Exceptional Architecture

International Price to ”Kilen”

23 June the CBS building Kilen received the RIBA Awards from Royal Institute of British Architects. The price is given to buildings with high architectural standard and contribution to their local environment. Kilen has been chosen among several buildings in Europe.

Kilen is designed by Lundgaard & Tranberg Arkitektfirma A/S

The judging committee noted:

The Danish word Kilen means wedge; a four storey wedge shaped building sits on top of an organically shaped one storey base and forms a new home for the faculty of business studies. It is built on former railway lands, above the new Metro which links all the buildings on the BusinessUniversity’s campus. 

It combines open communal and lecture theatres on the ground floor, with a range of smaller meeting and teaching on the upper four floors. The internal spaces are linked, visually and practically, by a generous atrium that reaches up through the full height of the building.

The ethos of the faculty of business studies is based on self motivation and learning through communication. The building embodies this approach in its generous circulation routes and informal meeting spaces and at the same time avoids closed cellular rooms.  Teaching and meeting spaces which do have to be enclosed have mainly glazed screens to the circulation spaces.

The exterior of the building is fully glazed but interestingly screened by elegant adjustable panels that control solar gain and at the same time add visual interest. This is achieved by means of a combination of materials including metal, glass and wood. The pale, muted coloured panels give it the look almost of a sauerbruch hutton scheme bleached by the sun.  The screening makes the offices comfortable places to work even in the heat of a short Danish summer and also creates attractive views out by managing glare.  The appearance of the building shifts with the times days of day, the changing seasons and the uses the rooms behind the variously angled shutters are being put to.

All parts of the building have been designed with a limited palette of materials but so skilfully have they been deployed that the result is an outstanding building.