Copenhagen, Denmark
2014 - 2017
Nordea HQ
The second of our headquarters for prominent Nordic bank Nordea, the Ørestad location offers an original vision of transparency in the financial sector. With its distinct glass façades, the structure itself rises from a charcoal slate base, referencing features of icebergs and great Nordic landscapes.
Project details
Despite the security levels indispensable to a financial institution, our design for Nordea’s Copenhagen headquarters uses transparency to meet the city in a welcoming, open gesture, giving the public visual access to the life and work that go on inside.
The headquarters consists of two building volumes, each designed as a large indoor atrium. One wing houses Scandinavia’s largest trading floor with a capacity of 600 traders, and the other buzzes with activity amongst employees and clients.
Visibility continues into the building interior with a publicly accessible inner streetscape and skylights that provide views to the sky. Visual contact and intentionally uninterrupted sightlines guided the design. Across meeting rooms, offices, quiet spaces, balconies, stairways, and dining areas, these create a sense of approachability in what could otherwise be a somewhat intimidating and daunting environment.
Inspired by Nordic design traditions
A tribute to the great Nordic landscapes, the choice of materials for the building was inspired by nature. With slate and oak from Nordic forests adorning the interior, the building exterior illustrates a vision of a giant block of ice rising from a charcoal slate base. Its crystalline façade not only offers a sense of transparency between employees, clients, and the surrounding city but also allows daylight to flow unimpeded through the building.
The inspiration for the innovative and expressive façade, which evokes the fractured surfaces of icebergs, was also drawn from functional and ecological considerations. Based on a two-pane window concept called the Kastenfenster System, the facade is made up of three-dimensional cassettes, angled and assembled like building bricks. Natural ventilation, noise dampening, and solar screening are controlled in the cavity between the glass panes.
This façade solution improves the building’s performance, through energy savings, better acoustics, and indoor climate control, while offering employees Scenic vistas of nearby nature at Amager Fælled.
01/03
Wayfinding and signage
Strengthening brand identity within the building, custom graphic signage and art was developed for the Nordea headquarters. From signage in the underground parking garage to labels on conference rooms, these graphic markers join functionality and aesthetics, and contribute to a more comprehensive sense of brand identity while facilitating a pleasant and experiential user journey for visitors and employees alike.
Contact
All contacts
Søren Øllgaard
Design Director Europe, Partner
Head of Design
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