Represented by Her Royal Highness Princess Marie, the City of Copenhagen has opened the European School housing 900 students on 14,000 m2 in the center of Carlsberg City. The state-of-the-art learning environment was created for students from entry level to 3.G and designed by Vilhelm Lauritzen Architects and Nord Architects.

Distinctive buildings from the brewery period with The Twisted Chimney, Storage Cellar 3 with the golden slices and the Dipylon gate as the closest neighbors. The historical setting has set the framework for the school’s curry structure between the existing Carlsberg buildings.

“With the European School, we have considerably maximized the number of square meters and designed a vibrant and open school that interacts with the historic buildings through its inviting and fine tuned architecture,” says Thomas West Jensen, partner and architect of Vilhelm Lauritzen Architects , who designed the school with NORD Architects.

In 2015 the companies won the competition to design the new European School together with BAM Denmark and EKJ.

“The European School is wrapped up in the historic Carlsberg area with building works and industrial architecture that testifies to the entrepreneurial spirit of time, boldness, visibility and knowledge. It is the tradition and cultural heritage that the school is based on – just unfolded in our own time, “says Morten Gregersen, partner and architect at NORD Architects.

Learning stairs, open spaces and multifunctional areas
The school’s learning room is organised around two major learning stairs, going through the five floors of the building and collecting the different grade steps. The learning stairs act as multifunctional living and teaching areas for larger or smaller groups of students – for example, a full year can be gathered on the stairs as a stand. The learning stairs also provide visual contact and coherence between the different zones and spaces across the centuries, highlighting the canteen as a central and social gathering place.

The European School is integrated into Carlsberg City as a new urban landscape with fluent borders between school and city. Institution and city lends from and gives to each other so that the valuable square meters of the outside space are always in use by the either theschool or the public.

The sports hall is shared between the city and school and is open and accessible in an intermediate zone, so it can be used for events on weekends. From stairs to the sports hall you have access to a roof landscape in different levels with activities, places of residence and playgrounds.

The school is financed by the City of Copenhagen, Realdania, the Novo Nordisk Foundation, the Nordea Fund and the Industry Fund