Arkitekt: Architect Marc Jay, j’s kitchen.
Associates: Jon Achton Nielsen, architect
The main quality of this project consists in an articulate approach to urban planning. The terminal point of the Stone Town has been defined by means of a park on a partly artificial peninsula outside its boundary. This is the most powerfully articulate of the projects choosing to create a building in clear contrast to the Stone Town.
The arts centre and theatre is naturally sited in a park on the peninsula. The building has a character all of its own, with softly bulging, glimmering façades, like a huge illuminated sculpture in clear contrast to the Stone Town's concrete materials and regular geometry.
The strong idea and pursuit of form, however, have proved detrimental to the arts centre and theatre in a number of respects. Because of the tall, compact shape, the theatre premises have to be stacked on top of each other, which makes for unpractical logistics indoors. The foyers running round the outside of the building on many storeys are sometimes cramped and often perplexing. The link to Kulturmagasinet occupies a secondary position one floor up, via the restaurant, which has been positioned with a view of the bay but without any patio access.
The entrant has not complied with the brief's desideratum of developing the E4 highway into a boulevard with urban qualities. Instead, in keeping with the idea of a separate peninsula with a retracted shoreline, the E4 is carried on a bridge over and past the competition site. The main entrance has been placed in the east, while the western side of the building has only been allotted a subordinate entrance function with a small piazza formation.
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