Figur 9 (Hvidovre gør gode tider bedre)

Museum-quality Luster paper Giclée printing quality, 12 colors Paper weight: 250 g/m2 FSC Label

Figure 9: Denmark’s Longest Office Building 

In 1982, entrepreneur Bøje Nielsen reimagined the industrial landscape of Avedøre Holme in a radical architectural vision: a 300-metre-long floating structure designed to adapt and evolve. Equipped with a network of sensors and hydraulic systems, its walls and floors could expand and contract in response to human activity, creating a flexible space that blurred the lines between work and play. 

Office landscapes morphed into playgrounds, where swinging between meeting rooms or sliding between floors became commonplace. Playful experimentation often led to innovation—a casual jam session could spark new project management techniques, while a graffiti workshop inspired revolutionary visualisation tools. 

In 2017, the state acquired the structure and repurposed it into a self-sustaining ecosystem for housing, urban agriculture, and cultural production. Now covering 75,000 square metres, it serves as a laboratory where work and play are seamlessly integrated. Traditional divisions between productivity and creativity, work and leisure, have been replaced by a continuous flow of enjoyable activity. This experimental building stands as a prototype for a new welfare state, where work and play are two sides of the same coin.