KU_BE - The House of Culture and Movement

Location: Frederiksberg
Client: Municipality of Frederiksberg
Team: Stig L. Andersson, Lene Dammand Lund, Helene Koch, Sofie Kjærsgaard Dybro, Martin Arfalk og Rasmus Astrup
Design phase: 2010
Realization: 2010-
Area: 8.000 m2
Collaborators: ADEPT, MVRDV og Søren Jensen Ingeniører

The ambition of the House of Culture and Movement (KU_BE) is to create a dynamic venue, at Flintholm, with a wide range of activities for people of all ages. Health, culture, spare time and education are mixed together to create a spectacular architectural experience.

The house and landscape are interlinked in a dynamic program of public spaces connected to the surroundings and the existing recreational routes and facilities. The building transcends its own barriers - and it is an essential part of a spectacular urban park which brings life and excitement to the neighborhood.

Spark Space will serve as an activity center for its surroundings. It will add new activities to existing activities in the area. It will also function as a unifying body for all these activities so collaborations and joint events can take place at Spark Space.

Besides the obvious connection to Flintholm station and the existing road network, it is possible to extend pathes throughout the area and thus establish new connections and interventions. SPARK is a new loop on the highly popular running route though Grøndalsparken, it is an extension of the family friendly activities in the area in general, with playgrounds and urban 'pockets' on Dirch Passer Allé.

The new, slanting terrain is being processed to create special places and experiences. It will not meet the narrowly defined activity but represents a number of zones which is adjacent to each other. Each zone calls for certain types of activities: The outdoor space at SPARK is a hierarchical space with access from the four corners of the world. Each entry offers a dif-ferent experience of the park full of surprises. The landscape is characterized by a hierarchical space with different atmos-pheres, planting and construc-tion.

A system of microclimates, changing sounds, lights and scents gives the visitor an intense sensory experience. You are outside, inside, under the trees, on grass hills, on paved surfaces or through water landscape. The various surfaces and compartments activate various forms of movement.