TV-BYEN,
GLADSAXE

Television came to Denmark in the early 1950s and Vilhelm Laurizten’s Radio House (1939) soon proved too small to house both radio and the new visual medium. So in 1959 a competition was announced for the design of a new television building at Gyngemosen, Gladsaxe.

The Vilhelm Laurizten practice submitted two proposals, one by Vilhelm Laurizten himself, and the other by Mogens Boertmann. Boertmannn’s proposal won the competition and provided the basis for TV-Byen [the Television Centre].

This project was representative of the passing of generations at Vilhelm Laurizten. Boertmann belonged to the younger generation that was already taking over the running of the practice. The project was also characterized by new humanism and social commitment that spotlighted efficient production processes and the best possible working conditions.

The first phase of the project came online in 1964 and TV-Byen housed Danmarks Radio television production until the Millennium, when Danmarks Radio’s activities in Copenhagen were all moved to the new DR Byen complex in Ørestad, also designed by Vilhelm Laurizten Arkitekter.