new design & architecture - graduate projects at the Royal Academy

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Shown here are more than 250 projects by new graduates from Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi - the Royal Academy of Architecture, Design and Conservation.

Set out through three tightly-packed spaces, the exhibition is arranged around the framework of the many and specific study programmes for architecture and design at the academy.

Since 2016, the UN Sustainable Development Goals have been a focal point for research and events at the royal academy and in their teaching programme and it’s graduation projects.

NEW DESIGN & ARCHITECTURE
23 June - 17 August 2023
note: closed 10-30 July

Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi
Skoler for Arkitektur, Design og Konservering
Danneskiold-Samsøe Allé
1435 København K

Ufortalte Historier - om kvinder, kon og arkitektur i Danmark

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Ufortalte Historier - om kvinder, kon og arkitektur i Danmark
Untold Stories - on Women, Gender and Architecture in Denmark
Jannie Rosenberg Bendsen, Svava Riesto and Henriette Steiner
Strandberg Publishing
ISBN: 978-87-94102 67-4

Published 18 June 2023

A week or so ago, the Copenhagen publisher Strandberg sent me their press release for a new book on women in architecture in Denmark that was released today.

It covers the period from 1930 to 1980 that is generally recognised as the classic period for modern Danish design. Here the focus is on the architecture and the buildings linked with the emergence of the Danish welfare state and the key role played by women, working as architects and designers, in “creative collaborations that cut across genders and professional disciplines” and included the design of houses, major civic buildings, landscape architecture and urban planning.

The authors are part of an ongoing research project Women in Danish Architecture at the University of Copenhagen. Last summer they were part of the team that curated a major exhibition at the Danish Architecture Center on Women in Architecture in Denmark.

The book is published both in Danish and in an English edition for sale internationally.

Kvinder skaber rum / Women in architecture
at the Danish Architecture Center from 13 May 2022 to 23 October 2022

Strandberg Publishing

design festival June 2023

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In 2023, the annual design festival in Copenhagen - 3daysofdesign - runs through the 7th, 8th and 9th of June.

Exhibitions, launches for new designs, openings, talks and discussions … will be held in studios, design stores, exhibition venues, embassies and courtyards throughout the city.

Every year I try to emphasise just how important it is to plan your route around the city if you want to see as much as possible. This year there are just under 300 design companies, designers, design stores and museums and galleries participating and, just now, when I looked at the programme, there are 549 events listed.

For the first time this year - the tenth year for 3daysofdesign - there will be three official hubs for the festival …….. in the city it is in 25hours Hotel at Pilestræde 65, out on Refshaleøen the hub is Copenhagen Contemporary - Hal 6, Refshalevej 173A and down at Carlsberg Byen the events are centred around Mineralvandsfabrikken, Pasteursvej 20.

Around these hubs are 13 districts, each with a distinct logo, so events and openings are grouped together.

3daysofdesign
hubs & districts
programme

 

SPOR ... the work of Dorte Østergaard Jakobsen and Jacob Hilmer

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An exhibition at Officinet of works in acrylic and textiles by the designer Dorte Østergaard Jakobsen and metal panels by the architect Jacob Hilmer.

SPOR
Danske Kunsthåndværkere & Designere
Officinet, Bredgade 66, Copenhagen
19 May to 17 June 2023

Dorte Østergaard Jakobsen
Jacob Hilmer

update .... Statens Naturhistoriske Museum / National Museum of Natural History

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Today, I was walking back through Østre Anlæg - the park behind the Statens Museum for Kunst - the National Gallery of Art - and realised that the huge cranes that have loomed over the site of the new museum of natural history have been dismantled. 

Walking on, along Øster Farimagsgade, it is clear that the main structural work for vast new underground galleries is finished, in what was a massive excavation on the side of the old buildings towards the botanic gardens, and a new landscape is being laid out, over the galleries, for what will be a new public space.

The new National Museum of Natural History will bring together, as a single organisation, the Botanical Gardens, and the national Geological and Zoological Museums in a merger that was first announced back in 2004 and this building will provide not just extensive exhibition galleries but also space for the storage for a large natural-history collection, along with laboratories, teaching collections and facilities for major research.

There have been botanical gardens in the city since the 17th century which included the royal Hortus Medicus where plants were collected for study and for their use in making medicines.

The present gardens were laid out on the Østervold, or the eastern defences, after the city gates were demolished in the middle of the 19th century. The first new building was an observatory on the highest point of the area but the great green house - the Palm House - was completed in 1874 and the botanic garden opened to the public that year.

A Botanical Museum was completed in 1877.

Buildings at the north corner of the gardens, now being adapted to house the new museum of natural history, were completed in 1889 as a technical college or polytechnic for engineering .... first with chemical engineering in one range and physical engineering in the other and the professors in the back range of the courtyard.

As the college expanded, a new range was built in a similar style that extends along Øster Farimagsgade and provided teaching space and laboratories for the study of electrical engineering. All these buildings will now be part of the new museum.

A new main entrance will be from Øster Farimagsgade but there will also be an entrance from Solvgade with with a glass bridge taking the public through the upper part of a new Ocean Hall that is beneath the new dome in the entrance courtyard.

The architects for this major work are Lundgaard & Tranberg Arkitekter.

The buildings will be handed across to the museum this year and it will open to the public in 2025.

a new Natural History Museum …

Lundgaard & Tranberg Arkitekter

Natural History Museum of Denmark
Sølvtorvet, København

 

Botanisk Have .... historic buildings in and around the Botanical Gardens

①  Østervold Observatory 1861 by Christian Hansen (1803-1883)
②  Palm House 1872-1874 by Peter Christian Bønnecke
③ Botanisk Museum 1877 by H N Fussing (1838-1914)
④ Den Polytekniske Læreanstadt / Technical and Engineering College
1889 by Johan Daniel Herholdt (1818-1902)
⑤ Botanical Laboratory, Gothersgade 1890 by
Johan Daniel Herholdt (1818-1902)
⑥ Mineralogisk Museum 1893 by Hans Jørgen Holm (1835-1916)
⑦ Building for the department of electrical engineers 1906 by
Johan Emil Gnudtzmann (1837-1922) - a student of Herholdt

⑧ The King's Garden and the 17th-century Palace of Rosenborg
⑨ Statens Museum for Kunst 1889-1896 by Vilhelm Dahlerup (1836-1907)
and Georg E W Møller (1840-1897)
⑩ Nørreport railway and metro stations


Lundgaard & Tranberg Arkitekter

 

Papirøen / Paper Island

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from the north west looking across to the opera house
and to the new apartment buildings beyond

It's a year since I last posted about the new apartments under construction on Papirøen or Paper Island at the centre of the harbour in Copenhagen.

