Two office buildings by Copenhagen’s 3XN: Horten Headquarters (2009) & Saxo Bank (2008)

I had assumed that the general design of an office building was universal, but after meandering through the many new clusters of office buildings throughout Copenhagen for a few days, I noticed a few distinct Danish characteristics: 1) they’re smaller and nicer, much nicer, 2) they all have cafeterias at-grade because in Denmark, employers seem to provide a high quality lunch, and 3) their lobbies are not public. Surprisingly, the result of these three differences left me a bit disappointed, as the public realm seems to benefit very little from their co-presence: smaller buildings are inhabited overwhelmingly by single companies, eliminating any chance of anonymity in the lobby, employees arrive early and, due to the provided lunch, do not step outside until they are ready to leave for home, and because of these first two, there is very little need, or desire, for welcoming and porous public interfaces, or lobbies.

Overall, Danish office buildings are beautiful hermetic containers of white-collar production, surrounded by well-design, but mostly unoccupied, spaces. Whereas the lobby of a large North American speculative office building is a porous and open extension of (semi-)public space, the Danish lobby is a highly guarded, and programmed, interior space, with an almost communal domestic feel (from the outside looking in anyway).

Lundgaard & Tranburg Architects beautiful SEB Bank & Pension Headquarters (2011)

Schmidt Hammer Lassen’s The Crystal (2011)