Rådhuspladsen Christiansborg

Tor H. C. Andersens Boulevard vegade

Hovedbane- gården

Langebro

Amager Boulevard

Hotel Scandinavia ygge

Njalsgade ygge Kalvebod Br Havnestad is a very attractive new Islands Br district covering 220,000 m2 in the Universitetet centre of . Many new businesses and homes in the area are located in former industrial Artillerivej Axel Heides Gade buildings.

Havnestad Rigsarkivet

The Danish Medicines Agency’s domicile in Havnestad – a new district in Copenhagen From soybean cakes to medicine Since 2001, Islands Brygge (Iceland Quay) has As owner of the Danish soybean cake industry, the East experienced rapid development, and a new district of Asiatic Company (EAC) was left with the big site on the From old industrial plant The Danish Medicines Agency was established in 1997, but we regulate areas that the city, Havnestad (Harbour Town), is rising like a southern part of the quay when production stopped in date back over 400 years. phoenix from the ashes of the run-down, reeking hull 1991. The generally poor economy at the time, and of worn-out industrial buildings. The majority of these uncertainty about the scale of pollution of e.g. mercury to open workspace In the summer of 2003, the Danish Medicines Agency moved into the old soybean buildings belonged to the old soybean cake factory, and nickel as well as the ensuing decontamination costs cake factory, which was the very heart of Islands Brygge in the 20th century. which used to shroud the whole area with an air of meant that the site lay almost deserted for a number abandonment and bleakness. Many locals can probably of years until a local plan for the whole area was drawn In 2002-2003, an old soybean cake factory in the Islands Brygge district of Copenhagen The old factory buildings beautifully combine history with new architecture and recall the characteristic sweet odour from the old up. It contained both a local plan devised by the City of modern materials, and every day we, who work in this environment, enjoy this soybean cake factory – an odour that engulfed the whole Copenhagen and a specific plan drawn up by the EAC in was transformed into a streamlined modern blend of old and new. neighbourhood while the factory was still in production. cooperation with the contractor NCC. The overall plan workplace with the utmost respect for and This was a real nuisance that made Islands Brygge less required the redevelopment of the entire area to be self- sensitivity towards the original architecture. Jytte Lyngvig attractive in those days – at least to people with sensitive financing and the decontamination costs to be covered by Chief Executive Officer noses. sale of land. Danish Medicines Agency Those days are gone, and the whole area around Islands PLH architects had drawn up the master plan, which Brygge has transformed into a lively and fashionable zoned the 220,000 m2 for 50 % housing and 50 % The most impressive feature of the for oil manufacture and cattle feed. the site for business premises The Danish Medicines Agency aims to ensure the availability of effective and neighbourhood with the added benefit of a central businesses (later changed to 70 % housing and 30 % former soybean cake factory is the Production was later expanded to oils lease. The Sjælsø Group cooperated safe healthcare products – medicinal products, medical devices and new location in Copenhagen: It only takes you 15 minutes businesses). They won the Town Planning Prize in 2003 enchanting and beautiful encounter extracted from coconut, rape and with PLH architects, who restored therapies – and we promote the proper use of such products. to walk to City Hall Square and five minutes to the for their visionary project, along with the EAC, the City of between old and new, which the flaxseed for use in the production of machine shops, power house, boiler Islands Brygge Metro station. The district now displays a Copenhagen and the residents of Islands Brygge. architects have successfully created food, soap, paraffin wax, etc. room and production facilities with Read more about the Danish Medicines Agency at www.dkma.dk mixture of old residential buildings and small shops to the in this old industrial plant. Ever since great sensitivity and creativity and north, and new residential buildings and office buildings The land sold faster than anyone had dared to hope. the East Asiatic Company (EAC) The factory closed in 1991 after a turned them into office spaces. They to the south. The southern part of Islands Brygge has Several developers recognised the potential in a centrally founded the soybean cake factory in ten-year downturn, but a new era also added new buildings where nearly completed its transformation from closed down located district with a mixture of housing and businesses. 1909, it has had a substantial impact dawned at the old factory a decade necessary. industrial sites to new buildings, and the western part is Better times for the construction industry meant that on the Islands Brygge district of later, in 2001. Actually, it had already characterised by the entrance to the harbour and a green buyers soon lined up, and by the end of 2001 all building Copenhagen – architectonically and begun in 2000 when some of the Part of the soybean cake factory 2 waterfront park, where one can find both the Islands sites were sold – several years ahead of schedule. economically. It was a factory that factory buildings were acquired by became the 12,000 m headquarters Brygge house of culture and a popular harbour bath. provided several thousand jobs. the Sjælsø Group, which wanted of the Danish Medicines Agency. LP Charisma is used for lighting up all high-ceilinged rooms at the Danish Medicines Agency – a pendant specially Originally, the factory imported to preserve as much of the original developed for this type of room by PLH architects. Published by the Danish Medicines Agency, reprinted December 2011. Lithography: Rumfang. Print: Kailow Graphic A/S. soybeans all the way from Manchuria buildings as possible and redevelop The Danish Medicines Agency’s kitchen is located in a cube-shaped box with glass walls. The freestanding steel staircase leads to a platform with conference rooms.

