City hall, Vordingborg

The new city hall will be both a flexible, attractive workplace and an accessible and sustainable building for use by citizens and associations.

Category

Corporate

Location

Vordingborg, Danmark

Year

2024

Status

In progress

Size

5,060 m²

Client(s)

Vordingborg Municipality

Team

MOE, ETN

Workstations

220

Sustainability

The Danish Association of Construction Clients (DACC) manifesto

An open and welcoming community house rises in the Southeastern Danish municipality

In collaboration with MOE and ETN Architects (landscape), PLH Architects won first prize in an invitational competition for the new city hall in Vordingborg – Citizens’ House (“Borgernes Hus”). The building will be connected to the already-constructed job center and citizens’ service, integrating all three functions into a single building that will appear as a coherent unit in the context of the town center.

The city hall will be a flexible and modern workplace, providing a setting for an attractive and inspiring working environment, while at the same time being an accessible and sustainable building for use by citizens and associations.

Vordingborg’s new city hall will be organized around a central atrium – the social hub – providing access to the building's four floors. The main entrance will be located at Valdemarstorvet, and the new building will include an association zone with meeting rooms, a roof terrace with a view of Vordingborg’s famous Goose Tower (“Gåsetårnet”), solar panels on the roof, a multifunctional city hall and 220 window-facing workplaces.

Contact:
Søren Mølbak
sm@plh.dk
T: +45 2720 0591

The city hall – Vordingborg’s new meeting place
The base of the city hall, built in the same yellow brick as the existing building, includes a new, welcoming reception, case management rooms, canteen and a beautiful, open city hall. The large windows of the great hall face the street and signal transparency in the political work. The space is flexible; it can be divided and at the same time opened up towards the canteen next door. The glass sections facing the street can also be opened up, and the outdoor space in the square in front of the building can be integrated, creating a wealth of possibilities for holding various events. In this way, the city hall becomes a meeting place for the entire community.


Open civic functions
With open civic functions, primarily located on the ground floor, the municipality’s citizens will be able to use the city hall in their daily lives. On the third floor, a semi-public meeting center and, in close connection with this, an east-facing roof terrace with a view of the Goose Tower will be created. This offers citizens and visitors a new view of Vordingborg.


A flexible working environment supports the workplace of the future
The city hall will be a modern workplace providing a framework that supports rapid changes in tasks, working hours and organization. The office areas are designed with an activity-based working environment in mind, offering maximum flexibility and easy movement of workstations and meeting rooms. The result is an adaptable city hall equipped for the unpredictable needs of the future.

The competition
The other competition proposals came from teams led by Lundgaard & Tranberg Architects and Henning Larsen Architects. In the judges’ report, the selection of the winning proposal is justified with it being a very well-thought-out proposal that “in a convincing and simple way best meets the requirements and desires for an architecturally complete solution, sustainability, overall planning and economy.”

The building is scheduled to be ready for use by the end of 2022-2023.

“We look forward to working on an exciting and welcoming city hall that invites citizens in and makes the democratic process visible. We have focused on creating a single, unified building – a well-functioning and functional whole that creates coherence and invites activity and life inside. A building that will not only serve as an administrative center for the municipality – but will also reach out into its context and give back to the city.”

- Søren Mølbak, Director of PLH Architects

“We have emphasized architecture, economy, sustainability and coherence with the surroundings in the assessment. And then, of course, the gut feeling has to be right. With the winning proposal, we have a solid and realistic starting point, and I am sure it will be a great house for citizens and staff.”

- Mikael Smed, Mayor of Vordingborg

Similar projects | All projects

Office hub, Copenhagen

Ørsted's canteen, Lyngby – workplace design

TDC, workplace design, Copenhagen