UNESCO architecture

 

An open-air exhibition of photographs on Kongens Nytorv in Copenhagen.

This is one of the events in the city to mark that, in 2023, Copenhagen is the UNESCO World Capital of of Architecture.

These are photographs, with information panels and maps, of World Heritage Sites in Denmark …… Roskilde Cathedral, Kronborg Castle, Stevns Klint, Jelling Monuments, Christiansfeld, the Wadden Sea and the Parforce hunting landscape in North Zealand.

UNESCO ARCHITECTURE
Kongens Nytorv
København K
1 July 2023 - 30 July 2023

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

 

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

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

Welcome back ….. Designmuseum Danmark is open

Designmuseum Danmark has been closed to the public for a major restoration of the building but reopened today.

When the pandemic struck, the design museum - like all public buildings in the city - had to close.

It has been said that around 90% of the income for the museum came from visitors to the city and that sudden stop to those tourists, and, as a consequence, to the revenue stream, had an immediate and dramatic impact.

For some time, it had been obvious, even to visitors, that the buildings needed some major work and a carefully-phased programme had already been prepared that meant shutting different galleries in a sequence of repair work that would have extended over many years. However, with the new situation, and with no certainly about when and how Coronavirus restrictions would end, a proposal was made to close the whole museum so that all the repairs and restoration work could be completed in a single campaign.

It seemed dramatic but, as things turned out, proved to be exactly the right call.

Perhaps the most obvious and most talked about work was to take up the distinct but distinctly uneven stone floor through all the ground-floor rooms to install a new under-floor heating system before laying a new floor. Every visitor must remember avoiding the cracks or looking round furtively as, shifting to look at something from a different angle, you made the display move or a case to rattle ..... or was that just me?

The new and highly-polished stone looks far too clean and shiny but I'm sure it will quickly wear in to a more subtle, matt finish.

For much of the last two years, looking through the railings, the whole building has been hidden under scaffold and major work has been completed on restoring decorative stone work, including the great pediment over the entrance, and the timber frames of windows and doors and the dormers have been repaired or replaced and repainted so the exterior, now free of the scaffolding, looks superb.

Inside, I was sorry to see that the timber blocks in the passageway through the east range have been replaced but I am sure that these too will settle in and gain some much-needed dust and wear.

In the galleries, walls have been patched or re-plastered and repainted but it is good to see that patina has been kept or recreated .... Danish house painters do amazingly perfect paintwork, even on old walls, but here the slightly uneven surface and the obvious build up and making good of paint layers does give a much softer and much more sympathetic background to the displays.

Some improvements are less obvious but again were crucial ... so large windows along the south side of the building have had secondary glazing added on the inside, and this appears to have special glass to take down the impact of UV so more natural light can be let into the galleries where, in the past, nearly all the windows were shuttered or covered.

In the great green courtyard, a large, temporary pavilion, built by Fritz Hansen for 3daysofdesign, is still at the centre but the lime trees have survived being at the centre of a building site and the grass is back and the lines marking the joins in the new turf are quickly growing over.

And the restaurant with seats and tables in the sun outside is back so all's right with the World.

Frederiks’ Hospital / Design Museum Danmark - the building

 

the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen opened on 1 May 1897

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

 

Rigsarkivet / State Archive by PLH Architects 2009

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

 

the green line continues through Nexus by Arkitema

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

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

 

the site of Carlsberg Brewery

When JC Jacobsen decided to build a new brewery outside the city, one reason would have been a need for more space to expand the business …. his first brewery was in a courtyard in Brolæggerstræde - close to Nytorv in the centre of Copenhagen - in a property that had been purchased by his father in 1826.

However, he must also have been concerned about finding a clean and consistent source of fresh water and for ways to discard the waste from the brewing process - not easy in the densely packed streets of the old city.

By 1847, Jacobsen had found what we would call now a greenfield site nearly 3 kilometres outside the city and built his new brewery there, alongside a new railway so, then, his next problem must surely have been finding men prepared to go that far out of the city to work. The story of Carlsberg is an important example that shows how Danish manufacturers moved production and labour from small urban workshops to new and rapidly expanding and rapidly developing factories outside the city.

read more

JC Jacobsen opened his new brewery in 1847 on an open site outside the city and alongside the new railway from Copenhagen to Roskilde that was finished that same year - detail from a map of 1860

update: a reprieve for Palads Teatret

Today, several newspapers and a couple of online architecture sites published the news that Palads - the cinema in Copenhagen close to Vesterport suburban railway station - has been given a reprieve and will not be demolished.

