Ground has broken for Tony Fretton Architects' new building facing the Frederiks Kirk, known as the Marble Church, in Copenhagen. When completed in Spring 2010, the building will bring to a conclusion the historic district of Frederiksstaden which was initiated in 1749 and partially finished in 1894 by the developer C F Tietgen with the construction of the Marble Church and a square of apartments around it in the Beaux Arts style. Tietgen was never able to purchase the land and buildings to complete the northwest corner of the square, and the unfinished corner has become known as "Tietgens Aergrelse" or "The Agony of Tietgen". It is for this location that Tony Fretton Architects was commissioned by Clients Realea A/S with a specific brief to make a building of the present times that resolved the different styles and scales of the buildings in the Square.
Formal approval for the project entailed public presentations and complex and detailed negotiations with the Copenhagen City Architect, the architects of the Church and the Copenhagen transport authority responsible for the construction of the new underground metro adjacent to the new building.
"It has been a long process to get to this stage, which is expected when you are dealing with such a sensitive and historic location," said Peter Cederfeld of Realea A/S. "Now that we have commenced construction, we look forward to completing what we believe is an admirable conclusion to this historic site."
Architectural Statement
Classical form and proportions of the beaux-arts buildings in the square are used in the facades of the new building in a highly abstracted way. The new building is equivalent in its own way to the classical pavilion opposite, the two buildings forming a symmetrical pair that frame the view of the Church. It is also similar to the prismatic forms of the older buildings on its other side. In these ways the new building will finally reconcile the buildings on Tietgens' Grund, with all of their idiosyncrasies, to the classical form of Frederiksstaden. Continuity with the social and commercial life in the square is also part of the scheme. A cafe will occupy the ground floor, entered from the main shopping street Store Kongensgade, and looking out onto the Marble Church. A discrete professional office will occupy the first floor. The upper floors are reserved for apartments, two per floor, and the attic floor is a penthouse.
Facades will be of natural coloured hydraulic lime render, which is traditional to Copenhagen, with cornices and copings of Oberkirchen sand stone and balconies of a glass reinforced concrete. As in the classical buildings of Copenhagen, different materials of similar appearance and colour simulate a stone façade.