The main blocks are all up to their full height and, in the last couple of months, high cranes cross the site have been taken down so you can now see clearly the scale and the full impact of this large development. 

There are high, wedge-shaped blocks of different heights grouped around a courtyard and they are all faced in pale yellow brick with long sloping roofs but with slightly different arrangements of closely-spaced windows and balconies. There are also large slabs of concrete in place now for the cross walls of what appear to be a short row of houses on the north side of the island, facing towards the opera house, and a second row of seven houses across the south side of the island facing towards the canal and the inner harbour bridge. However, without their roofs or windows, it is still difficult to assess how these lower buildings will have an impact on the whole group although they should disguise and reduce the apparent height of the apartment blocks as they will appear from the level of the quay.

The elongated and tapered shapes of the individual buildings mask their overall height - the tallest block has twelve floors - and, to some extent, the sloping shape reduces the deep shadow that will be cast by the buildings.

There will be a swimming complex at the north-west corner of the island but little of the upper structure or the pyramid-shaped roof of that building is yet in place so, again, it is difficult to assess the visual impact on the harbour when the scheme is seen from the north, where the harbour, until now, has been dominated by the striking roof line and strong silhouette of the opera house.

Temporary, opaque-plastic sheeting over the phenomenal number of balconies has protected the interior from dirt and debris while the major construction has been completed but now, as the interiors are fitted out, much of this protection has been removed and it certainly gives a better impression of the final appearance of the blocks. The plain long slopes of pale brick had made the blocks look like narrow wedges of cheese stacked on end but the balconies are deep with what appear to be dark framing to the windows that are set back - the balconies are 'internal' rather than being cantilevered out - and these form a strong pattern of shadow and light across the slopes that relieves the otherwise massive but bland slopes.

Obviously, it is still difficult (and unfair) to judge the design at this stage - when it is still without the broad walks around the perimeter and still has a clutter of builders cabins and scaffolding and small cranes - but what is clear is that the massive scale of the development will have an impact on the harbour. The development looms over the important 18th-century buildings of the Arsenal to the east and the buildings are so tall that they can be seen from Knippelsbro to the south and from the quays as you approach the inner harbour bridge from that side and has a marked and not obviously good impact on the harbour when seen from the north. The buildings now close the view down the important open space of Sankt Annæ Plads, on the opposite side of the harbour, immediately north of the theatre, and can now be seen as the most distinct feature on the skyline rising above the trees when looking towards the city from the south from as far away as Kløvermarken.

COBE, the architects for the Papirøen development, in their own distinct but quiet way, are one of the most adventurous and most interesting architectural studios in the city and I find it difficult, normally, to be critical of their work. In a clever and well thought-through way, they challenge or push against conventions but generally stop short of being overtly controversial.

At Krøyers Plads, a development of apartment buildings just south of Papirøen, they helped Vilhelm Lauritzen, the main architects, negotiate a controversial scheme through difficult planning objections that had been mired in controversy for decades. Ironically, the apparent impasse was resolved by going for much lower buildings where high-rise towers had been proposed in earlier schemes. COBE completed a careful assessment of the streets and quays that form the wider setting of that development and went back to the silhouette and arrangement of historic warehouses along the harbour as their starting point for the design but then played with the forms and angles of roofs and the arrangement of balconies to produce an interesting and generally well-received development.

On Frederiksberg Allé, COBE designed a new apartment block over the new metro station that played with historical conventions to produce a very sophisticated design on a very sensitive site and, in complete contrast, at Orientkaj, their new metro station in brutal concrete is uncompromising but is appropriate as a homage to the earlier industrial forms of the buildings there when the area was once the dock of a busy container port.

However, here at Papirøen, on such a crucial site at the centre of the old harbour, just down from the opera house and immediately opposite the national theatre, when you get up onto such an important stage, you have to be completely sure of the value and quality of the scheme that will be there for fifty or a hundred or, probably, more years.

The popular food halls that were in the concrete warehouses here in the years immediately before building work started, are set to return, so the site could become well used again and the buildings, even unfinished as they are, looked good at night when they were illuminated for the Copenhagen Festival of Light but will that be enough to compensate for the obvious and justified criticism that this is a massive development that really should mark a nadir for the rampant exploitation and gentrification of the historic harbour.

new apartment buildings on Papirøen 2 March 2022

COBE on Papirøen

from the quay on the south side of the national theatre looking across the harbour to the west side of Papirøen

the south side of the new buildings from the quay at the east end of the inner harbour bridge

view from the north from the side of the canal opposite the opera house … the temporary cabins on the right are for the construction of an underground car park and a new park on the island between the opera house and Papirøen

from the south west with the buildings of the Arsenal in the foreground

from the quay on the city side of the harbour looking north towards the inner harbour bridge with the dark brick ranges of Krøyers Plads on the right (also by COBE) and the new apartment buildings of Papirøen beyond the bridge

from Lille Langebro looking north … from this distance the the new apartment buildings are tucked back on the right beyond Knippelsbro

Copenhagen UNESCO-UIA World Capital of Architecture 2023

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UNESCO has chosen Copenhagen to be the World Capital of Architecture for 2023 and today, at City Hall, a year of special events was launched officially.

The annual UIA World Congress of Architects will be held in the city in July when there will be 10,000 architects in the city.

There will be 16 pavilions around the city that will show experimental projects that explore the 15 Sustainable Development Goals.

City Hall has a web site with a programme for the city through the year and there is an official site for the Congress.


