In fact, this is not a completely new construction, but an extension of the already existing Solvgate school, which is deservedly considered one of the oldest and most famous in Copenhagen. Opened back in 1847, it is located in Nyboder, perhaps the most famous historical district of the Danish capital, where almost every building (including the school one) has the status of a particularly valuable object of historical development. However, even the title of the monument did not save the school from the lack of premises and modern spaces, so in 2005 the Copenhagen authorities decided to expand Solvgate - part of the former schoolyard was allocated for the construction of the new building, and an architectural competition was announced for the project of the newest building. and won by CF Moller Architects.
The architects themselves admit that they based their project on the idea of creating a volume that is understandable to children and close to them in spirit. The main facade of the new school is a completely glazed plane, split into rectangles of different shapes and colors (here they are yellow, blue, green and pink). The side facades, on the contrary, are plastered and instead of full-fledged windows they have only narrow slots, making the building a bit like a house glued from paper. The roof structure is also distinguished by its originality: it is formally gable, but its ridge is shifted as close to the street as possible, due to which the building located at the intersection is perceived completely differently from different streets. By the way, in many ways it was this technique that allowed the architects to organically fit the new volume into the historical quarter, where one of the streets is formed by low-rise buildings, and on the other the buildings are significantly higher. The first floor of the new school building is completely glazed - behind the transparent walls are the entrance lobby, recreation and winter garden.
The building was designed taking into account modern requirements for environmental friendliness and energy efficiency. With the help of a system of natural ventilation and heat-saving glazing, as well as solar panels, it not only fully meets the school's electricity needs, but also "shares" the extra kilowatts with neighboring historic buildings.
A. M.
