Viby Cultural Centre and Library – a new community ‘living room’

We were the structural, civil and building services engineers for this building which serves as a local focal point for people to stop and linger as well as providing a short-cut across the centre of Viby from the high street to the town square. 

The openness of the architecture creates a welcoming atmosphere, with community services, a café and flexible areas for classes on the open-plan ground floor, and the library and local historic archive on the level above. Some rooms are in double-height to add to the open, dynamic feel of the space and creating a synergy between all the different activities going on throughout the building. The building’s façade opens up onto the town square to increase the feeling of accessibility and integration with the life of the town.  

Standing on the site of Viby’s former cooperative dairy, the Cultural Centre’s zig-zag roof and gables recall the original form of the dairy, while the façade, clad with white ceramic tiles, harks back to the dairy’s industrial heritage. 

The design and choice of materials for the rest of the building have been driven by the vision of sustainability in its widest sense with a commitment to delivering environmental, social and economic benefits to the community. This is in keeping with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and with the DGNB certification which is currently ongoing. 

Our role was to support the delivery of these sustainability benefits in terms of the quality of design, construction and long-term viability of the Cultural Centre. The building, on two levels, is constructed from a combination of concrete, wood and steel which, in a structure with open facades on the ground floor and few stabilizing walls, complicated the construction process. However, this was more than validated by the benefits in terms of reduced resource consumption and the use of lighter materials wherever possible for lower embedded carbon. The building is also constructed to the highest level of operational energy efficiency, with renewable energy for heating provided by external heat pumps, and extremely well insulated. Despite the light-weight facades, we were able to ensure a high level of sound insultation for the building, so that concerts can be held without disturbing the neighbours. 

As a reflection of Viby’s past, present and future, the Cultural centre supports new plans for the town, unifying the town’s existing architecture with the new urban landscape through its design, colour, scale and materials. In particular, it strengthens the sense of community as a flexible gathering place for the local population to enjoy and benefit from its facilities and all the activities it has on offer.