Uppsala University is the oldest university in the Nordic region with 45,000 students and is an international workplace dedicated to world-class research and education. Segerstedthuset is a multi-purpose extension to the University. The building is a modern workplace for researchers, university administration, and management as well as a visible landmark that will activate the entire campus area and unite it with its historical surroundings.
Project name: Segerstedthuset Extension in Uppsala University
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
Typology: Multi-purpose Arena for international concerts, culture, and sports events
Assignment: 1st prize in invited competition 2012
Size: 37 000 m2
Height: 35 m
Capacity: 16,000
Seating: 12,500
Client: Arena CPHX P/S
Architect: 3XN (Lead Consultant and Design Architect) & HKS (Arena Specialist)
Engineer: Arup, HAMI, and ME Engineers
Landscape architect: Planit-IE
Team: Kim Herforth Nielsen, Jan Ammundsen, Bo Boje Larsen, Peter Feltendal, Audun Opdal, Maria Tkacova, Jack Renteria, Robin Vind Christiansen, Dennis Carlsson, Andreas Herborg, Anja Pedersen, Bodil Nordstrøm, Christian Harald Hommelhoff Brink, Gry Kjær, Ida Schøning Greisen, Jakob Wojcik, Jan Park Sørensen, Jeanette Hansen, Juras Lasovsky, Laila Fyhn Feldthaus, Mads Mathias Pedersen, Marie Persson, Mikkel Vintersborg, Pernille Ulvig Sangvin, Sang Yeun Lee, Sebastian le Dantec Reinhardt, Simon Hartmann-Petersen, Stine de Bang, Sune Mogensen, Søren Nersting, Tobias Gagner, Torsten Wang, Henrik Rømer Kania
Completion: 2017
With a flexible design and integrated environments, Segerstedthuset In Uppsala University lives up to the University’s ambition of creating a modern workplace that facilitates new ways of working, studying, and interacting. At the same time, the building catalyzes life and internal cohesion at the entire campus by the housing through its integrated public and semi-public facilities, its extrovert facade, and three added urban spaces.
The building is located in the heart of Uppsala’s historic center, and it was critical to both the client and the city that the new facility be integrated into its context in a way that is respectful to the character and scale of the adjacent bastion, castle, castle park, botanical garden, and city. At the same time, it announces the building as a modern and contemporary extension to the context. From a distance, the building takes the shape of a rock formation. The shape is both light and varied due to the displaced volumes, the horizontal lines, and a glass band that runs around the building and “separates” the top from the bottom. Materials like the façade’s bright natural stone, another coloring, and angles play along with and enhance the experience of the existing historical buildings.
The straightforward concept consists of two U-shaped, overlapping office wings resulting in an open atrium that unites the building and optimizes views and daylight conditions inside the building. Adapting the new facility to the surrounding historical city was carried out through a rigorous process of adding staggered volumes onto the primary volume and “cutting” corners according to surrounding structures, resulting in a dynamic and edgy volume that “cuts” through the sloping natural landscape. Finally, the color scheme for the facade matches the pavement surrounding the landscape around the building.
The building is designed with a particular focus on public spaces and connections. The house spreads out and creates a sequence of three cohesive public spaces; the entrance area in front of the building, an inner space in the building’s ground floor, for exhibitions, information, and events, as well as a park with outdoor seating in the sun that connects the city to the campus. Visitors from all over the city can visit the restaurant on the building’s ground floor, and students and staff can walk through the building on their way to and from the rest of the campus facilities.
