Cultural Museum East

Fakse Town Hall
On Friday, November 19, 1971, Fakse Town Hall was inaugurated—the new administrative building for the newly merged municipality. Fakse Town Hall was constructed as a concrete structure, and its architectural style is known as Brutalism. A beloved child has many names: “layer cake house,” “Führer’s bunker”—a local architect submitted an alternative proposal because he did not like the winning design. Architects Finn Westerby and Georg Stæhr from Copenhagen were commissioned to design the building. The budget was 5,302,302 Danish kroner. Add to that furnishings and other expenses, and the total came to just over 6 million Danish kroner.

Fakse City Hall divided opinion before its inauguration. It was a modern building constructed on-site, and the interior doors were orange, in keeping with the fashion of the time. From the start, some 30 employees worked in open-plan offices, while the mayor and the municipal director had their own offices. The first floor housed the city council chamber, meeting rooms, and a cafeteria. Gradually, there was a need for more offices where confidential conversations could be held.

Visitors checked in at a counter by the entrance and then went directly to the person they were there to speak with. This created an informal atmosphere, which was enhanced by the fact that the staff were seated close together and could talk to one another across the room.

The City Hall was expanded in 1980
With the number of employees having grown to 70, the space was already too cramped by the late 1970s. Consequently, the City Hall was expanded in 1980 with the addition of a new building. Architects Klemmesen and Nielsen designed the new building, which was constructed using prefabricated concrete elements. The architect passed away before the City Hall was fully furnished. Nor was there an immediate need to use all 1,000 square meters right away. The building was named City Hall, and over time, the entire space was put to use.
Departments were set up with color codes. For example, the employees had a lot of fun with the pink area, where they brought Barbie dolls and other items that emphasized the color as “girly.”

The 2007 Structural Reform
At the time of the 2007 structural reform, the building housed about 90 employees. This fostered close contact and provided excellent opportunities for collaboration among the staff, which they appreciated. Following another municipal reform in 2007, in which the municipalities of Fakse, Haslev, and Rønnede were merged, the new Fakse Municipality’s town hall was established in Haslev.
The vacant spaces came to house, among other things, the police, the job center, and classrooms for students from Rolloskolen, which is located on the other side of Ny Strandvej.
The Home Guard rents space in the basement of the building, which was constructed in 1980.

East Zealand Museum
In 2018, the East Zealand Museum will move into the building, bringing with it exhibitions and storage facilities for the local history of the municipalities of Faxe and Stevns, as well as the museum’s administrative offices. The location offers an ideal setting with easy access for residents and museum visitors—children, youth, and adults alike—and is fully in line with the concept behind this type of building.

's architectural style is called Brutalism—a style of construction characterized by concrete structures. Is it beautiful or ugly? In any case, this type of architecture is characterized by a clear layout, exposed structural elements, and the use of the materials’ unique qualities. The architects sought to achieve honesty through unadorned buildings that reveal their functions and are based on social ideals of equality and community. Just look at the spacious rooms.

From the 1930s until around 1980, city halls and concert halls, among other buildings, were constructed in Japan in the same brutalist architectural style. The Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde is another example of brutalism. The museum was a listed building and part of the cultural heritage, but its listing was revoked due to deterioration in the concrete—concrete isn’t always a very durable material.