Tivoli Hjørnet

With one foot planted in the past and one in the future, this project engages the history of Copenhagen’s extraordinary Tivoli Garden and adds to its storied legacy. The garden, originally founded in 1844 on the city’s perimeter, was envisioned as a place for amusement, culture, and recreation, and the Hjørnet project resonates with the garden’s dualities: traditional and experimental, bucolic and urban, contemplative and entertaining.

The garden is the city’s most-visited site, and a majority of residents hold membership to it. The project provides significant new amenities to visitors and, perhaps most importantly, serves as an extension of Danish design culture. Where it faces the city, the building is animated and welcoming. On the other side, it echoes the spirit of hygge and social harmony.

At 92,000-square-feet, the new building contains a hotel, restaurants, and retail space. Its key architectural element evokes the moat and fortifications that once ringed the city and remain imprinted on the garden’s layout. As those battlements once formed a boundary for the garden, this project now adds a defining edge that both engages and entertains. It operates as both a portal and curved mirror, offering entrance to the garden while amplifying the city’s vivid life.

On the street side, the building cantilevers over the sidewalk and fully participates with the vitality found there. Its permeable ground floor invites visitors inside to a garden-side terrace or to circulate along its length along and above the bustling Bernstorffsgade. An electronically controlled shading system captures the nuances of shifting light conditions to enhance the experience for both visitors and pedestrians. The new building features terracottas-faced terraces on the garden side that weave together and step back beneath the sky. Hemmed in by lush plantings informed by the garden’s expertise, the terraces offer views of the beloved Pantomime theater, the garden’s stately trees, and the relaxed pace of life below.

In a city of full of material practicality, Tivoli Garden has long been a place that promotes involuntary dreaming. Since its completion, the building has quickly found its place in the collective imagination of Copenhageners.

"The project is superbly executed evoking harmony and a balance of opposite expressions. It is engaging and delightfully and has become its own Urban Actor.  The sinuous Boulevard façade seems to breath effortlessly in and out as it entices passersby to explore. While, the garden façade creates a cascading waterfall of seasonal foliage that acts as the perfect backdrop for the enchanting garden." - Jury comment