That means that two earlier schemes - one from Danish railways to build across the top of the railway trench and across the road and the Palads site and the second by the Bjarke Ingels Group BIG for a high tower on the Palads site - have been abandoned.

Nordisk Film Biografer, who own Palads Teatret, have just announced that COBE, the Copenhagen planning and architecture studio, have been appointed to draw up new plans for an extensive updating and refurbishment of the building.

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

 

Designmuseum Danmark set to reopen in June

Recent newsletters from Designmuseum Danmark have said that they will reopen in June.

With the onset of the pandemic, as all public buildings were closed, the decision was made to bring forward necessary repairs to the museum building to do in one single campaign what would, otherwise, have been done in stages with different parts of the building shutting for months or years before the workmen and the disruption moved on to another part.

As the pandemic stretched on and on, biting the bullet - going for complete closure and all the building work and repairs and the disruption all done with in one go - has proved to be absolutely the right decision.

Since the closure, display cabinets - added to the forecourt by Cobe in 2018 - have been used to show how the work on repairing stonework or relaying the marble floors of the galleries and so on has progressed.

The front of the museum is now swamped by more scaffolding so it looks as if there is still some major work that has to be finished before the front door is thrown open.

Designmuseum Danmark

still threatened with demolition?

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


”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

 
 

the Ministry of Culture

the south front of the Ministry of Culture from Thorvaldsens Museum on Slotsholmen

On 19 September 1961, Julius Bomholt was appointed to be the first Minister for Kulturelle Anliggender or Minister of Cultural Affairs so today marks the 60th anniversary of the establishment of a Danish Ministry of Culture.

In 1986, after the minister was given additional areas of responsibility, there was a change of name to Kultur - og kommunikationsminister or Minister of Culture and Communications and then in 1988 the title was shortened to Kulturminister or Minister for Culture

The current Kulturminister is Ane Halsboe-Jørgensen. 

As a relatively small country, Denmark has just 20 cabinet minister -including the post of statsminister or prime minister - and, by tradition, the minister for culture also has responsibility for religion and for sport.

Beyond the major departments of government such as Finance, Justice, Defence and Foreign Affairs, the remit of the various ministers and their formal titles reveals much about the priorities set by a government and how ministers divide responsibility.

Denmark has a minister for children and education, a minister for science, technology and higher education and a minister for industry, business and financial affairs - all with some significant overlaps with culture.

On 16 September 1963 - so two years after it was established - the Ministry of Culture moved into the present building after the completion of extensive restoration works guided by the architect Peter Koch.

Kultur ministeriet / Ministry of Culture

now, the Minister for Culture is responsible for .........

cultural heritage in Denmark including:
archaeology, ancient monuments and dikes
buildings and environments worthy of preservation
building conservation

castles and properties through The Palaces and Culture Agency:
castles and castle gardens
construction projects
operation, development and events

cultural institutions including:
libraries
folk high schools
organisations and bodies for the performing arts
zoological facilities

cultural cooperation:
for children and young people
international cooperation
cultural agreements with municipalities

media:
grants for media
radio and TV
written media

 

note:
In France the Ministère des Affaires culturelles or Ministery of Culture was created by Charles de Gaulle in 1959 and he appointed André Malraux - author of Museum without walls as the first minister.

Since 1959, there have been thirteen changes of name as the minister was given new areas of responsibility including the environment, communication and the celebration of the French bicentenary.

In the United Kingdom, the Labour government was, presumably, wary of the idea of 'culture' so Jennie Lee was appointed the first Minister of State for the Arts in 1964. She played an important part in setting up the Open University and she consolidated and strengthened the role of the Arts Council.

In the UK Ministers of Culture rarely stay in the post for long, many seeing responsibility for art and museums as a stepping stone to something more important, so there have been 28 different ministers in all since 1964. As in other countries, the formal title for the minister has changed to reflect additional responsibilities so to Secretary of State for National Heritage from April 1992; Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport from May 1997; Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport from 2010; Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport from 2012 and Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport since 2017.

In Italy ministerial responsibility for culture came under education until 1974 when the Ministero per i Beni Culturali ed Ambientali, the Ministry for Cultural Assets and Environments, was established. There have been 27 ministers since 1974 and the official title of the minister has changed several times, taking on responsibility for cultural heritage and activities in 1998 and then tourism but in 2021 the ministry reverted to the simpler title of Ministero della cultura.

