Glaskuben: The Glass Cube

Commercial

800
Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects

The Glass Cube – Glaskuben in Danish – is the fitting name for Jyske Bank’s headquarters in Copenhagen. Square and transparent, with a massive atrium at its core, the office building serves as an airy gateway between the city and the harbor.

Jyske Bank’s headquarters in Copenhagen (originally built for Nykredit) is located at Kalvebod Brygge on Copenhagen’s waterfront. Completed in 2001, the building was designed by the architecture firm Schmidt Hammer Lassen, the same firm behind the Black Diamond library further up the harbor.

The building is shaped as a large cubic structure made of glass, steel, and granite. In nine of its ten floors, the house is divided into two slender office wings, connected on the top floor. This design creates a large square atrium in the center, framed by the two office wings and glass walls.

The ground floor includes a reception area, art installations, an auditorium, and a wide main staircase. The staircase leads up to the building’s centerpiece, the central atrium. Here, suspended meeting pods, glass elevators, staircases, balconies, and crosswalks create a dynamic and inspiring work environment.

Due to the transparent building materials, the building’s distinctive atrium is also visible from the outside. This transparency makes the structure appear as a gateway — a portal between the city on one side and the water of Copenhagen’s inner harbor on the other.

In this way, the building connects to its urban surroundings and its unique position between city and harbor.

Adjacent to The Glass Cube is another sharply geometric building by Schmidt Hammer Lassen: Krystallen – The Crystal.