Copenhagen Kommune announcement
World Congress of Architects programme
The 15 SDG Pavilions

Kvinder skaber rum / Women in architecture - an exhibition at the Danish Architecture Center

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A major new exhibition about women architects, planners and designers in Denmark has just opened at the Danish Architecture Centre.

The title - Kvinder skaber rum or Women Create Space - was inspired by an extended essay by Virginia Woolf - "A Room of One's Own" - that was published in 1929. It was based on two public lectures where Woolf discussed free expression and stated that women have to be financially independent if they are to create anything of importance.

In the exhibition - where text is in both Danish and in English - an English title for the exhibition is given simply as Women in Architecture which seems to be much less nuanced than Kvinder skaber rum.

My Danish is poor but I believe rum, as used here, means both room specifically but also space and surely that should be understood as both the tangible space of an actual room but also space in the way we talk about giving people space to grow or space to develop.

So, designing and bringing to reality a room or a series of rooms is a basic and, some would say, the most obvious part of the work of any architect but here 'rum' as space implies that women have also had to create a physical space for themselves as architects - often by establishing their own independent studios.

The first section of the exhibition focuses on seven Danish architects whose work covers the period from 1925 to the end of the century and, generally, concentrates on one specific work or, at most, a few projects for each architect rather than attempting to explore a complete career. These major architects and designers are Ragna Grubb; Hanna Kjærholm; Ula Tafdrup; Grethe Meyer, Karen Clemmenson; Susanne Ussing and Anne Marie Rubin.

There are important interviews with current architects and, for a wider international context, installations by Tatiano Bilbao,, Siv Stangland and Débora Mesa.

read more / review

the opening section of the exhibition on the work of Ragna Grubb … the wallpaper reproduces the design for the restaurant in Kvindernes Bygning

Kvindernes Bygning from Arkitekten in 1939

 

the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen opened on 1 May 1897

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Today is the anniversary of the opening of the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek on 1 May 1897.

The gallery was built to house the art collection of Carl Jacobsen that included French and Danish paintings, sculpture and antique art.

Carl Christian Hillman Jacobsen, born in 1842, was the son of Jacob Christian Jacobsen who had founded the Carlsberg Brewery in 1847. Father and son seem to have had a less than easy relationship and in 1882 Carl Jacobsen opened his own brewery, the Ny Carlsberg brewery, on land adjacent to his fathers brewery.

Carl Jacbsen travelled widely - in part to look at brewing in other countries but also to buy art. His home was at the west end of his brewery, just outside the main gate. As the collection of art grew, he extended and remodelled the villa and in 1882 added a new Winter Garden and in that year opened his collection to the public for the first time.

By 1885 there were 19 galleries alongside the house with a separate and ornate entrance from the road. Fourteen of the galleries were designed by the architect Vilhelm Dahlerup and the last five galleries by the architect Hack Kampmann. Both architects designed major buildings for the brewery.

On 8 March 1888, Jacobsen donated his collection of art to the State and to the City of Copenhagen but with the condition that they provide a suitable building.

After the old gates of the city were dismantled in the 1850s, the defences, with bastions and outer water-filled ditches, had either been levelled or, on the north side of the city, they had formed the starting point for laying out new public parks with new galleries and new museums.

The last stages of the work were on the west side of the old city. The pleasure garden of Tivoli had been founded in 1843 and was then just beyond the defences. By the 1880s, plans were being drawn up to build a new city hall between Tivoli and the old hay market, that had been just inside the old west gate and, initially, Jacobsen hoped that the new gallery for his collection would be close to the new city hall but, in the end, he agreed that the gallery would be built on the site of a ravelin below Holcks Bastion and immediately south of Tivoli.

Visiting the Glyptotek now, with its prominent position on HC Andersens Boulevard, it is difficult to understand why Jacobsen had reservation but an early photograph of the building, taken in 1897 from the tower of a new fire station, shows the Glyptotek isolated and with a water-filled basin close by that was part of a timber yard extending out into the south harbour.

The first stage of the gallery was designed by Vilhelm Dahlerup with a grand entrance front and two wings to the back that framed an open courtyard. Jacobsen’s collection of Danish and French art from the 18th century was displayed in these new galleries.

Then, in January 1899, Jacobsen donated his collection of Antique art to the Glyptotek and the building was extended to the west with new galleries that were designed by Hack Kampmann and Vilhelm Dahlerup designed a Winter Garden in the courtyard that connected the two parts.

an introduction to the historic buildings of the Carlsberg Brewery April 2022

Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek

 

det grønne strøg / the green line - the high-level landscape of Kalvebod Brygge

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An ambitious plan to create a raised landscape at a high level between new buildings on the railway side of Kalvebod Brygge was set out in the local plan of 2006 where it was described as if it was to be a series of hills.

The first part of the gardens, at the north end - with a steep slope up from Bernstorffsgade, between the towers of the SEB offices, was completed in 2009 and the gardens were soon extended on across the roof of a new archive building and through to the Tivoli Hotel and Congress Center. Then the new developments stalled.

The west end of the landscape gardens, through the Nexus building, has just been planted but construction work on the middle section, across the roof of a new IKEA store, has only just restarted.

All these new buildings, that frame the gardens, are between Kalvebod Brygge and Carsten Niebuhrs Gade and, when finished, the high-level landscape will extend for over a kilometre from Bernstorffsgade to a new railway traffic control tower on Otto Busses Vej.

Lokalplan nr. 403 "Rigsarkivet" 2006

the landscape scheme starts at Bernstorffsgade at the SEB buildings
a winding concrete path climbs up a steep slope from the road with well established trees

this sequence of photographs shows the gardens from Bernstorffsgade to Arni Magnussons Gade and the bridges across to Hotel Cabinn

At the city-centre end, at Bernstorffsgade, the landscape starts at street level with pathways twisting from side to side to climb up between the SEB buildings to a point 7 metres above the level of the pavement.

There is then a wide bridge that crosses a service road for the State Archive and the gardens continues between the archive stores on the side towards the railway and a newly-revamped office building, now known as KB32, on the Kalvebod Brygge side. That straight section of garden, 190 metres long and 29.6 metres wide, is 8 metres above the pavement of Kalvebod Brygge.

