The Danish Foundation for Culture and Sports Facilities

The mission of The Danish Foundation for Culture and Sports Facilities is to develop and support construction in the field of sport, culture and leisure.

It is the aim to contribute to the innovation of the physical framework. The task is to move the focus away from the conventional approach based on standardised facilities towards an approach which to a much greater extent is based on the actual development in people’s physical and cultural activities as well as on architectural and aesthetic parameters.

Innovation in relation to the design and planning of culture and sports facilities is rooted in changes and new patterns in everyday life, and the challenge is to combine the best of tradition with the new trends of cultural and social habits.

Especially the world of sport and physical culture is changing concerning the pattern of participation and activities. Over the last forty years there has been a radical change in the proportion of the population who are actively engaged in sports, the total number has almost quadrupled. Women are now just as active as men, and people continue to be active even in old age. While sport was previously mainly for children and young people, adults now constitute an age group very actively engaged in sports. A lot of new types of activities have entered the scene and play a dominant role.

Today the world of sports is characterised by differentiation, niche cultures, improvisation and constant change. The sports scene is becoming increasingly complex, the result being that innovative solutions are demanded to meet the new cultural diversity. Similar trends have been observed in other European countries as well.

Since 1994 The Foundation has been working in this area of renewing the concepts of sports and cultural facilities:

The Foundation manages public venture capital corresponding to an annual amount of 10 million euro and acts as an independent expert council under the Ministry of Culture. 

To sum up, grants are based on these criteria:

Creativity in function and activity.

Innovative architectural design.

Aesthetical and ecological qualities.

Multi-functionality of building complexes.

Cultural integration of various activities.

Local engagement and user dialogue.

Non commercial purpose.