I did this one because I thought it was Denmark’s first curtain wall, designed by Arne Jacobsen.

…lol, nope—that is Nyropsgade 18, next door. This is Nyropsgade…14, designed a few years later by the significantly-less-famous August Rasmussen & Torben Miland Petersen and completed in 1958.

~1960 postcard / 2022 photo

Ah well, it’s still a clean example of Danish modernism. Built for the textile workers union, it’s still home to Danish unions today. Owned by 3F–the United Federation of Workers of Denmark–the Danish electricians, painters, and tin and plumbers unions moved their offices here in 2015.

Studiebyen in Hellerup, designed by August Rasmussen (and Peter Nielsen and V. Rørdam Jensen), Frans Drewniak photo, Wikimedia Commons; undated photo of Studiebyen, Det Kgl. Bibliotek; Hønsehusene in Valby, designed by T. Miland Petersen (and Ivar Bentsen and Ole Buhl), valbyhistorie on Flickr; undated view of the rowhouses on Vigerslev Allé in Valby, Det Kgl. Bibliotek; Miland Petersen's Kilometergården in Herlev; 1955 photo of the Atlas factory, designed in part by Miland Petersen, Lyngby-Taarbæk Stadsarkiv

Architects August Rasmussen and Torben Miland Petersen were pretty obscure. As far as I can tell, they're most notable for designing early modernist housing on Zealand in the 1940s. Rasmussen worked on the rowhouses at Studiebyen in Hellerup and Andelsboligforeningen af 1941 in Ringsted.

What I could dig up on Miland Petersen was a little more interesting–Denmark had a socialist design studio in the 1930s and 1940s, Kooperative Arkitekter, focused on social housing. Miland Petersen was a member, and in that vein, he worked on social projects like the Hønsehusene rowhouses in Vigerslev and Kilometergården in Herlev. In the 1940s, Miland Petersen was also the fifth wheel on team that designe a prizewinning refrigerator factory, working with husband-and-wife architect duos Eigil Hartvig Rasmussen and Rut Speyer and Gunnar and Bodil Krohn. Unfortunately, the Atlas refrigerator factory in Lundtofte has since been demolished.

1911 photo of the 2nd Copenhagen Central Station, Frederik Riise, the Museum of Copenhagen; undated photo of the 2nd station with cattle pens, the Museum of Copenhagen; 1919 photo with the water filtration basins, looking out on what is now Nyropsgade; the Museum of Copenhagen; 1908 photo looking over Vesterbro including the 2nd central station and Sankt Jørgens Sø in the distance, Ernst Nyrop Larsen, the Museum of Copenhagen; 1960 aerial with Nyropsgade built up but the water filtratation basins still there, Københavns Stadsarkiv; 1961 photo of Nyropsgade with the Textilarbejdernes Hus in the distance and the water filtration basins in the foreground, Mogens Falk-Sørensen, Københavns Stadsarkiv

This section of Copenhagen was a bit of a wasteland–it was stuck between the fumes and clamor of the city’s second central train station and the water filtration basins next to Sankt Jørgens Sø. Plans for the area around Nyropsgade were finalized in 1928, but development didn’t really kick into gear until after the Second World War.

Undated Rigmor Mydtsov & Steen Rønne photo of Arne Jacobsen's A. Jespersen & Son office, Det Kgl. Bibliotek; 1955 sketch, Det Kgl. Bibliotek; 1955 sketch–notice the building next door (where Textilarbejernes Hus now stands) is labeled "Hotel Jespersen", Det Kgl. Bibliotek; 1956 photo of window-washers working on the Jespersen & Son building, with the Textilarbejernes Hus under construction next door, Mogens Falk-Sørensen, the Museum of Copenhagen

Arne Jacobsen’s A. Jespersen & Son office building next door, completed in 1955, is a highlight of that development boom. The first curtain wall in Denmark, the building is cantilevered over an alleyway to provide space for cars to reach the courtyard of the building behind it. While developing plans for the Jespersen & Son offices, Jacobsen also drew preliminary sketches for a Hotel Jesperson on the Textilarbejdernes Hus site, although I don’t believe there were serious plans to carry it out. Construction began on Rasmussen & Miland Petersen’s building soon after the opening of the Jespersen & Son office, but it looks like it was already in planning in 1953. The result is a low-key, complementary companion to Jacobsen’s.

1953 sketches of the Textilarbejdernes Hus, Danmarks Kunstbibliotek

Designing a sleek modernist office building to serve as union headquarters fits nicely in Miland Petersen’s ideological trajectory–it makes for a pleasing throughline to his career that 20+ years after designing social housing projects with a socialist firm he was still taking on commissions with a political bent.

Undated photo of the A. Jespersen & Son building with the Textilarbejdernes Hus under construction behind, Aage Strüwing, Det Kgl. Bibliotek; undated photo of the two buildings, Det Kgl. Bibliotek; undated photo of Nyropsgade with the Textilarbejdernes Hus, Det Kgl. Bibliotek

The Danish unions consolidated over time, and there’s no longer an independent textile workers union. Today the building is owned by 3F–Fagligt Fælles Forbund–the largest affiliate of the FH, the Fagbevægelsens Hovedorganisation. In 2015 three FH member unions moved their offices here, Dansk El Forbund (electricians’ union), Malerforbundet (painters’ union) and Blik & Rørarbejderforbundet (tin & plumbers’ union). When it opened, the Textilarbejdernes Hus projected an image of labor strength and modernity. 65 years later…still pretty modern, still pretty strong.

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