sandstone façades, a column-supported balcony, columns, arches and pediments. The classically inspired architectural language is also strongly present in the ground and first floors, while the third floor forms a striking contrast, with a Modernist expression resulting from an extensive refurbishment in the 1970s.
The overall aim of the project was to create a contemporary and functional workplace for the Carlsberg Foundation, adapted to an increased number of employees and modern forms of collaboration. The ambition was to create a more open and approachable environment for visitors and move away from the previously more formal expression. In line with this, the Foundation also wanted to provide more space for small and informal meetings.
The desire to develop and adapt the workplace to contemporary ways of working was to go hand in hand with strengthening the building’s heritage values. It was therefore important that the new interior, with its contemporary design language and high level of craftsmanship, should form a natural continuation of the richly decorated historic interiors.
A Clear Interior Hierarchy
Our analysis of the building’s history revealed a clear hierarchy between the floors when the building was constructed in 1899. The ground and first floors were richly ornamented with fine details, marble, coffered plaster ceilings with decorative motifs, and moulded architraves around panelled doors with pediments and other features. In contrast, the second and third floors were originally built as book repositories and were more modest in appearance. This hierarchy was obscured by the 1976 refurbishment, when the second and third floors were given a strongly Modernist expression, with white walls and a design language unrelated to the building’s other floors.
The building’s plan is symmetrically organised around the entrance, vestibule and broad central staircase. A side wing extends from each side of the vestibule. The entrance, main staircase and vestibule occupy the highest level in the building’s hierarchy and serve to unite the building as a whole. This hierarchy has been maintained and respected in the new interior design.
The significant hierarchy between the individual spaces on the ground floor was largely preserved when the project began, despite the floor having been converted from residential use to offices in 1963–66. It was nevertheless clear that the rooms had originally served a different purpose from their current use, and the meeting rooms and offices reflected a lower level of attention to detail than was characteristic of the rest of the building.
The project respects and maintains the clear hierarchy between the rooms on the floor by preserving the existing spatial division and respecting the floor’s Classical expression and varying richness of detail. The design of new elements, such as acoustic ceilings, shelving walls and other fixed furnishings, has been carefully calibrated to the building’s proportions and executed in high-quality materials that reference the Classical architectural language. In this way, the new design creates a contemporary interpretation of the building’s original Classical character.
The Building
The CF board, led by its chairman Edward Holm, wanted the new building to be of a high architectural quality. Holm had an academic interest in antiquity and held strong views about the design of the new building, which he believed should be either in the Renaissance or Classical style. The architect chosen to realise the project was Vilhelm Petersen.
The CF building is considered Vilhelm Petersen’s principal work. Inspired by the Italian Renaissance architect Jacopo Sansovino (1486–1570), he created a High Renaissance building in Sansovino’s spirit, incorporating a wealth of Classical elements: a symmetrical composition with a column-supported balcony and sandstone façades. Petersen personally drew all the details and ornamental elements for the façades to ensure that they were executed in the intended form.
Holm and the Secretary of the KDVS, H.G. Zeuthen, established the building programme. The ground floor housed the CF’s management, treasury, brewery office and a residence for the chairman. The KDVS was allocated an assembly hall, classrooms, offices and a cloakroom on the first and second floors, as well as a goods lift in the courtyard for transporting books. A large book archive for the KDVS’s ongoing publications was established on the third floor.
Previous Refurbishments
In the 1970s, architect Jørgen Bo remodelled both the second and third floors in a Modernist style, with white-painted walls and glass. The refurbishment radically altered the character of the floors and detached them from the original interiors elsewhere in the mansion.
In 2021–2022, the offices and meeting rooms of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters on the second floor were refurbished and redesigned by Elgaard Architecture as new premises for the Academy’s secretariat. In addition to creating more functional surroundings for the secretariat’s work and processes, the client expressed a desire—similar to the present project—to establish a stronger connection between the floors, ensuring that the new interiors related more closely to the historic character of the building.
Restoration of Ceilings and Decorative Elements
Based on paint archaeology investigations, the main staircase hall, entrance and vestibule have been recoloured to reflect their original appearance. Many of the marbled decorative panels were also uncovered, restored and, in some places, reconstructed.
The richly decorated ceilings were restored by conservators Eltang & Rygaard.
Colours and Furnishings
Colour has always been an important part of the building’s identity. Before the project, however, the ground floor featured white-painted walls and ceilings, while many of the original decorations in the vestibule and main staircase hall had been painted over. Based on the conservators’ paint archaeology findings, we reintroduced coloured walls, giving the spaces character and individuality while enhancing their architectural form.
The offices and meeting rooms have been given new colour schemes closely based on the historic colour findings. Several of the floors were not original, and those added over the years varied considerably in appearance. We therefore chose to replace the top flooring layer to create a more coherent expression throughout the ground floor. The colours of the walls and ceilings build upon the building’s original palette and character.
Throughout the building, lighting, textiles, acoustic treatments, as well as fixed and movable furnishings, have been specially designed and made to measure. In a contemporary design language, they relate discreetly to the building’s heritage values and proportions.
The toilet facilities on all floors have been upgraded using traditional materials such as marble, terrazzo and brass. All selected materials and colours are based on the historic colour palette and the high quality of the building’s original materials.