Maintaining that level, there is a single narrow bridge over another service road before the gardens open out between the towers of the Tivoli Hotel and Conference Centre.

Beyond the Tivoli hotels, there is a slightly odd and over-complicated series of narrow bridges - with handrails that would grace a multi-storey car park - that cross a wider street called Arni Magnussons Gade. It is a dual carriageway that will be the access to a new bus station between Carsten Niebuhrs Gade and the railway.

Here, the landscaped area first forms the canopy over the entrance to the Hotel Cabinn before the garden then climbs up steeply between the two towers of the hotel where it now ends abruptly at a fence before the next section where work has just started on building a new IKEA store.

There, about 17 metres above the pavement of Kalvebod Brygge, the garden or "green lounge" on the roof of IKEA will be level and will cross over Dybbølsbro.

Then, between the two towers of Kaktustårnene or The Cactus Towers designed by Bjarke Ingels, the gardens will drop down at a very steep angle to the entrance level to the two blocks of the new Nexus building and then, between the those two office blocks, drop down again to end at the level of Carsten Niebuhrs Gade.

 

map from 2006 in Kalvebod Lokalplan 403 with the different stages of the development of this area from the SEB site at I through to the IKEA site at IV ….
then, the green line was only to extend as far as the area where Kaktustårnene are, beyond Dybbølsbro, but not the site of the railway control tower

①  Danske Banks Hovedsæde / headquarters for Danske Bank by Lundgaard & Tranberg - under construction
②  SEB Bank & Pensions by Lundgaard & Tranberg 2008-2011 and The City Dune by SLA design studio
③  Rigsarkivet / State Archive by PLH Arkitekter
④  KB32 by Vilhelm Lauritzen Architects and JJW ARKITEKTER completed in 2021
⑤  Tivoli Congress Centre by Kim Utzon 2009-2016
⑥  Hotel Cabinn 2019
⑦  IKEA store by Dorte Mandrup - under construction
⑧  Kaktustårnene / The Cactus Towers by Bjarke Ingels - under construction
⑨  Nexus for Energistryrelsen Trafikstyrelsen and Banedanmark by Arkitema 2014-2019
⑩  Trafiktårnet Øst / Railway control tower by Tranberg Arkitekter 2013-2015

A Bernstorffsgade B Carsten Niebuhrs Gade C Kalvebod Brygge D proposed bus station E Dybbølsbro F Fisketorvet G Metro station opens 2024

 

the gardens on the steep slope where they climb up between the towers of Hotel Cabinn

from the bridge over Arni Magnussons Gade, the gardens climb steeply up to a temporary fence where the gardens will continue on over the roof of a new IKEA store

 

details of the planting and concrete paths on the slope up from Bernstorffsgade between the two SEB buildings by the landscape designers SLA

Planting is well-established between the SEB buildings with a good selection of trees, many with decorative bark, and with some that have grown up through large holes in the prominent concrete canopies of the buildings. Narrow slots in the concrete path channel away rain water that is recycled for watering the trees and shrubs.

Across the roof of the archive, the design is more architectural with low planting and trellis that form a sequence of simple spaces with seating. The gardens help control the temperature and internal climate of the archive.

The section through the Tivoli Hotel has well-established shrubs and trees but the spaces could be better used. This is one area that might be treated like public squares and might even be used to host events. It would also be the one place, along the length of the gardens, that might benefit from a small coffee bar or cafe although, generally, the main character of the gardens is that it is quiet or peaceful ... when taking some of these photographs on a Sunday morning, only two people walked through and there were birds singing loudly in the trees.

The steep path up between the towers of Hotel Cabinn has no trees and although the low planting is good - with a variety of leaf types and shrubs - the plants could be in bolder groups, to create a stronger architectural character against the stark buildings, rather than being scattered. There are benches at intervals up the slope where you can take in the views.

At various points through the gardens there are views out between the buildings to the railway and Vesterbro on one side and through to the south harbour on the other.

There are drawings of the proposed garden on the roof of the IKEA store but it is difficult to imagine how the areas of planting will then drop down the steep slope between the Cactus Towers although Bjarke Ingels has produced planted areas at a similar steep angle on the 8 Building in Ørestad and at Copenhill on the roof of the Amager Bakke incinerator.

Where the garden drops down again between the two blocks of the Nexus building, new planting has established itself quickly and there is an interesting concrete rill or channel to take rain water down through the garden.

Back at the city end, when finished, new headquarters for Danske Bank on Bernstorffsgade immediately north of the SEB towers, will have broad flights of steps up between the buildings to a new terrace overlooking the railway and this will be connected to the main landscaping by a bridge over Carsten Niebuhrs Gade between the SEB building and the Archive.

When finished there will be public access for the full length of the high landscape and with steps up to the gardens at several intermediate points.

new steps up to the gardens with Tivoli Hotel to the left and Hotel Cabinn to the right and with the cross road Arni Magnussons Gade between the two hotels

 

the gardens on the roof over the IKEA store with the two Catus Towers beyond

the far end of the gardens where it drops down between the two blocks of the Nexus building with a view of the new railway control tower beyond

 

Rigsarkivet / State Archive by PLH Architects 2009

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A new store for the holdings of Rigsarkiv - the State Archive - was designed by PLH Architects and opened in 2009.

It was built across the back of the long concrete building of the Danish Railways freight building from the 1960s and was on the site of the train shed of the freight terminal building.

Externally the archive building reads as two parts - a flat-roofed section below and, in fact forming, the high-level landscaped garden and two large warehouse blocks in line with a gap between them on the back of the plot so along Carsten Niebuhrs Gade.

The street facade and the parts of the block visible above the garden are faced in yellow/grey bricks that is enlivened by a shallow but strong relief pattern that is inspired by runic lettering and is created by breaking forward courses of the brickwork by just 6 cm and the graphic effect is created by the shadow.

Inside the two tall blocks, there are enormous storage halls that are 15 metres high with racking that is 12 metres high. In total there are said to be 370 kilometres of shelving in the archive.

Windowless facades and the garden across the roof maintain the temperature and the microclimate of the storage facilities - crucial for the historic documents, books and maps stored here.

