The original K.B. Hall - a cultural icon and generator for big events since 1938 - burned to the ground in 2011. Now, the hall has been resurrected. Not as a copy of the old hall, but as a modern architectural reinterpretation. The new K.B. Hall can accommodate up to 4950 guests and offers a new and flexible frame of functions satisfying the requirements of a contemporary event and sports hall.

Central to the overall experience of the hall, the art piece “Buen” by light designer Viera Collaro is adorning the inner concrete gable shining bright and colourful through the glass façade above the main entrance of the hall.

When guests arrive, they move across the new forecourt towards the hall’s luminous and open entrance, where a spacious foyer offers them inside and further into the main space of the hall. Wide stairs lead up to the first floor, where a series of lounge areas work as a square frame around the building’s primary barrel-shaped construction.

The hall is designed according to three basic elements:

-         The Arch is the great unifying roof recreating the iconic expressions of the old hall and maintaining a harmonious connection to the older, underlying halls.

-         The Gable is the new gable with a front towards the main street of the area, which, unlike the one from the old hall, is in glass with a clear view to the inner life of the hall.

-         The Disc, which contain the hall’s bar and lounge area, is a huge cantilevered steel structure carried by the heavy concrete construction and cladded with handmade white tiles.

Natural and solid materials such as bamboo, handmade tiles and concrete cast on site have consistently been used. Their glow and texture give the hall a special sense of materiality.

Since 1938 the K.B. Hall has been one of the most important event halls in Copenhagen. The Beatles played here one of their first concerts in Denmark. After the hall was burned to the ground in 2011, it has now been revived in a contemporary, architecturally sophisticated interpretation. The extraordinary character of the building is due in parts to its three-dimensional ceramic facade. The facade, designed by architects CHRISTENSEN & CO, is made of oversized 3D tiles and was almost entirely handcrafted. The glaze is also a special development. What was desired was an intensive white, for which the final design was based on sanitary glazes. The largest elements are 75 cm long and 50 cm wide. At the highest point they measure 8 cm. A total of around 3,000 moulded parts were installed between white terracotta slabs. The project was developed and manufactured on behalf of NBK ARCHITECTURAL TERRACOTTA.

The steel structure includes five massive 50 ton arches, two 30 ton grid arches and GSY composite beams for the basement dividing deck, corbel steel beams bearing the staggered first floor and, last but not least, the entire steel construction for the permanent seating in the hall.

The five arches span 50 metres and are built up from the lower rolled bands, to which box kite structures have been welded. These were bevel cut and individually customised. Drifts have been welded to the outer side of the arches to retain the external structure. The arches are also fitted with a welded corbel to bear the the first floor concrete deck. Each arch rests in special Hardox steel bearings to absorb the massive loads, including from the staggered concrete floor deck. The bearings are connected across the building by high load tension bands in cast routing tubes in the base, which are designed to absorb the massive outward forces from the arches.