With a strong focus on credibility to the original building, the old freight railway building has undergone a thorough transformation that has given the brutalist building a new lease of life. It is being tribute by the readers of the Danish newspaper ‘Berlingske’, who have chosen KB32 as the winner of the ‘Copenhagen’s Best Architecture’ award for 2022.

The infamous DSB freight railway building from the 1960s now stands as an architecturally and aesthetically new building at Copenhagen’s Kalvebod Brygge.

"At Kalvebod Brygge, Vilhelm Lauritzen Architects has managed to raise the architectural and aesthetic quality of the area quite considerably with a thorough renovation of the old railway building [...]. Ole Hagen designed KB 32 in the late 1960s, and VLA has managed to retain his tactful, unsentimental modernism as a keynote, while transforming the building metre by metre into a modern domicile," writes Berlingske in the selection of KB32.

A tribute to a good cooperation

During the transformation of the 180-metre building, the aim was to preserve the original expression while continuing and enhancing the qualities with which the building was born, which also became a focal point for the team behind KB32.

"KB32 has so many qualities and so much history, and we made a clear choice with the client from the start to transform. This has excited everyone involved and has driven the project's exceptionally good collaboration. We are extremely proud to receive recognition from Berlingske for this work and hope that the award will inspire and encourage even more people to work with our existing buildings," says Simon Natanael Svensson, partner at Vilhelm Lauritzen Architects.

KB32 were made together with Genesta Property Nordic, Revco, SN Consult, Erik Petersen A/S, Laika RumDesign and all the skilled material manufacturers and craftsmen. Today, the old freight railway building serves as a six-storey open-plan office for Poul Schmith/Kammeradvokaten and Rigsarkivet.

See the list of all the winners of ‘Copenhagen’s Best’ award 2022 here.