The courtyard between the two ranges is 190 metres long and just under 30 metres wide and the garden area is described by the architects as a green street although it is at the level of the second floor so 8 metres above the level of the pavement along Kalvebod Brygge.

The garden is open to the public with access from either the slope up between the buildings of the SEB offices to the north or from the upper garden of the Tivoli Conference Center and Hotels to the south and there is now also a new external staircase at the city end of the main office block that was added as part of the recent and extensive remodelling of the main freight terminal building along Kalvebod Brygge - now known as KB32.

PLH Architects
The National Archive

the two blocks of the archive store from Carsten Niebuhrs Gade

 

construction work has started for the new IKEA store in Copenhagen

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Work has started on the construction of a new IKEA store on Kalvebod Brygge in Copenhagen - the main road running out of the centre and heading to the south west along the north side of the harbour.

The project, designed by Dorte Mandrup, was put on hold by IKEA for well over a year but parts of the concrete frame and the upper floors are now in place so you can see that it will be a substantial building.

The store will have a large garden across the roof that will continue a raised and landscaped walkway, started over ten years ago. When finished, there will be areas of garden above street level for over a kilometre from the SEB bank building by Lundgaard & Tranberg Arkitektfirma at Bernstorffsgade through to the new Cactus building by Bjarke Ingels - beyond the IKEA building on the west side of the bridge from Dybbølsbro Station to Fisketorvet - and then on to the new railway control tower at Otto Busses Vej.

The roof over the IKEA store has been described as a green lounge and there will be good views from here over the railway lines to Vesterbro to the north and to the city to the east.

Tall and thin concrete columns will support the canopy or bridge taking the garden over the top of Dybbølsbro and this strong vertical emphasis is taken across the main front of the store - on the front towards the railway - and around the pavilions that rise above the garden level.

This is a challenging site between the new Hotel Cabinn to the east and Dybbølsbro to the west - the high-level bridge that crosses from Vesterbro and the suburban railway station to the north to the shopping centre of Fisketorvet and the harbour to the south.

The site is about 65 metres deep and 240 metres from east to west - from the hotel to the bridge with a high raised bank across the south side that is the retaining wall for an exit slipway from Kalvebod Brygge and, to the north, on the other side of Carsten Niebuhrs Gade, are the tracks of the railway running in and out of the main station.

Dorte Mandrup

note: south to the top

left - the west end of the new store
centre - the slip road down to Kalvebod Brygge across the south side of the site
right - down the slip road and the buildings between Kalvebod Brygge and the harbour

friends and former colleagues accuse me of being uncritical of everything and anything if it’s Danish so, to redress the balance, I bring them here to Kalvebod Brygge to show them that Danish architects and planners can get it wrong …. very very wrong

 
 

below - the proposed IKEA store from the north with the bridge from Dybbøsbro station on the right and the Cactus building by Bjarke Ingels on the right edge and Hotel Cabinn on the left.
in the foreground is Carsten Niebuhrs Gade - between the main railway line and the IKEA site - and with the new bus station that is proposed for the strip of land against the railway.
Fisketorvet, with its distinct concave entrance, is beyond and the new metro station will be at the south-west end of Fisketorvet so to the far right
beyond the harbour is Amager

 

a new bus station to be built on Carsten Niebuhrs Gade

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In March, Vejdirektoratet / the Danish Road Directorate, confirmed that a new terminal for long-distance buses will be built on the narrow strip of land between Carsten Niebuhrs Gade and the railway lines.

The land is about 500 metres long but only 20 or 25 metres deep from the edge of the road to the boundary fence of the railway so the buses will pull in and park at an angle.

The terminal will open in the Spring of 2023 and will replace bus stops closer to the main railway station that are along the pavement on Ingerslevsgade - the road on the inside curve of the railway tracks.

At Carsten Niebuhrs Gade, there will be 15 stands for buses with waiting facilities for passengers, including toilets and a kiosk, and there will be space for 200 bicycles to be left at the lower level and a lift up to the bridge to transfer to the suburban railway station at Dybbølsbro to the north or to a new metro station at the west end of Fisketorvet - the shopping centre to the south.

A report by the engineering consultants MOE from August 2019, showed details for traffic flow in and out of the bus terminal from Kalvebod Brygge with necessary road markings and lane markings at all the junctions. The bus terminal will deal with 195 buses a day and approximately 1.4 million passengers a year.

When completed, the terminal will be handed over to the city but will be run by the transport company Movia.

Vejdirektoratet
MOVIA

view along Carsten Niebuhrs Gade - looking east from under Dybbølsbro towards the new Hotel Cabinn.
the site for the new bus station and buildings along the railway are to the left and the site of the new IKEA store is to the right. The blank grey rectangle in front of the hotel is the end of the raised walkway waiting to be linked on to the garden across the roof of the IKEA store

Kalvebod Brygge to the top and the railway terrain to the bottom with Tivoli Congress Center, the bridges over Arni Magnussons Gade and Hotel Cabinn to the left and then the site where work on the new IKEA store has restarted and with the bridge from Dybbølsbro station to the Fisketorvet shopping centre on the right
the new bus station will be between the railway and Carsten Niebuhrs Gade

 

the green line continues through Nexus by Arkitema

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Nexus is a large, new building where there are offices for five public agencies … Rail Net Denmark, the Danish Transport Authority, the Danish Road Directorate, the Danish Building Authority and the Danish Energy Agency.

From the air view, you can see that there is a complicated, clover-leaf arrangement of four blocks and each with an atrium. From the streets around and from the central 'courtyard' this underlying arrangement is not so obvious.

There are tight, outward-facing open courtyard on both sides of the building …. so on the north side, towards the railway, there is a relatively narrow courtyard with a main entrance from the street level of Carl Niebuhrs Gade and, on the opposite side, towards Kalvebod Brygge, there is a comparable open courtyard that appears to be primarily a light well for what would otherwise be a large and deep block.

Judging by eye, the south block of the four, has two corners set at right angles - so just one side - the inner side - is set at an angle. Two blocks have a single corner each that is at a right angle - the north block with a 90 degree angle towards the small courtyard on its east side and the east block with one external right angle, towards Fisketorvet. The west block has no right angles so there appears to be a game going on here.

