Counceling Center Hejmdal
Gehry Partners, LLP

September 21, 2009 /

Aarhus, Denmark

Photo © Thomas Mayer

The new Counceling Center, named Hejmdal, is a renovation of an existing 1908 building, designed by the Danish architect Rudolf Clausen, which served as a gateway to the Aarhus Hospital campus.

Photo © Thomas Mayer

Photo © Thomas Mayer

Photo © Thomas Mayer

The design maintains the existing historic house walls and windows and inserts two floor levels of program above the expanded lower level of the house. These floors are supported independently from the existing exterior walls creating an uninterrupted space, or canyon, allowing natural light from the new glass roof to reach all levels of the house.

Photo © Thomas Mayer

Photo © Thomas Mayer

Intended to be a "house without doors" the design offers cancer patients and their families a comfortable environment during the treatment process by providing various programs on 3 levels. The main circulation is by a staircase located in a steel and glass tower, or an elevator in the brick tower.

Photo © Thomas Mayer

Photo © Thomas Mayer

A workshop area for painting and small art projects, a gym, a lounge and administrative support functions are located on the garden level with access to the garden and a new amphitheater.

Photo © Thomas Mayer

Photo: arcspace

On the first level or "Town Square" a lounge area, group dining area, demonstration kitchen for cooking classes provides more public areas for social interaction.

Photo © Thomas Mayer

Photo © Thomas Mayer

Photo: arcspace

The completed building goes far beyond our expectations with the atmosphere, in a very natural way, expressing all the resources necessary when fighting a disease like cancer. We waited until the building was completed to give us an idea for a name. Hejmdal, the God of sunlight and protector of human and spiritual values in Nordic Mythology, was a natural choice for Frank Gehry's first Scandinavian building...in perfect harmony with Nordic architecture.
/Henrik Kruse, Director

The top floor, bathed in natural light, is the more private area with group and smaller counceling rooms and lounge areas. The mechanical shades on the glass roof are adjustable.

Photo © Thomas Mayer

Photo © Thomas Mayer

Photo: arcspace

The "Love Chandelier," a large neon lamp measuring two meters in diameter, was created for the building by Danish artist Erik A. Frandsen. Energy is transmitted through the glowing neon tubes, like a living organism, making the lamp shine like a sun in all the colors of the spectrum.

Photo: Ole Hein Pedersen

Erik A. Frandsen "The Real. Unnaturalism" exhibition.
Erik A. Frandsen "The Double Space" exhibition.

HRH Crown Princess Mary of Denmark officially opened the Counceling Center on
September 21, 2009.