Retten på Frederiksberg

Frederiksberg’s courthouse, a registered landmark from 1921, has been given an extension designed to meet today’s stricter requirements for security and witness protection.

The elegantly curved contemporary extension to Hack Kampmann’s listed neoclassical Frederiksberg Courthouse of 1921 was designed, in pure architectural terms, to have both a sense of gravity and to make people feel welcome.

In a structure that’s about upholding justice, security and witness protection are vital concerns. Its layout ensures that witnesses, defendants, judges and the involved parties’ families don’t accidentally meet. While to protect from prying eyes, the courtrooms’ windows exist above eye level.

Due to its comparatively small plot, and to maintain openness around the existing building, the new courthouse’s layout is extremely compact. Its roof’s curve is a contemporary interpretation of the traditional saddle roof, while its light- coloured brick façade relates to the surrounding buildings yet also invests it with a contemporary identity of its own. The building respects its predecessor – which it connects to via glass footbridge – by standing at 45 degrees to it.

Bar defendants, Retten på Frederiksberg’s users, can access an oblong atrium that divides the five-storey structure in two and delivers light to all floors. This serves as one of many sustainable elements, which include natural ventilation, solar shading, thermo-active floors, a green roof and solar power cells.