It's partly about how someone understands the relationships of the blocks from the outside as they approach the building and in part its about how the view out from the offices is guided by the angle of the external wall.

Some upper levels step back at each floor and change angle slightly so. again, it is about how the blocks are perceived and it hints, unlike a sheer wall, that the building is turning or twisting. The set backs are too small to make much difference to the shadow thrown by the building.

With the garden through the centre of the building, as part of the green line, the visitor is drawn in by the angles narrowing towards a main entrance to the offices at the upper level but also, from the entrance, the angles opening out beyond shows you the way out and on down.

This is a very sophisticated combination of angles, levels and landscape that control and direct how people see the building but also how they move around and into the building.

Inside, the atriums, staircases, wide public areas and views out to courtyards and so on all suggest a flexible work environment and is very much about people move around even during the working day. This is a stark contrast to 'modern' Danish office buildings of the 1950s and 1960s like Søllerød Town Hall by Arne Jacobsen where the over-riding arrangement in the office building is a spine corridor with single-cell work spaces on either side and that is repeated on each floor.

The landscape of Det Grønne Strøg - the green line - runs through the centre of the building and reads as a steeply sloping green canyon that is quite enclosed with bridges across at upper levels

Workers and visitors coming from either Dybbølsbro and the suburban train station or by bike over the cycle bridge, coming from Islands Brygge, arrive at the top of the green street on the north side and there is a main entrance there but with views down the green landscape that drops down a series of zig-zag concrete paths with a concrete rill that will take rain water down alongside the path.

Through the length of the green line, a key part of the design is that all rain water is captured and reused for the plants and trees.

New planting is attractive but, until it becomes more established, it is difficult to judge but there is a good view down from the top to the new railway control tower beyond.

Arkitema - Nexus

 

from the air, the grouping of four blocks forms a clover-leaf arrangement with few right angles
the railway is to the North and Kalvebod Brygge and its slip roads to the south
the Cactus Towers are to the north-east and, when completed, Det Grønne Strøg or the Green Line will cross from the roof of the IKEA store - now under construction - and drop down a steep slope before continuing on through the Nexus building to the landscape around the new railway control tower

the SEB towers at the corner of Bernstorffsgade and Kalvebod Brygge were finished in 2011 and this was the first part of the green line completed … it’s where the landscape rises up a steep slope from pavement level to continue across the roof of the archive building
it is obvious that over a decade later, economic imperatives now determine the amount of land that is built on and the area of public space at Nexus is as tight as possible
in the initial Lokalplan of 2006, the Nexus site was set aside to be a park free of buildings but now open land in the city is seen as too valuable to be left fallow

 
 
 

the original scheme for the south or outer end of Det Grønne Strøg - the Green Line - was set out in a Lokalplan
then, what is now the Nexus site, immediately before the circular railway control tower, was to be left open as a park without any buildings
note that all the buildings were to have a dynamic and twisting outline with all upper floors setting back and the angle changing to reduce the oppressive outline of a tall block with sheer sides and to reduce shadow and reduce the impression of height from below
the two blocks set on either side of the green line on the left or south side of Dybbølsbro - labelled F and G - is the site of the two Cactus Towers by BIG that are now close to completion

 

Trafiktårnet Øst / Traffic Tower East by Tranberg Arkitekter

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This is where the raised landscaped gardens of Det Grønne Strøg / The Green Line - drops back down to pavement level.

Det Grønne Strøg starts at the SEB towers over a kilometre away at Bernstorffsgade where a path winds up between two office buildings by Lundgaard & Tranberg and with the steep slope planted with trees.

That section of the landscape climbs up to 7 metres above the pavement and was completed in 2009 so the whole scheme has taken well over a decade to complete. In fact, the idea was conceived in 2006 in the local plan for the development of this area of office buildings and hotels along Kalvebod Brygge and there is still a large break in the middle where work has only just started on building a new IKEA store. That is where the garden will be across the roof of the store at the highest point of the green line.

The Traffic Tower is set on a grass mound and, at the outer edge, the landscape is raised just above pavement level with the garden area retained by Corten steel.

The tower is a regional control centre for Danish Railways and is built in dark brick … a reference to the extensive number of railways buildings and stations from the late 19th and the early 20th century that were generally in brick.

Using a brick that is almost mauve but with some bricks that are deep rust in colour gives the brickwork a texture and colour range without which a building of this size would look oppressive.

The brickwork is relieved by small, blind, recessed panels but the brick also continues across the windows as open grids that give the tower a more uniform look that emphasises the cylindrical shape and a gives a strong sense of security. These open grids of brick throw an attractive, broken or dappled light across the rooms behind.

The tower rises through nine floors with a double-height control room with balconies and with a high parapet that shields an open area of roof terrace used by staff and visitors.

Inside, the interior is light, mostly white, in contrast to the fortress-like exterior, but with areas of wood slats for acoustic control. There is an atrium that rises up through all nine floors and a dramatic spiral staircase through the full height.

The sculptor Henrik Plenge Jakobsen has created a bronze and steel African mask to the left of the entrance and designed a striking, geometric, tiled floor in the atrium, at the level of the entrance, that continues through into the canteen.

There is a second but smaller version of the tower - with five stories - in Fredericia.

Tranberg Arkitekter
Trafiktårnet Øst, København
Trafiktårnet Vest, Fredericia
Henrik Plenge Jakobsen

Traffic Tower East from the corner of Carsten Niebuhrs Gade and Otto Busses Vej

the garden is higher than the pavement on the north-west and south-west sides of the plot and the ground is retained by Corten creating a barrier between the street and the area of shrubs and trees.
the colour of the steel is a subtle contrast with the brickwork - that has rust-coloured bricks along with mauve - and the raw material is appropriate on what is, after all, an industrial site

 

plan of the Kalvebod Brygge high landscape with the Traffic Control Tower to the left and the SEB buildings at the right end
from the Local Plan 485 2016

Det Grønne Strøg

 

the landscape of Det Grønne Strøg starts over a kilometre away from the control tower and, when completed, will run from Bernstorffsgade to Otto Busses Vej.

