FOLKETS HUS,
COPENHAGEN

In the early 1950s Vilhelm Lauritzen designed Folkets Hus [People’s Palace] for Arbejdernes Fællesorganisation [Joint Labour Organization]. Construction started in 1953 and was completed in 1956.

The building contains two auditoria, one large, one small, with facilities for plays and film screenings, assembly rooms and a kitchen. The front of the building is adorned by a frieze three stories high by the artist Dan Sterup-Hansen.

Vilhelm Lauritzen’s Nordic architecture and the vast frieze make the building a landmark for the area around Enghavevej between the city centre and the zoo.

When Arbejdernes Fællesorganisation moved out, the building was left vacant for several years. After extensive renovation work it reopened as VEGA – Musikkens Hus [VEGA – Palace of Music].

Like two other Vilhelm Laurizten buildings in Copenhagen, Radiohuset [Radio House] on Rosenørns Allé and the airport terminal building from 1939, the building is subject to a conservation order; indeed it is one of the most recent buildings in Denmark to be so.