Appreciating Overformynderiet

Many may have noticed that the bolts which used to stick out through the marble in a grid-like series of dots all over the façade have disappeared. Instead, the mountings and holes are hidden behind plugs of Greenland marble that blend in with the rest of the surface. The decision to do this was subject to much discussion because the visible bolting had gradually become part of the building’s signature look and so was considered worthy of preservation by many. However, it was not part of the original façade, but a trait which arose after a facade renovation in 1963–64, overseen by Schlegel himself. Another striking feature of the façade is the red awnings, which have been part of the building all along and were reconstructed as part of the renovation. Furthermore, the dull aluminium windows introduced as part of a façade renovation in the 1970s have now been replaced with new, narrow-profile steel windows, which in terms of material and appearance come close to the building’s exquisite original windows. 

The main door with its narrow brass frames also survived the transition to becoming a ministerial main entrance with all the requirements this entails in terms of security and automation. Above the front door is the vast sign so familiar to all Danes (it too a rather blatant reference to Perret’s marine building) – a striking visual reminder of a past when authorities were rather more overtly visible and when the Office of the Public Guardian managed the fortunes of the disenfranchised. It is very likely that those poor wretches who used to stand with their heads reverently bowed in the Overformynderiet public business room after having first ducked underneath the sign did not pay much heed to its spatial qualities. Still, it was a beautiful room, surrounded by offices two steps above its floor level, filled with daylight and with soft light filtering down from above through the glass bricks set in the atrium floor on the floor above. 

Over the years, successive tenants have treated the building interior in such a manner that an actual renovation was out of the question. The team behind it calls the process a revitalisation instead, and they were given free rein as far as the building’s interior is concerned after it had been stripped virtually bare. The former public business room now houses the building’s reception, still surrounded by offices and daylight, now supplemented by meeting rooms fitted with glass doors to make the most of the light. The change of level is framed by three deep steps covered with repurposed surplus wood, creating a setting for more informal meetings. These traits, together with the frameless glass doors, leave a clear 2019 imprint on the room. This should certainly not be taken as a criticism: overall, the project has succeeded in creating rooms which, throughout the building, possess a simplicity that continues in the vein of Schlegel’s elegant functionalism while catering to present-day demands for technology and sustainability. In addition to updated heating and ventilation systems, flexibility was an important parameter to promote sustainability: the rooms must be sufficient simple and robust to accommodate different functions and a succession of different office set-ups. 

One might object that in certain places, this functional robustness comes across a little too strongly, but this is probably due to financial concerns. For example, it was not possible to recreate the building’s original, hand-laid black-and-white rubber floor, meaning that it now has cast floors of a less-than-thrilling kind instead. Likewise, installing anything other than standardised security doors on each floor was presumably out of the question, but even so the sight of such bulky aluminium doors opening up on Schlegel’s oak-lined atrium is rather jarring. 

The atrium is and will always be the main showpiece of the building, and unlike the rest of the interior it was intact before the renovation began. Despite its unique character, or perhaps precisely because of it, the atrium had been largely ignored as a place of actual utility before the renovation. That situation has certainly been rectified: the space has now become the heart of the building. As one would expect, this has prompted a need for new connections in the form of several new apertures and passageways to create a flow of people and light. In a momentary fit of anachronistic nostalgia, one might entertain the quite paradoxical thought that there is something rather too functional about these new apertures leading to the atrium, framed as they are in white metal and entering into competition with the skylight. But from a rational, or let us say functionalist, point of view, it probably makes no sense not to do so. The bright office spaces on the outside of the square are now better connected to the atrium and, thus, also to each other. The revitalisation of Schlegel’s fine spatial layouts, as well as the development of a new schema for offices that involves alternating open and closed alcoves, has produced some fantastic office spaces, including the roof terraces on the recessed upper two floors where staff can enjoy their lunch with a splendid view of the city. 

A number of details in the interior have also been preserved and renovated, reminding us once again of the importance of tactile details such as the solid wooden handrails on the stairs, the wall lamps in the atrium, a leather-covered sofa in the same place, the arched windows in the stairwell out towards the courtyard and a wood-lined elevator that not only takes us to another floor, but also to another time. Fortunately, we ourselves come from a time that appreciates what once was, and it is surely a a sign of a well-functioning and civilised welfare society to see so much money and so many skilled professionals being allocated to maintaining our architectural heritage.