Huset KBH is a cultural centre located at Rådhusstræ 13 in central

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 ...

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

. It occupies three old townhouses at Rådhusstræde 13 and

Magstræde Snaregade and Magstræde are two of the oldest streets in the Old Town of Copenhagen, Denmark, linking Gammel Strand at their eastern end with Rådhusstræde to the west. Snaregade extends from the small square at the Gammel Strand metro station t ...

12–14 as well as a former warehouse. The building at Rådhusstræde 13 was listed in the Danish registry of protected buildings and places in 1945.

History

The building at Rådhusstræde 13 was built in 1730–34 after the previous building at the site had been destroyed in the

Copenhagen Fire of 1728 The Copenhagen Fire of 1728 was the largest fire in the history of Copenhagen, Denmark. It began on the evening of 20 October 1728 and continued to burn until the morning of 23 October. It destroyed approximately 28% of the city (measured by coun ...

. It just escaped the

Copenhagen Fire of 1795 The Copenhagen Fire of 1795 (''Københavns brandes 1795'') started on Friday, 5 June 1795, at or around 3 pm by the Navy's old base south east of Kongens Nytorv on Gammelholm, in the Navy's magazine for coal and timber, the so-called Dellehave. A ...

and was in 1802 heightened by one storey. The building at Magstræde 12 was built for brewer Peder Børgesen in 1830–31. It was heightened by one storey in 1920. The physicist

Ludvig Lorenz Ludvig Valentin Lorenz (; 18 January 1829 – 9 June 1891) was a Danish physicist and mathematician. He developed mathematical formulae to describe phenomena such as the relation between the refraction of light and the density of a pure transpar ...

(1829–1891) was a resident in the building at Magstræde 14 in 1860–61. The building was in 1881 acquired by the wholesaler . The company bought the two adjacent properties at Magstræde 12 and 14 in 1903 and a new warehouse was at the same time constructed at the site. The entire complex was in 1969 acquired by Copenhagen Municipality. It was adapted for its new use as youth house with the assistance of the architect Georg Rotne in 1973. Rådhusstræde 13 was at the time of the 19+6 census only home to a single family. Jens Henrik Petersen, Sthyr & Kjær's warehouse manager, resided in the garret with his wife Eleonora Benthine Mathilde Petersen, their four children (aged 11 to 22) and the 18-year-old warehouse worker Carl Ferdinand Nielsen.

Architecture

The building at Rådhusstræde 13 was originally a two-storey townhouse with a four-bay wall dormer. This building was in 1802 heightened by one storey and a roof with five dormer windows. The facade was adapted in the

Neoclassical style Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the Neoclassicism, Neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century in Italy and France. It became one of the most prominent architectural styles in the Western world. The pr ...

with inspiration from

Karl Friedrich Schinkel Karl Friedrich Schinkel (13 March 1781 – 9 October 1841) was a Prussian architect, city planner and painter who also designed furniture and stage sets. Schinkel was one of the most prominent architects of Germany and designed both neoclassica ...

's architecture. Smaller rooms on the two lower floors were in the 1900s merged into one large room on each floor. Sections of the original stucco decorations from the 1740s were copied and used for creating the current stucco ceilings. They are in the

Rococo Rococo (, also ), less commonly Roccoco or Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and theatrical style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpted moulding, ...

style and have details inspired by

François de Cuvilliés François de Cuvilliés, sometimes referred to as ''the Elder'' (23 October 1695, Soignies, Hainaut14 April 1768, Munich), was a Belgian-born Bavarian decorative designer and architect. He was instrumental in bringing the Rococo style to the Witt ...

References

{{Authority control Listed buildings and structures in Copenhagen Neoclassical architecture in Copenhagen