Rødovre Town Hall () is located at the centre of

Rødovre Rødovre () is a town in eastern Denmark, seat of the Rødovre Municipality, in the Capital Region of Denmark, 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 ...

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

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

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

Arne Jacobsen Arne Emil Jacobsen, Honorary Fellowship of the American Institute of Architects, Hon. FAIA (; 11 February 1902 – 24 March 1971) was a Danish architect and furniture designer. He is remembered for his contribution to functionalism (architec ...

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

General Motors Technical Center The GM Technical Center was inaugurated in 1956 as General Motors's primary design and engineering center, located in Warren, Michigan. In 2000 the center was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and fourteen years later it was d ...

to the north of

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

Background

Modernism had survived the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

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, academic, and interior designer. He was commonly referred to as Mies, his surname. He is regarded as one of the pionee ...

Eliel Saarinen Gottlieb Eliel Saarinen (, ; August 20, 1873 – July 1, 1950) was a Finnish and American Architecture, 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 Ee ...

, and

Skidmore, Owings and Merrill SOM, an initialism of its original name Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, is a Chicago-based architectural, urban planning, and engineering firm. It was founded in 1936 by Louis Skidmore and Nathaniel Owings. In 1939, they were joined by enginee ...

. 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

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 1956 establishments in Denmark Arne Jacobsen buildings Buildings and structures in Copenhagen City and town halls in Copenhagen Government buildings completed in 1956 Listed buildings and structures in Rødovre Municipality Listed city and town halls in Denmark Modernist architecture in Copenhagen 1950s architecture in Denmark

Background

Architecture

See also

References