House of Danish Grain

Jutland has a varied terrain and a long history, and in many respects it is the most continental of Denmark's regions. Hjørring, where some of the oldest traces of settlement in Denmark are found, has a mature cultural landscape. Kornets Hus, or the House of Grain, is a new cultural centre intended to communicate the region's rich culinary and agricultural heritage. The new inspiration centre sits within an existing farmstead beside a bakery, and it offers learning facilities for visitors, local residents and staff, organised around activities that introduce the region through the central importance of grain to Jutland and to human civilisation. The building is laid out on a simple and flexible plan so that it can accommodate a wide range of future activities and functions. Its form responds to the region's rich landscape, folk culture and agricultural inheritance; at its heart are two brick-lit light wells that reinterpret the baker's oven. Internally, the building opens toward the wide wheat fields to the west, framing the surrounding scenery and drawing people out onto the terrace. Public spaces are organised around a large baking oven, while teaching and exhibition rooms are naturally lit by progressively rising skylights. The project demonstrates how a contemporary cultural building can draw on rural typologies and agricultural craft, using brick, oak and daylight to connect visitors with the material and culinary traditions of the landscape around them.