ÅBEN Brewery / pihlmann architects

Built in 1932 as a modern(istic) large-scale butchery in Copenhagen’s meatpacking district, since 1991 it has hosted a range of commercial businesses, today becoming a food production facility 2.0. Located within the city, ÅBEN restores the industrial legacy of the building and turns it inside out by inviting the public into the brewing processes, consequently blurring the contemporary distinction between public and production. Originally, the space functioned as the chill hall, where 980 carcasses hung from a robust meat hanging rail system for 12 hours until the caloricity had left their bodies. The rails are still present, but the carcasses are replaced with steel vessels connected by kilometers of exposed piping.