E.C. Hansen House

On the historic Carlsberg site in Copenhagen, Danielsen Architecture has designed a new office building that respects the old Carlsberg architecture

The old Carlsberg site becomes full of contrasts, for in between listed and worthy of preservation buildings from J.C. Jacobsen’s original brewery from 1847 is now growing Copenhagen’s tallest high-rise buildings and new city functions. EC Hansen House is new, but the house respects history and tries to build a bridge between new and old on the Carlsberg site.

The office building of 16,000 m2 is three-part, and the three-part is a classic architectural method that is already found in several places in Carlsberg City – for example in Carl Harild’s beautiful “Tap E” from 1922. The trio starts with a ground floor, which in Carl Harrild’s version has many openings for 1920s beer drivers. In Danielsen’s new Carlsberg house are the openings for shoppers, café guests and people who are going to work in the house, but parts of the glass on the ground floor point back in time, because it is made of old green bottles. Towards the next floor, the masonry is bricked in the classic roller shifts that can be found in many places in Carlsberg City.

Above the ground floor, the building body is more massive. The facades are masonry and dancing windows create tension between a light and playful effect of various functional facade openings in the heavy building body. The bricks play in shades of gray-brown, and refer to the old brewery in Carlsberg Byen. EC Hansen house ends with a penthouse floor clad in metal that shines like lightly patinated brass. The metal facade is related to the many copper details on the historic brewery site. From the roof of EC Hansen House you can enjoy the view of the city, or look down through the atrium courtyard which ensures that sunlight flows down into the building’s large interior.