Royal Arena / 3XN + HKS

+ 37
• Curated by ArchDaily
CONCERT HOUSE
•

COPENHAGEN, DENMARK

• Architects: 3XN, HKS

• Area: 37000 m²
• Year: 2017
• Photographs:Adam Mørk
• Manufacturers: Accoya, Troldtekt, Laufen, BASF, Fagerhult, HansenGroup, Protec
Industrial Doors, ROCKWOOL, Schüco
• Landscape Architect: Planit-IE
Products used in this Project

•
Accoya
Accoya® Cladding, Siding & Facades

MORE SPECS

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Text description provided by the architects. One of the most anticipated cultural venues
in Copenhagen, the 35,000 m2 Royal Arena, opened with four sold out concerts by
Metallica. Specially designed for concerts and international level sporting events, this
new venue combines two key ambitions: to create an attractive and highly flexible
multi-purpose arena that can attract spectators locally as well as internationally, while
ensuring that the building’s presence will be a catalyzer for growth for the entire
district as well as Copenhagen. With a podium that offers different public areas for
social meetings and daily activities with a warm timber façade allowing spectators to
look out and the curious to look in, the arena is designed to catalyse urban life, thereby
adding value and fitting into the surrounding neighbourhood.

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The Good Neighbour

Without a doubt, a building of this size affects the community next to it. Copenhagen’s
new international arena is not, like a traditional arena, located on the outskirts of the
city. It sits amidst a dense residential urban area with housing and businesses. As ’the
good neighbour,' therefore, its design needs to encourage active interaction and those
characteristic values which make a neighbourhood enjoyable.

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“Our most important question before starting out the Royal Arena project was: How do
we design the good neighbour for this area?” tells Kim Herfoth Nielsen, Founder and
Creative Director at 3XN Architects.

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From the beginning, therefore, it was central to 3XN to create an intimate symbiosis
between the building and the community, activating its surroundings and offering new
opportunities for those who live and work adjacent to the building. All its facets, the
arena is designed to be a ‘good neighbour’. Central was the idea of ‘putting people first’.

A radical rethinking of the Arena typology was, therefore, inevitable.

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A Scandinavian Take on the Typology

Central to the design of the Royal Arena is a unique podium acting as a link to the
adjoining neighbourhood. This feature is designed to efficiently absorb the movement of
spectators through a variety of small plazas, pockets and gathering areas which have
been carved from the podium’s perimeter. It simultaneously encourages the community
to embrace the variety of public spaces, staircase, and adjacencies which promote
activity and liveliness when the building is not in use.

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“Since the arena is a local building, it was important to us to design it as an aesthetic

contribution to the area, and not just a massive concrete block like other stadiums tend
to be. Design wise, Royal Arena is easy to recognize with the curvy wooden fins and the
minimalistic Nordic expression and fits the nearby area,” Kim Herfort Nielsen explains.

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To achieve optimal flow at all scales of events, 3XN designed the building with a single
podium which efficiently absorbs the movement of spectators through a variety of small
plazas, pockets and gathering areas which have been carved from the podium’s
perimeter. Visitors enter the podium via a wide staircase and from the podium enter the
building via a large main entrance or, in case of large audience sizes, are distributed
smoothly along the facade between four different entries. The wavelike movements lift
up slightly above the natural entry points of the Arena making way-finding easy and
logical.

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From Metalica to Celine Dion - from Icehockey to Cirque du Soleil

The bowl contains a variety of design features to improve performance experience, such
as angled walls to improve sightlines, a flat ceiling, acoustic walls, vomitories to
facilitate access and a stage set up which is first rate. With a 22 meter height around the
stage, it is the focus point no matter where one isseated. The flexibility of the design
allows for the widest range of events; and possible configurations that is therefore
almost infinite.

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As concerts will make up a large proportion of events at the Royal Arena, the end stage
configuration is very important.

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First Floor Plan

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The Arena is also extremely flexible. It allows for a comprehensive range of staging
options with a 22 meter height surrounding the stage. In addition, the symmetrical
block layout, allows seating to be built up, reduced, expanded or sectioned off in the
most appropriate ways for each concert, but also highly capable of adapting to quick
operational changes and requirements based on ticket sales. The building has an open
ground foor and a public plateau at the first floor level. Most of the spectators are seated
on three sides of the stage/track/court, with the option to accommodate further visitors
on the fourth side for sporting events and special cultural events. In concert-mode, the
arena floor can be retracted.