Competition for the Tønder Town Hall
The competition program for the expansion of Tønder Town hall called for the creation of workspaces for 200 employees. The need for more space has arisen from the merging of Tønder municipality, with some of its neighboring municipalities. The existing town hall was built in 1980-81, and is one of the last realized buildings by the highly esteemed Danish architect Haldor Gunnløgsson.
The town hall is robustly built, using red brick and distinct potent details as it is typical for this period. The architect Gunnløgsson had his production from the 1950s golden age of modernist architecture till the 1980s brutalist architecture with postmodern detailing.
The town hall is built in this last part of the architect’s production. It is built in a distinct heavyset style, with relatively small window openings and heavy details. This style is very typical for its time, and is evident in many of Denmark’s public buildings from the period.
This architecture seems to fit well with the local southern Danish style of brick houses in red color tones.
Our proposal for the future town hall of Tønder is built upon the juxtaposition of the historical town hall - a classical public office building with corridors and offices, reception and a central arrival hall – and an addition that brings in something new - a distinctly open and transparent public house. The addition underlines a transition to nature – to the surrounding marshland, in a bright and open building – which opens up to the city and to the landscape - and at the same time creates a coherence between the existing buildings in a kind of neutral architecture without the heavy brick and detailing – uncontemporary and open for interpretation.
The new building opens up towards the town hall and creates a common space for the many employees in an informal and open structure – a democratic and none-hierarchical plan. The addition submits itself to the existing town hall, but still has a characteristic expression – a glass building that meets the outdoors and is inviting in an informal manner.
One of Haldor Gunnløgsson’s first houses, his own house in Rungsted, north of Copenhagen, is conceived as a light and informal building. It has an open plan, large windowpanes and a flat roof with skylights, and a vista from all rooms. The house is built in a raw and straightforward style with delicate detailing. Another important reference is Gunnløgssons Tårnby town hall, also from the 1950’s.
The concept for the proposal is a dialog between Gunnløgssons first and last Buildings. We want to build on simple principles inherited from the two buildings - Juxtaposing the heavyset with the light and delicate, underline the transition between the existing and the new. Not creating two competing houses, but two parts of a whole, that works together and supplement each other. Two houses creating one.
