Cultural Museum East

Fakse Town Hall
On Friday, November 19, 1971, Fakse Town Hall was inaugurated - a new administration building for the newly merged municipality. Fakse Town Hall was built as a concrete building, and the architectural style is called brutalism. It goes by many names; "lagkagehus", "førerbunker" - a local architect submitted an alternative proposal because he did not like the winning project. The architects Finn Westerby and Georg Stæhr from Copenhagen were appointed to design the building. The budget was DKK 5,302,302. To this was added fixtures and fittings and other items, so the bill came to just over DKK 6 million.

Fakse Town Hall divided the waters before its inauguration. A modern building cast on site, the doors inside were orange in keeping with the fashion of the time. From the beginning, more than 30 employees sat in open-plan offices, while the mayor and municipal director had their own offices. The first floor was furnished with a council chamber, meeting rooms and a canteen. Eventually, more offices were needed for confidential conversations.

Citizens approached a desk at the entrance and then walked in to the person they needed to speak to. This created an informal atmosphere, which was enhanced by the fact that the employees sat close together and could talk across the room.

The town hall is expanded in 1980
With 70 employees, space was already too limited in the late 1970s. Therefore, in 1980, the town hall was expanded with yet another new building. Architects Klemmesen and Nielsen designed the new building, which was built using precast concrete elements. The architect died before the town hall was completed. There was no need to use all 1000 square meters right away. The building was called City Hall, and gradually the entire area was put to use.
Departments were set up that were color-coded. For example, employees had a lot of fun in the pink area, where they brought Barbie dolls and other items that emphasized the color as girly.

Structural reform 2007
At the time of the structural reform in 2007, the building housed around 90 employees. This provided close contact and good opportunities for collaboration between employees. They appreciated that. After another municipal reform in 2007, when Fakse, Haslev and Rønnede municipalities were merged, the new Fakse Municipality Town Hall was located in Haslev.
The empty premises came to house the police, job center and classrooms for students from Rolloskolen, located on the other side of Ny Strandvej.
The Home Guard rents premises in the basement under the building from 1980.

Østsjællands Museum
In 2018, Østsjællands Museum will move in with exhibitions and object storage for the local history of Faxe and Stevns municipalities and the museum's administration. Close to the ideal setting with easy access for citizens and museum visitors, children, young people and adults and completely in line with the idea of this type of building.

The style of architecture
Brutalism is the name of the building style - concrete construction. Is it beautiful or ugly? In any case, this type of building is characterized by a clear plan, visible structures and the use of the special qualities of the materials. The architects wanted to achieve honesty and unadorned buildings that show their functions and build on social ideals of equality and community. Just look at the large rooms.

From the 1930s until around 1980, town halls and concert halls in Japan and elsewhere were built in the same Brutalist architecture. The Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde is another example of Brutalism. The museum was listed and part of the cultural heritage, but it was demolished due to degradation in the concrete - concrete construction is not always a durable material.