Rødovre Town Hall ( da, Rødovre Rådhus) is located at the centre of

Rødovre Rødovre is a town in eastern Denmark, seat of the Rødovre Municipality, in the Region Hovedstaden. The town's population 1 January 2019 was 39,907, and in addition 145 persons had no fixed address, which made up a total of 40,052 in the munic ...

, a municipality some 9 km (5 mi) to the west of

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

's city centre. Completed in 1956, it was designed by the Danish architect

Arne Jacobsen Arne Emil Jacobsen, Hon. FAIA () 11 February 1902 – 24 March 1971) was a Danish architect and furniture designer. He is remembered for his contribution to architectural functionalism and for the worldwide success he enjoyed with simple wel ...

. A fine example of the international architecture trends of the 1950s, it was inspired by the

General Motors Technical Center The GM Technical Center is a General Motors facility in Warren, Michigan. The campus has been the center of the company's engineering effort since its inauguration in 1956. In 2000 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places; fourte ...

to the north of

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...

Background

Modernism had survived the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

thanks to European architects working in the United States. From there, the trends returned to Europe. Jacobsen was particularly attracted by the minimalistic work of

Mies van der Rohe Ludwig Mies van der Rohe ( ; ; born Maria Ludwig Michael Mies; March 27, 1886August 17, 1969) was a German-American architect. He was commonly referred to as Mies, his surname. Along with Alvar Aalto, Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius and Frank Lloyd ...

Eliel Saarinen Gottlieb Eliel Saarinen (, ; August 20, 1873 – July 1, 1950) was a Finnish-American architect known for his work with art nouveau buildings in the early years of the 20th century. He was also the father of famed architect Eero Saarinen. Lif ...

, and

Skidmore, Owings and Merrill Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) is an American architectural, urban planning and engineering firm. It was founded in 1936 by Louis Skidmore and Nathaniel Owings in Chicago, Illinois. In 1939, they were joined by engineer John Merrill. The firm ...

. While the town hall in Rødovre was inspired by Eero Saarinen's General Motors Technical Center, its proportions and details are unmistakably the work of Jacobsen.

Architecture

Warren - General Motors Technical Center (50826111923)

Arne jacobsen, rødovre town hall, stairwell 1952-1956

The complex consists of two wings connected by a glass corridor. The three-storey office wing, 91 m long and 14 m wide, is constructed of pillars, precast crossbeams and floor slabs. The loadbearing gable walls are clad in dark stone while the longitudinal curtain walls consist of grey glass set in metal frames with stainless steel trimmings. The wing consists of 1 m facade modules, flexible partitions and a central corridor broken only by a two-flight steel and glass staircase."Arne Jacobsen - om Rødovre Rådhus"
, ''Rødovre Kommune''. Retrieved November 4, 2011. The single storey council chamber is 22 m long and 13 m wide. Its longitudinal facades are clad in dark stone while the gables are continuous windows. The lofty council chamber is a rectangular room in which the interior and furnishings were also designed by Jacobsen. The wing also contains two meeting rooms, an entrance hall, cloakroom and toilets. The building is also noted for its central staircase, suspended from the roof on orange-red steel rods. The sides are cut from 5 cm steel plate, painted a dark grey; the steps, only a few millimeters thick, are stainless steel with a rubber coating on the upper side for better grip.
''Architecture Revived''. Retrieved November 10, 2011.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rodovre Town Hall Arne Jacobsen buildings Listed buildings and structures in Rødovre Municipality Listed city and town halls in Denmark Government buildings completed in 1956 Modernist architecture in Copenhagen Buildings and structures in Copenhagen City and town halls in Copenhagen City and town halls in Denmark 1956 establishments in Denmark

Background

Architecture

See also

References