Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon spoke, as did the crown princess of Denmark, but at a grand opening for the renovated Trusteeship Council Chamber at the United Nations headquarters in New York on Thursday morning, all eyes were on the ceiling. Danish master Finn Juhl designed the meeting hall with Lego-like metal boxes hanging overhead. They conceal the chamber’s lighting and ventilation systems behind brightly colored panels that interrupt the spindles in a series of wooden frames.
Designed when Juhl was only in his late 30s and opened in 1952, the ceiling and wall panels were taken down and restored during the renovation. The update also added seating to accommodate large meetings—the space can now host more than 600 people. The Danish Heritage Agency oversaw the project, and design firm Salto & Sigsgaard won a competition to introduce their own contemporary furniture to the chamber. “We wanted to show what we’re doing now,” says Kasper Salto, “while blending in like a fish in water with Juhl's work.”
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