In Germany, presumably with politicians still wary of being seen to promote culture as a strong aspect of national identity, administration for culture is at the level of the Länder rather than under a single minister in the national government. 


the building on Nybrogade and Det Kongelige Assistenshuset

After the fire that destroyed a large area of the city in 1728, the building on this plot at the corner of Gammel Strand and Nybrogade - owned by the wealthy State councillor Christen Bjerregaard - was rebuilt in brick around three sides of a courtyard with the fourth side, towards the canal, closed by a wall and a gateway.

Main rooms were on the north frontage, towards Snaregade, and in the east range and on the ground floor of the west range there was a carriage house.

The building was let to Minister CA von Berckentin from 1740 until 1755 when he moved to a mansion in Bredgade (the Odd Fellow Mansion) and the house on the canal was then sold to two French hat manufacturers who conducted their business from the basement and rented out the rest of the property.

In 1757 the house was sold to the Norwegian Maritime Administrations Kvæsthus and Assistenshus and rebuilt to designs by Philip de Lange - the most fashionable architect of the period - with the work completed in 1765

A range of new rooms was added across the side towards the canal, where there was previously a screen wall. The main feature of the new front to the canal is an ornately-decorated entrance to the courtyard through a central gate arch.

The building was given more prominence in 1857 when the Vejerhus - the Weighing House - and Accisehus or Customs House buildings, immediately to the east, were demolished.


Det Kongelige Assistenshus was a mortgage company established by a royal ordinance in 1688. The privilege was granted first to the merchant Nicolai Wesling and the assistenhus was Initially in a building he owned on Kvæsthusgade close to Nyhavn. On the death of Wesling the privilege passed to Diderik Frandsen Klevenow in Frederikborggade.

Following bankruptcy in the middle of the 18th century, Assistenshus, by then in Snaregade, became a royal institution and appears to have moved to this building at the corner of Nybrogade and Gammel Strand in the late 18th century.

Increasingly unprofitable, presumably because it was unable to compete with commercial banks, the institution was closed by the Folketning in 1974 and unredeemed mortgages were sold at auction.

Daguerretype by T Neubourgh from 1840 showing Gammel Strand with Assistenshus just visible on the left edge behind the
Vejerhus - the Weighing House - and Accisehus or Customs House -
the large building that looks like a warehouse with a yard with low buildings
and, in front with a hipped roof, Pramlaugets Hus - the Bargemens' Guild House
these buildings, at the west end of Gammel Strand were demolished in 1857
- Museum of Copenhagen archive 74210

Assistenshuus in 1902 - Museum of Copenhagen archive 64215

note:
For a detailed assessment of how the harbour at Gammel Strand developed through the medieval and early modern period see Gammel Strand Archaeological Report from Københavns Museum following the excavation of the site in 2014 that was undertaken before the construction of the new metro station at Gammel Strand.

 

Solutions at Royal Danish Academy

Architecture Design Conservation: graduate projects 2021

Shown here are 220 projects from the students in the schools of architecture, design and conservation who have graduated from the Royal Danish Academy in 2021.

This is an opportunity to see the work of the Academy schools, with their focus on the UN Sustainability goals, and these projects show clearly the ways in which teaching has taken onboard the challenge of climate change and the need to reassess our approach to materials for new developments and our approach to the increasing need to conserve or adapt existing buildings.

Here are the young architects and designers of the next generation whose designs for buildings and for furniture, industrial products, fashion and graphics will have to provide solutions to the new challenges.

As last year, the graduate projects can also be seen on line.

note:
after an initial opening in late June, the exhibition closed through July but then reopened on 2 August and can be seen daily from 10.00 to 17.00 through to 20 August 2021

Royal Danish Academy Architecture Design Conservation
Philip de Langes Allé 10
1435 Copenhagen K

Graduation 2021: SOLUTIONS
the exhibition on line

 
Solutions Grid.jpeg
 

Musikhuset København to use the old building of the Museum of Copenhagen

The future use of this fine 18th-century building on Vesterbrogade was uncertain after the Museum of Copenhagen moved from here to their present building on Stormgade south of the city hall.

Initially, the building was to be sold and then, after the reversal of that decision, there were rumours that the buildings would be restored and would become a centre for music.

It has just been announced that the recently-formed association Musikhuset København will be allowed to use the buildings for classical concerts and jazz before major restoration work starts in 2022.

the old Museum of Copenhagen

Musikhuset København

a new congress hall at the Bella Center in Copenhagen

Construction work on a new congress hall at the Bella Center in Copenhagen is almost complete and landscaping around the building and fitting out apear to be well in hand.

The congress hall, to be called Bella Arena, is immediately to the west of the existing buildings of the exhibition centre and will provide a vast open hall where, unbroken by columns or supports, there can be seating for up to 7,000 people.

