K.B. Hallen

Brief information

K.B. Hallen is memorable not for its size, but for the way a single hall changed roles. In Frederiksberg, it served as a sports arena for badminton, tennis, basketball, and volleyball, hosted dance tournaments, exhibition flea markets, and concerts. The sharpest contrast came on June 4, 1964: The Beatles played two concerts here, and these remained their only performances in Denmark.

The 2011 fire physically interrupted this history: the arena was closed, the old building was then demolished, and the new one opened in 2018. So today’s K.B. Hallen is not a preserved pre-war hall, but a newly built arena whose design was directly oriented toward the former building.

What to notice right away

What is most legible here is the connection between a multipurpose hall and a concert machine. It makes sense to compare the arena’s sporting foundation with its concert setup: the building is designed for 4,500 spectators, but for concerts the number of seats can be increased to 4,950. This difference shows that the space was conceived not for a single scenario, but for a rapid change of format.

There are few physical details in the original description, so the ones that explain the building’s fate are important. The first arena had a special lighting system designed by Poul Henningsen and an adjoining ballroom, Pejsesalen, with a large fresco. In the history of the fire, the key element turned out to be not the stage or the stands, but the ceiling: part of it was lined with cardboard that was too close to halogen lamps. After that, the new hall was built as a continuation of the old image, but not as its surviving shell.