See the winning proposal for the design competition for the Future Danish Parliament

2024-03-14

Cobe, together with Arcgency, Drachmann Architects, and Sweco Denmark, have been selected as the winners of the project competition for the Future Danish Parliament.

Illustration: Team Cobe

Today, the Danish Parliament and the Danish Building and Property Agency announce the winner of a major design competition that reveals the vision for the future Danish Parliament. The aim is to make the parliament more open and accessible, which, in the future, will give more people the opportunity to experience democracy up close.

Cobe, in collaboration with Arcgency, Drachmann Architects, and Sweco Denmark, will be responsible for restoring and transforming the buildings vacated by the Danish National Archives on the island of Slotsholmen and establishing a new underground visitor entrance from the Parliament Courtyard, Rigsdagsgården.

Together, they will be responsible for restoring and transforming the historical buildings and Rigsdagsgården on Slotsholmen, thus creating a unique opportunity for all to intimately experience democracy in action.

A new framework to strengthen democratic participation.

The Danish Parliament is the center of democracy. One of the objectives of the building project is to foster greater openness and accessibility, enabling citizens from every corner of the nation to actively engage and immerse themselves in the workings of representative democracy.

Søren Gade (V), Speaker of the Danish Parliament, states: »The Danish Parliament belongs to all of us, and the announcement of the winning proposal marks an important step towards opening the Parliament to even more visitors. It is an ambitious response to the Parliament's desire to have a vibrant democracy and make politics interesting and engaging for more people for many years to come. With this project, the Danish Parliament also takes on the important task of preserving and transforming these historical buildings, ensuring that the significant cultural heritage they represent benefits all citizens of the country. Now we need to continue working on the project to establish a robust foundation upon which to make the final decision.«

The vision behind the project is to create new and better frameworks for an open, accessible, and engaging representative democracy, with more activities for citizens. Visitors to the future Danish Parliament will have access to a visitor center for citizens of all ages from across the country. In addition to opening Parliament to more visitors, the project will also improve the facilities for parliamentary work, including modern parliamentary spaces and committee rooms.

Leif Lahn Jensen (S), Vice-Speaker of the Danish Parliament, states: »A well-functioning democracy requires openness and trust - values we pride ourselves on in Denmark. The physical meeting between citizens and politicians can create something special, and we want to create better frameworks for that.«

The winning project creates the framework for the Future Danish Parliament

Since August 2023, five prequalified teams have been working on proposals for the future Danish Parliament. Now, a winner has been found, and the architects and engineers responsible for developing the proposal have been selected.

The expert judges, Natalie Mossin, Rosa Lund, and Torben Nielsen, explain: »The winning proposal is very successful, both in terms of architecture and function. The visitor entrance in Rigsdagsgården, inspired by the historical Danish assembly site, welcomes visitors, while a good connection has been created between the former buildings of the National Archives and Christiansborg, ensuring that the atmosphere and activity that characterize the Danish Parliament are also reflected in the new spaces.«

With this project, Cobe, along with Arcgency, Drachmann Architects, and Sweco Denmark, faces a significant task. Founder of Cobe and architect, Dan Stubbergaard, says: »We are extremely proud to be part of creating the proposal for the future Danish Parliament. For an architect, there is no more inspiring task than working on the physical expression of our democracy. There is an enormous cultural heritage that we must protect, and at the same time, we must create something new for the Danish people, inviting them in and allowing them to feel democracy and its history, showing our representative democracy at its best.«

Read about the construction project Download press photos

Press contacts

The Danish Parliament Administration: For inquiries regarding the construction project, please contact Communication Sonsultant at the Danish Parliament Administration, Nikolina Olsen-Rule. E-mail: [email protected]. Phone: 61624536.

For inquiries regarding the Speaker of the Danish Parliament or the Presidium, please contact Press Officer at the Danish Parliament Administration, Claus Brask. E-mail: [email protected]. Phone: 33373448.

The Danish Building and Property Agency: For inquiries regarding the project competition, please contact Cress Chief, Carsten Engedal. E-mail: [email protected]. Phone: 41701351.

Cobe: Press contact, Stine Lund Hansen, Associate, Director of Business Development and Communications. E-mail: [email protected]. Phone: 27292442.

Background and facts

The 5 teams that participated in the project competition are:

Cobe in collaboration with Arcgency, Drachmann Architects & Sweco Denmark
Dorte Mandrup in collaboration with Rønnow Leth & Gori, DETBLÅ, MARTIN FUNCH Consulting Engineers & OJ Consulting Engineers
Henning Larsen in collaboration with JAJA Architects & Varmings Tegnestue
H+ in collaboration with C.F. Møller, Erik Brandt Dam & Artelia
Lundgaard & Tranberg Architects in collaboration with Marianne Levinsen Landscape, Elgaard architecture, BuroHappold, Schmidt Brand Advisory, Johan Galster & We Do Democracy

The project competition includes 10,000-12,000 m2 and features:

A visitor center, allowing more citizens to visit the Danish Parliament, learn more about its work, and be inspired to engage more in democracy.
An underground entrance in Rigsdagsgården with an underground connection between the former buildings of the National Archives and Christiansborg Palace.
Contemporary parliamentary facilities and workspaces.
A dining area accessible to all guests of the building.

The judging committee consisted of expert judges with an architectural background, the Speaker and Vice-Speaker of the Danish Parliament, as well as directors from the Danish Parliament and the Danish Building Authority. The judging committee received advice from experts in areas such as cultural heritage, preservation, sustainability, accessibility, structures, and technology.

The former buildings of the National Archives include Kunstkammerbygningen (1673), Gehejmearkivet (1720), and Den Zuberske Bygning (1785).

In 2021, the National Archives moved to a new building on Kalvebod Brygge.

In 2021, the Danish Parliament entered a collaboration with the Danish Building and Property Agency to oversee the role of the client.

The project competition is a crucial step towards establishing a solid decision basis for the final scope and quality of the project.

This is the largest construction project in the Danish Parliament since the reconstruction of Christiansborg in 1928. It requires a careful process and thorough planning.

At present, it is not possible to announce the overall budget and timeframe for the project until a well-considered decision basis is available.

Rigsdagsgården will be transformed into a construction site in the spring of 2024, where preliminary archaeological investigations will be initiated. Even though the construction project is not expected to start until a couple of years from now.

The preliminary archeological investigations are initiated to map the risk and the need for archeological excavations before digging out for the underground visitor entrance.