S_BilledeborgenKøbenhavnsRådhus_1905-2005

EPILOGUE

If the old, and at that time, new City Hall could cause so much reflection for and against decoration and ornamentation, or inspire pride or indifference towards public construction of those proportions, the overall question may arise: will another building like Copenhagen City Hall ever be undertaken again? Economically speaking, considering contemporary prices of refined workmanship, the answer is no! But other ways of constructing might do the trick. Just consider the latest addition to the brick-built Royal Library and notice the use of glass and wires. Or look at Jean Nouvel’s and Danmarks Radio’s new concert hall in Ørestaden with facades of live television screens. Or the beautifully shining chestnut behind the façade manque of Venetian blinds inthe New Opera, designed by the architect Henning Larsen. New technologies and the know-how of workmanship may result in wonderful, artistic creations if desire, intention and money suffice, supported by talent and wise builders. In this book Copenhagen City Hall is frequently called a picture book, tangibly filled with paintings and illustrations, but also with decorative elements of a quainter, quirkier and more whimsical symbolic content. And on top of that the building itself is one big pictorial manifestation of Italian memories and ancestral roots in Danish castles and manor houses. Would it be possible to imagine any living architect finding inspiration in Kronborg Castle when designing a new public building? As a matter of fact, yes! Jørn Utzon did and referred to the place when he designed the opera house in Sydney: the steep siting, the importance of a poised, floating roof hovering over walls and bastions, and all the white sails on the water. The so-called post-modern period in architecture around 1980 let loose a whole range of architectural and historical methods of building at the free disposal of all and sundry, but the architects were not as adept at toying with them as Martin Nyrop of the City Hall had been one hundred years earlier. This was rooted in the fact that the post-modernists did not take ornamentation, decoration and pictorial creation as seriously as Nyrop had done when he played with motifs and models from his European travels. However, on one decisive point the construction of Copenhagen City Hall was distinctive. Lirst of all the solid and still functional building was a result of an open architectural competition, and secondly the financing of the project was sound if protracted over several years of budget negotiations. In other words, the building on the City Hall Square celebrating its first centenary has this to teach democratic construction authorities: quality pays!

A llan d e Waal (Translated by S iff Pors)

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