Wind and weather create unique facade for church and cultural centre

“It has been a somewhat exciting process, as the facade panels had a different colour than the current one when they were mounted. Therefore, I initially got a lot of questions from locals regarding the colour of the building. I could happily assure you that in a short time the panels would patinate to the beautiful natural colour that now characterizes the facade.” 

Colours create harmony between old and new 

Samvaerket is built as an extension of its neighbour, an existing folk high school building from 1954, and the centre's foyer connects the two now. The choice of colour has been crucial in getting new and old to go hand in hand. Cecilie Anhøj Kruse, architect at GPP Arkitekter, explains: “Samvaerket is created with a simple and modern expression that fits to the place as a nice extension of the folk high school building, which is a classic red stone building. Not in the least because the shades of the facade panels in their earth colour scale harmonize with the red bricks. At the same time, the boards have a structure in the surface, which adds character and life to the facade.” 

The green location fully comes into its own thanks to large windows that provide unobstructed views of the park and lake. Here, the black window frames form a nice contrast to the golden-brown colour: 

“On one side of the building, an open and transparent facade with large window sections faces the green area, while variation with a more closed facade expression has been created on the opposite side,” says Cecilie Anhøj Kruse. 

Living facade material – unique facade  

Kolding's new church and cultural centre is clad with Rockpanel Natural. Anette Løff Hornung, architect consultant at Rockpanel: “Samvaerket has in many ways got a unique facade. The exciting thing about the chosen product is that it is a living material without surface treatment, which therefore patinates to a different expression depending on the weather conditions at the given location. 

“At the same time, it helps to create a facade that is sustainable. The facade panels are made of stone wool, which is sustainable by nature. They are made from 50 percent recycled material and are fully recyclable. In addition, they have a long lifespan of at least 50 years.” 

Lars Schmidt confirms that easy maintenance and sustainability have played a role: “It is a great advantage that the boards are sustainable. We have generally thought about the future in several ways, and therefore we have also emphasized that the facade should be easy to maintain, resistant from weather and wind influences and last a long time, and here the natural facade panels are a really good choice.” 

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