In the Danish Medicines Agency’s canteen, the ceiling colours mirror the At the Danish Medicines Agency, characteristic elements Above the Danish Medicines Agency’s canteen oak parquet floor with are retained from the building’s days as a soybean cake is an informal, circular conference room. darker wood stripes. The factory, for example the old concrete silo pipes that once chairs are designed by Anders Sune Berg Photography: funnelled coal down to the boilers. The pipes now constitute Nanna Ditzel. a sculptural element in the office design.

Converting the old industrial internal communications – combined The Danish architects were The Danish Medicines Agency is beautiful colours and contrast in possible throughout the complex. buildings was an exciting task for with plenty of study and conference particularly impressed by the Dutch housed in the former factory’s power terms of materials. In the middle At the Danish Medicines Agency, the architects. Not least because rooms providing ample opportunities architects’ aesthetic outlook on the plant and boiler room. Here too, the of the room, the huge space is for instance, the characteristic, old the Danish Medicines Agency from to work undisturbed. character of the buildings' original large, high-ceilinged rooms have interrupted by a cube-shaped box concrete silo pipes that used to feed the onset was keen on designing materials. been turned into communal facilities. accommodating the canteen kitchen; coal to the boilers are preserved. the buildings based on ideas about Even the actual buildings posed large glass panels are inserted into These huge, funnel-like shapes flexible office spaces and work an architectonic challenge. "It was Directly inspired by this, they The canteen is set up in the power the walls, elegantly alternating endow the office area with exciting, processes. amazing to enter the old, almost devised a design proposal that machine room, a magnificent between stripes of frosted and clear sculptural effects. bombed-out buildings, which were used the existing materials as hall with a steel roof spanning glass. The new office spaces were intended practically a shell," explains Rikke decoration to emphasise the unique over 18 metres. The masonry is to contribute to breaking any rigid Haugård Sejersen, who was one atmosphere of the site. This also painted white, interspersed with A free-standing steel staircase leads organisational patterns that often of the PLH architects involved in added an informal, relaxed feeling beautiful, tall arched windows. up to a deck with an uninterrupted characterise large organisations and renovating the buildings from the to the office environment. The new This is contrasted by the ceiling’s view of the canteen. Conference companies. Instead, the Agency was onset. "The floor was wet, and the parts of the building constructed ventilation shafts and the original rooms are installed here – a single to work in a more project-oriented windows and columns in the high- during the project are of the same steel beams, which have been large room just above the kitchen process, allowing teams to cooperate ceilinged room gave the impression unpretentious, industrial character. painted black against a background and two smaller, circular rooms, in flexible project areas across of a cathedral. It was very inspiring." of naturally coloured chipboard that which quite unpretentiously appear divisions. insulates the angled ceiling. to be made of corrugated cardboard. The working group went on a field The ideas were realised by open- trip to the Netherlands, where they The ceiling colours mirror the oak In general, the architects wanted plan working environments – with studied Dutch modernists like Rem parquet floor with darker wood to preserve as many memories visibility and dynamics to facilitate Koolhaas and Willem Jan Neutelings. stripes – an additional finesse adding of the old industrial buildings as