Lokalplan 485 2016

the small, recessed panels act as a subtle version of string courses in 18th-century architecture by forming a horizontal band that indicates the floor levels and breaks what would otherwise be unbroken vertical emphasis

the large windows of the canteen are treated in a slightly different way with a broken and irregular grid of bricks

bronze mask to the left of the entrance by Henrik Plenge Jakobsen

 

The railway control tower is 42 metres high and it raises some interesting points about just how high buildings in the city should be and when and why high buildings should or should not be given planning consent.

Curiously, to me the control tower looks taller than its width but, in fact, the diameter is the same as the height so that would suggest that possibly we see and we are aware of height more acutely than width.

There is a fantastic free-hand sketch of an early concept on the architects online site but the idea of a simple cylinder set within a cube suggests that there is a strong geometric framework for the realisation of that idea.

When the green line of a raised landscape through the new buildings along Kalvebode Brygge was first proposed in the Lokalplan of 2006, there was a height restraint or glass ceiling of 36 metres for all the buildings although that was soon increased to a height limit for new buildings of 40 metres .... so very close to the height of the control tower.

Presumably, because this land was on former railway sidings, so potentially polluted, and partly because of the position, close to the city centre but between a busy road and the main railway into the city, this was designated to be a business district rather than being zoned for housing or recreation but the aim was to ….

‘create an urban business area that appears green and natural’ ...
‘The green line must clearly appear as the areas "lifeblood" and must clearly make visible the whole underlying idea.’

Basically, the green landscape was to be the key element of the area that should be visible and obvious.

However, by 2011, a new Lokalplan had increased the limit on the height of the buildings to 47 metres but the suggestion was still that upper floors should be set back in a series of steps to reduce the visual impact, when seen from below, and to control the amount of shadow thrown across the area and across nearby buildings. It is also obvious that the buildings as realised are larger in terms of footprint than those suggested in the Lokalplan. In realisation, the planted area of the landscape was reduced in area.

The Hotel Cabinn is 32 metres high and the IKEA store will be 26 metres high but several of the buildings along the Kalvebod development have broken through those original height restrictions.

The Tivoli Congress Center is 48 metres high and the two round towers of Kaktustårnene by Bjarke Ingels - now being fitted out and due to open soon - are 60 metres and 80 metres high and the Post Towers, on the site of the old post office buildings at Bernstorffsgade - immediately north of the start of the green line and to be completed by 2027 - will be 67 metres, 93 metres and 115 metres high.

a high-rise tower building not just throws shadows across nearby streets but often disrupts the street pattern of historic areas but it can also have a huge and detrimental impact on views from and along historic streets

Vesterbro is a densely built residential area with apartment buildings that date generally from around 1900
the towers of the new Carlsberg development can be seen as the focal point of many streets and not in a good way
the railway control tower is on the far side of the railway tracks and , because of its relatively modest height - if you call 42 metres modest - it does not loom over the streets that look towards it and the restrained colour of the brickwork reduces the impact
this is the view of the tower from Vesterbro down Arkonagade

 

new apartment buildings on Papirøen at the centre of the inner harbour

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On Papirøen - Paper Island - the new apartment buildings designed by COBE are now rising rapidly and beginning to dominate the inner harbour.

The square island is in a prominent position opposite the entrance into Nyhavn from the inner harbour and opposite Skuespilhuset - the national theatre - and  just north of the inner harbour bridge and just south of the opera house and the new opera park that was also designed by COBE.

The recent growth spurt of the construction work on the apartments is easy to understand. Massive excavations, for foundations and piling to support the new buildings, seemed to take a very long time but now, having reached the level of the quay, it has simply been a matter of bringing in all the slabs of concrete and the ready-formed balconies and the facing panels of fawn brick and lifting them into place.

It's the ubiquitous method for building now ....
drop off and slot in building.

But now most of the blocks are close to their final height, you get a sense of just how much this massive development will dominate this part of the harbour.

The distinct tapered silhouette with, what are in effect, abnormally extended roof slopes, cannot disguise the fact that the main block, set above a very high main floor, rises to the equivalent of 12 floors and on the east side, the side away from the harbour, the new buildings now swamp the 18th-century naval buildings of the Arsenal and the mast sheds beyond.

It is now even more difficult to appreciate the overall scale and the importance of the naval buildings that, over a distance of more than 700 metres, would have formed such an impressive backdrop to the vast area of open water where, through the 18th century, the great Danish naval fleet was anchored.

What is now called Papirøen actually had a second mast crane on the west side, towards the city, but otherwise seems to have been relatively open and was where naval officers arrived as they came by boat to join their ships ... coming over from the administrative buildings of the navy and the main ship yards that were then north of the royal castle in the area of the city between Holmens Kirke and Nyhavn.

the 18th-century warehouse of Nordatlens Brygge from the south west with the development of Kroyers Plads, also by COBE, to the right and the site of the Papirøen development to the north of the warehouse to the left of this view

COBE, on their web site, imply that the main inspiration for the new buildings came from looking at the old warehouses along the harbour although the new blocks have none of the dignified and restrained grandeur of, for instance, Nordatlantens Brygge just to the south of the Papirøen site and the very deep balconies framed by concrete uprights and the slightly odd shifting across of the position of windows and balconies on alternate floors across the south side - to create a slightly restless chequerboard effect - are closer in visual effect to the large development on Dronningens Tværgade from around 1950 that were designed  by Kay Fisker. Certainly not a bad model but possibly not a good one as Fisker was clearly and openly proud of his tall blocks whereas the Papirøen blocks are trying to disguise their height and, to some extent, must be trying to mitigate the shadows these very large buildings will throw across surrounding properties and across the courtyard at the centre of the development. 

the new apartments looking across the harbour from Skuespilhuset - from the board walk of the national theatre - two views from the Holmen side of the harbour - from the north east and from the south east - and the development from the south west - from the inner harbour bridge with the opera house beyond

the west side of the devlopment with the opera house beyond and (below) the apartments at Dronningens Tværgade by Kaj Fisker

the south side of the new apartments (above) and the north side of the square at Dronningens Tværgade by Kaj Fisker (below)

Newspaper printing works in the city stored their paper in the post-war concrete warehouses here - hence the popular name of the island- but after the warehouses closed, the buildings were used for car parks, for temporary gallery spaces - Copenhagen Contemporary, now out at Refshaleøen, started life here - and &Tradition had their first store out here and the COBE studio themselves had studio space in the warehouses.

