KMD's headquarters is an architectural modernist building that gives KMD a strong image in the outside world. The idea for the building was based on a good understanding of the individual employee's movements in a large building.
Ballerup
Denmark
KMD A/S
2002
18 000 ㎡
DKK 285 M
1st prize, nominated for Mies van der Rohe Award 2003, awarded Red Dot Award 2003
From the desk to the workplace
KHR has collaborated with a conscious and inspiring client to create the building's space and design. The building's plan appears at first glance to be composed of similar spaces, but is experienced as an expressive small city with a dense and light cohesion. KMD's headquarters offers the user varying experiences of light and proportions, which are constantly changing as one moves around the domicile.
"A key idea behind KMD's headquarters was to bring a personal space experience into a very large building where people work in open-plan offices."
Mikkel Beedholm, Creative Partner
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Domicil for KMD: Intimacy despite size
The aim was to make the total of 18,000 m² relate to the everyday life of each employee. This was achieved architecturally by building four immediately identical volumes that link around two differently proportioned atriums that are hidden from each other. The plan thus suppresses the size of the building, so that even on arrival one can only see half of the building, and as one circulates into the building one moves as if guided by the landscape. The composition of the buildings creates a progression from the arrival grove and on into the house with different lines of sight to the landscape, large staircases through atria and different levels, to finally end in the canteen and the landscape again.
Daylight and landscape
The north facades are made of floor-to-ceiling glass and the south facades are next to the office chairs equipped with "French" balconies. The solar shading, which is transparent and does not go to the ceiling, provides pleasant daylight and always an unobstructed view of the landscape.