Cladding on the building is a soft grey metal sheeting that is pierced and is in tall, narrow, concave sections that soften the mass of such a large building.

the new congress hall from the north with the glazed link to the existing exhibition halls

 

balcony blight has spread to Jægersborggade

With Coronavirus lockdown restrictions, it has been many months since I have been up to Jægersborggade but Saturday was sunny, and I needed some exercise, so I walked up to the lakes and then on along Nørrebrogade and through Assistens Kirkegård.

As soon as I got into Jægersborggade, opposite the north gate of the cemetery, I could see that construction work had started to add balconies to the front of several of the west-facing buildings.

This whole business of retrofitting older apartment buildings with new balconies has become a serious problem in the city.

read more

 
 

Bygningspræmiering / Copenhagen Building Awards 2021

Bygningspræmiering -The Copenhagen Building Award - was established in 1903 and, each year, is granted to buildings that have made an outstanding contributed to the 'physical framework' of the city and reflect the importance of good architecture in the life of the city.

It is important that these buildings reflect the special character of of the city and contribute to the quality of its built environment.

For the building awards there are four categories:

A: nybyggeri / new building
B: omdannelse / restoration
C: renovation of apartments in a building that had another purpose
D: bymiljø / urban environment

For 2021, the Committee assessing the award: 

Culture and Leisure Committee
Nicolai Bo Andersen and Rosa Siri Lund, experts appointed by the Academic Architects' Association
Lisa Sørensen, expert appointed by IDA / Ingeniørforeningen Danmark
Camilla van Deurs, City Architect, Technical and Environmental Administration
Mette Haugaard Jeppesen, architect, Technical and Environmental Administration

Here are the buildings and engineering projects that have been short listed for the award in 2021 and they show just how diverse the built environment of the city is and all would be more than worthy winners.

Until 20 April, the public can vote for a public winner through the web site of the City Kommune and the overall winners of Building Awards will be announced on 27 April 2021 

The Award-Winning City, Hans Helge Madsen and Otto Käszner
The Danish Architectural Press 2003

Bygningspræmiering
the public vote

 

Amager Bakke, Vindmøllevej 6, 2300 København S
architect: BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group
engineers: MOE

category: nybyggeri / new building

 

 

L1240577.jpg

Charlottetårnet / The Charlotte Tower, Hjørringgade 35, 2100 København Ø
architect: Lundgaard & Tranberg Arkitekter A/S
engineers: COWI A/S

category: nybyggeri / new building

 

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L1066590.JPG

Cityringen / Metro Inner Ring
architects: Arup
engineers: COWI Systra

category: nybyggeri / new building and bymiljø / urban environment

 

 

 

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Enghaveparken - Klimapark / Climate Park, Enghaveparken, 1761 København V
architects: TREDJE NATUR and Platant
engineer: COWI

category: bymiljø / urban environment


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Frihedsmuseet / The Freedom Museum, Churchillparken 6, 2100 København Ø
architects: Lundgaard & Tranberg Arkitekter
engineers: EKJ Rådgivende Ingeniører A/S, DEM Dansk and Energi Management A/S

category: nybyggeri / new building


Københavns Museum / Copenhagen Museum, Stormgade 18, 1555 København V 
architects:  Rørbæk og Møller Arkitekter A/S, LETH & GORI. Udstillingsarkitekt / exhibition architects: JAC studios
engineer: Hundsbæk & Henriksen A/S

category: omdannelse / restoration


Klostergårdens plejehjem og Seniorbofællesskabet Sankt Joseph /
The Cloister nursing home and the Seniour Community of Sankt Joseph,
Strandvejen 91, 2100 København Ø
architects: RUBOW arkitekter A/S
engineer: Sweco Danmark A/S

category: omdannelse / restoration








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Lille Langebro / Little Langebro, Vestervoldgade Langebrogade, København K
architects: Wilkinson Eyre Architects
engineer: Buro Happold Engineering

category: nybyggeri / new building

 

 

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Nørrebro Bibliotek / Nørrebro Library, Nørrebrogade 208, 2200 København N
architects: Keingart Space_Activators
engineer: Alfa Ingeniører A/S (For Ason Entreprenører)

category: omdannelse / restoration


Mozart House.JPG

image created using Google Earth

Træhus i Sydhavnen / Wooden House in Sydhavnen, HF Havebyen Mozart 74, 2450 København SV
architects: Peter Kjær
engineer: Ole Vanggaard, Tommi Haferbier

category:  nybyggeri / new building