But the main use for the concrete buildings on the side towards the harbour was for an incredibly popular food hall that thrived despite being in a slightly awkward place ... it was quite a long walk to get here before Inderhavnsbroen - the inner harbour bridge - was finished.

The food halls are set to return to the island - to the spaces on the ground floor - but these apartments will be some of the most expensive in the city so it will be interesting to see if they can coexist happily as neighbours.

It's probably unfair to criticise the building while so much is unfinished and a wide board walk around the buildings and a new swimming pool complex at the north-west corner will contribute much to this part of the city ... but visually I'm not sure the reality will match the romanticised and possibly over optimistic CAD drawings for the scheme. I’m always suspicious about proposals for buildings that are shown to look amazing in the dusk or in the dark.

Cobe on Paper Island

Papirøen - Paper Island from the inner harbour bridge in August 2017 (left)

the paper warehouses on the island were not attractive and certainly not in such a prominent position but, with the opening of the gallery space occupied by Copenhagen Contemporary and with the incredibly popular food hall that opened here, there was a vitality that will be hard to replicate once the expensive apartments are occupied

 
 

still threatened with demolition?

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the Palads cinema building alongside the railway trench at Vesterport suburban rail station (above) and proposal from BIG for the Palads site (below)

With the pandemic hanging over the city, much of day-to-day life seems to have been put on hold although building work - particularly on the site of the old Carlsberg brewery on the west side of the city - seems to have continued.

Decisions about two very different buildings appear to have been suspended but for very different reasons.

The first is the Palads cinema, close to Vesterport suburban railway station and alongside the railway trench. It dates from the early 20th century although it is probably best known for it's bright colours when the exterior was painted in 1989 in a scheme by Poul Gernes in dark pastels but primarily in pinks and deep sky blue.

The building itself has been altered extensively over the years, so cannot claim to be of great architectural significance so there have been two applications to demolish with two separate schemes for redevelopment of this prime site - one with the railway trench built over and with a large group of towers, including a new hotel, and the other scheme by BIG - the Bjarke Ingels Group - with a cinema below ground and with a huge glass tower of offices and apartments above that would be as high as the SAS Royal Hotel nearby.

Both schemes mean the total demolition the existing building in order to develop the whole site but both seem to have underestimated just how many people in the city feel that the present cinema should be kept. They have fond and happy memories of coming to the cinema and restaurants here that, for many, go back decades and, for some, back through several generations.

The second building that is, apparently, awaiting a final decision about its survival, is very different.

It is an apartment tower on Amager that is immediately north of the south campus of the university and is part of a large development by the Bach Group.

Before work was completed, it was discovered that there were serious problems with the concrete of the foundations and then suggestions that there were also problems with the concrete structure above ground.

The developers have claimed that the concrete can be reinforced but since then there have been no further reports in the newspapers so, presumably, a final decision - to demolish or to reinforce the tower and complete the fitting out - is still to be resolved.

is the redevelopment of Vesterport still on track?
another scheme for the cinema site

update:
22 March 2022. An article yesterday, on the Byrummonitor site, stated that the sale of the tower to a large Swedish property group has been cancelled by mutual agreement. The article also said that remedial work on the foundations of the tower were completed last year.

 

Njals Tårn from the west

Bo bedre bæredytigt / Living Better Lives

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”Lad Os” (Let’s) - the Vandkunsten Manifesto

Lad os bo mindre og bedre!
    Let's live smaller and better!

Lad os dele mere!
    Let's share more!

Lad naturen flytte ind!
    Let nature move in!

Lad os gøre det selv, sammen!
    Let's DIY, together!

Lad det være og se skønheden!
    Let it be and enjoy its beauty!

This is an important exhibition to celebrates the 50th anniversary of the architectural studio Vandkunsten. It looks at some of their major projects from those decades - but also asks crucial questions about how we can construct more sustainable buildings in the future by using materials in new ways or by giving old materials a second life.

The architects and designers from Vandkunsten have built their reputation on coming at problems with a less conventional approach and here they not only propose a “manifesto” for the design of homes but also suggest that, in the future, homes have to be smaller - much smaller: we should share facilities with our neighbours with the trade off that there would be to more communal areas but less private space.

Here, a home built at the the centre of the exhibition has a floor area of just 37 square metres that is not a holiday home or a temporary home but what could be a model for permanent living space for two or three people.

Recently, it has been suggested that building standards for homes in Copenhagen should be modified - for modified read downgraded - but is that really the only or the right way forward?

Living Better Lives is an opportunity to consider the implications of having less space and to think about alternative ways of building when most of us do accept that the way we live really does have to be sustainable.

Bo bedre bæredygtigt / Living Better Lives
20 November 2021 - 18 April 2022
Dansk Arkitektur Center / Danish Architecture Center
Bryghuspladsen 10, 1473 København K

Vandkunsten

 
 

70% LESS CO2 - Conversion to a Viable Age

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An important exhibition has just opened at the Royal Academy schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation.

Students and teaching departments were asked to submit their projects for inclusion and 31 were chosen for the exhibition to illustrate how new ideas, new materials and new methods of construction or manufacturing will help to reduce global emissions of CO2 by at least 70%.

Significant levels of CO2 are produced by the fashion industries from the production of the raw materials through manufacturing and through high levels of waste and around 10% of the global emissions of CO2 are from the ubiquitous use of concrete in all forms of construction so several projects here suggest major changes to what we make and build and how we use materials.

But there are also projects on using new materials from algae, lichen and mycelium and even one project that uses pine needles for insulation.

There are short assessments of all the projects on the academy site.

70% LESS CO2
Det Kongelige Akademi
Arketektur Design Konservering
Danneskiold-Samsøes Allé 53, København K
7 October 2021 - 14 January 2022