Review: Tietgenkollegiet

Built in 2006, and named after one of Denmark’s most industrious entrepreneurs, the Tietgen dormitory is an architectonic masterpiece.

Commissioned by Nordea Fonden, it gave the Danish architects Lundgaard & Tranberg a budgetary carte blanche on its design with no upper limits on the construction costs for the building.

The result is a seven story circular building, where all common facilities are facing inwards toward the central courtyard and the 360 student rooms face outward to the surrounding Ørestad region.

Tietgen has been awarded numerous accolades for its design and is easily one of the top dormitories in Europe, if not in the world.

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Layout and facilities

The ground floor contains the dormitory bar, gym, two crafts rooms, two music rooms (one for bands, another with a grand piano), bicycle parking (an absolute necessity in Copenhagen), laundry facilities and a computer café.

The remaining six floors each have five corridors – or “kitchens”, as the residents refer to them as – adding up to a total of 30 kitchens. Each kitchen has 12 student rooms, of which 1-2 are allocated to international students, giving internationals a distinct edge in the application process.

In the kitchens the residents hang out, cook and party. Furthermore, each ‘kitchen’ has a common room, which is open to any resident. The common rooms each have a different function, all centered around social interaction. Common rooms include board game rooms, projector screen cinemas and pool table rooms, just to name a few.

Tietgen is situated right next to the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Copenhagen, about 2,5 kilometres from the city center. The Metro is within walking distance, as are two low-priced supermarkets.

Social scene

The architecture is designed to promote social interaction as every kitchen and common room is located on the inside of the circle. This, coupled with floor-to-ceiling windows, gives the residents every chance to look around, see if there is anything interesting going on, and join in on the fun. In summer and during the warmer periods of spring and fall, the inwardly facing balconies are used for lounging around and enjoying the weather.

Activities

The Tietgen Bar Committee throws numerous parties throughout the year, including both spring- and fall semester start parties, Oktoberfest and J-Day (the release date for the danish Christmas beer). These parties are always well attended, ranging from 300-600 guests typically, and the bar sells all liquids necessities at cheap, student friendly prices.

Tietgen has a number of sports related activities: Sports days, The Tietgen Olympics (celebrated each year on the dormitory anniversary) and Tietgen’s very own football team Club de Fútbol Tietgen.

The dormitory population is about 50/50 gender wise, ranging from 19-29 years of age, with the majority of students coming from The University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen Business School and Roskilde University Center. Students are allowed to stay 5 years.

Pricing

There are two main types of rooms, 1-person and 2-person, although the 2-person rooms can be rented by a single person (but not vice versa). Each type comes in a large-, small- and no-balcony version and the 1-person rooms also come in three different room sizes.

1-person rooms range from DKK 3019 – 3487 and 2-person rooms from DKK 4996 – 5230. All prices include high speed internet, but exclude water, heat and electricity fees.

[If you want to write an English-language review of your dorm write to uni-avis@adm.ku.dk and mark it ‘Dorms Disclosed’]

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