Danish National Archive

Large quantities of irreplaceable historic material are to be preserved in 400km of non-daylit shelving, whilst allowing access to researchers, government administrators, 200 staff and the general public, totaling 700,000sqft of facilities.
Commissioned to make proposals alongside Mirales, Snohetta, and Behnisch, Priestman Architects worked with Lundberg & Tranberg and Ove Arup. The majority jury vote for the scheme was overruled by the then Minister of Culture. Following a national media outcry, the minister changed department and the project was subsequently shelved.
The design seeks to express the building's mass as an elegantly proportioned monolith concerned with efficient storage. The archive floors are enclosed by a dark casing of oiled steel. Wrapped around this brooding shrine is a glazed skin. An entrance volume with lecture hall and exhibition area connects with library, reading rooms, and offices, around an atrium on the top floors.
As the building rises, the mass is gradually fractured and fragmented. The steel carcass is penetrated by lighter upper levels, and the reflection, refraction and partial obscuring of the outer skin, blurs the apparent presence of the building. All public and staff levels enjoy views of Copenhagen.
The proposal has a calm, refined intensity, where the latent authority of 'container' as a familiar object is adapted and re-presented.