Kulturhavn - the harbour festival

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This weekend it is Kulturhavn - the harbour festival of culture in Copenhagen - with events not just in the central harbour but over the eight kilometres from Nordhavn to Sydhavn and with everything from demonstrations of belly dancing to an oom-pah-pah band on a boat sailing around the canals to swimming and kayak competitions. 

This was celebrating diverse culture - in the broadest meaning of the word culture - so what has this to do with a design blog? Well, rather a lot.

For a start - with historic working boats and tall ships moored in the central harbour - you realise that here are all the key elements of good design … a clear pushing of the boundaries of what was then up-to-date technology; an appreciation of the best materials and the skills with tools and machinery to work them along with a strong sense of style … so here is a key part of the Danish design heritage. We might not have talked and written about Form and Function in design until the 20th century but we didn’t invent the concept.

 

 

 

The noise and bustle on Ofelia Plads - the recently rebuilt wharf by the national theatre - brought back some of the vitality of the docks when they were working with ships loading or unloading. New apartments along the harbour are fantastic and no one would have swum in the docks then - or at least not for leisure - but it was the working harbour that is the very reason that Copenhagen is here and why it thrived. It is great that some of the cranes and rail tracks and bollards, where the ships tied up, do survive but maybe not enough. 

So the festival is a reminder of just how vital the water way of the harbour is to the city and it is to the credit of the planners that since the navy and commercial shipping moved out in the 1990s they have done so much to not just reuse the buildings and develop the land but are trying to put the harbour very much at the centre of life in the city.

It really is an incredible resource.

 

view of what is now Ofelia Plads when it was a working wharf

the harbour cranes to the east of the Opera House

Papirøen - Paper Island

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Papirøen or Paper Island is at the centre of the harbour in Copenhagen, opposite the National Theatre, immediately south of the Opera House and north of Christianshavn.

The settlement of Christianshavn, with its houses and warehouses and canals, dates from the early part of the seventeenth century when land was first claimed from the sea in the relatively shallow water between the old city and the low-lying island of Amager.

For nearly a century, the area of water to the north of Christianshavn provided sheltered moorings for naval ships but a map of 1710 shows a wide arc of recently-constructed defences …. a line of bastions curving out and round towards the Kastellet - towards what is now Refshaleøen.  

In stages, over the following centuries, new islands were created within these defences, divided by canals or open areas of moorings, with boat yards and stores that were, initially, for the navy but then, through the late 19th and the 20th century, increasingly for commercial trade.

The distinct rectangular island, now known as Paper Island but officially Christiansholm, and an island immediately to its east - Arsenalholm - are shown on a map of 1749 much as now but then linked by a central bridge rather than the present bridge at the south end of the canal between the two islands.

In the 18th and 19th century there was a masting crane on the island and it also appears to have been used as the arrival point for naval officers rowed across from the main buildings of the navy close to Christiansborg.

In more recent, post-war years, there were large and grimly basic but relatively low concrete warehouses where newsprint was stored before being taken on to the printing shops of the newspapers in the city …. hence Papirøen, or Paper Island, as its popular name. After the warehouses were closed, the buildings have been used for under-cover car parking and, more recently, for a very popular home for street food and for the modern art gallery known as Copenhagen Contemporary.

In the 1990s, both the navy and commercial shipping were moved out of the central harbour and there is a fascinating account by Klaus Kastbjerg - about how he acquired the island - that was published in the catalogue for Our Urban Living Room - an exhibition at the Danish Architecture Centre last year about the work of the architectural firm COBE.

COBE have drawn up the master plan for the redevelopment of this prominent site at the centre of the harbour and construction work will start at the end of the year. 

Although not everything in the scheme has been finalised, drawings have been published over the last year or so that show a mixed development around a large courtyard or public garden with taller blocks of apartments but on the ground level there will be large halls that replicate, to some extent, the spaces of the warehouses that have become such a popular venue for Copenhagen Street Food and for Experimentarium - before they moved to new buildings in Hellerup - and now the gallery space of Copenhagen Contemporary.

The public walkway, on the quay around the island, will be retained but with steps down and timber terraces for getting to the water to swim or to get to moored boats.

The style of the new buildings has, to some extent, been inspired by the materials and the pitched roofs of historic warehouses and workshops along the harbour. However, three of the apartment buildings will rise up to 12 or so storeys and even the lower buildings will be much more prominent than the relatively low warehouses here now although they will slope back on the upper floors to give a tapered silhouette that should reduce their impact when seen from below and, if the colours and textures of the facing materials are not too stark, could add some focus and vertical interest to the skyline of the waterfront rather than simply dominating it.

Initial proposals are for a swimming pool at the north-west corner of the island and there should be public access to the courtyard.

Copenhagen Contemporary

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This independent art institute was established in 2015 and from June 2016 has occupied space in redundant warehouses on Papirøen - Paper Island - where paper for printing newspapers was stored. This will provide a venue for exhibiting art and installations and performance and light shows until the end of 2017 when work starts on new buildings here.

The gallery has a wine bar and a store and with evening opening and with the attraction of the food halls in the same warehouses this has become a very popular destination for tourists and for local people particularly since the completion last summer of the new bridge over the harbour.

There is a full programme of exhibitions and events through to the end of the year.

Artbar as a venue for meeting will continue through Cph Art Week from 26th August through to 2nd September.

Copenhagen Contemporary

King's Garden pavilion

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the King's Garden in 1784   

The temporary pavilion in the King's Garden in Copenhagen was opened officially yesterday, 18th August, and will now be used for events through the rest of the Summer and early Autumn.

In English architecture this type of roof truss is described as a "Queen Post" in part, I guess, because they are smaller than a "King Post" which is a single post immediately below the ridge or apex. Not that that makes any sense of the odd implication that there has to be two queen's for every king. It's also usual, except in a very very large roof, to have either two queens or one king. If carpenters did put in a king post flanked by queens then the queens often lean outwards and then are called queen struts.

Who knew the engineering of a roof could be such a minefield of social niceties?

Here there is no ridge piece but three long timbers or purlins on each side to space and support the 'common' rafters ... common here being nothing to do with their sense of taste or style but simply that there are a lot of them.

In the 17th century these gardens of the Rosenborg were enclosed and private, and then, as now, divided by avenues and walkways but with more of the spaces between laid out with planting and paths in geometric shapes. The aim was to delight and entertain the king and his court ... so the present pavilion also uses those ideas and those games with spaces and division to create different areas in each of the quadrants.

KRUPINSKI/KRUPINSKA ARKITEKTER

 

Allépavillonen in Kongens Have

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Work progressing on building the Allépavillonen in Kongens Have - the summer pavilion in the King's Garden in Copenhagen.

The pavilion - by the Swedish architects Krupinski / Krupinska - was the winning design in the annual competition by the Architects Association and will open from the 18th August.

Krupinski / Krupinska Arkitekter

TÅRN - a Knippelsbro guide

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For the reopening of the bridge tower, the team behind the restoration work have produced a combined guide and magazine. Narrower pages attached to the cover have a good selection of historic drawings, old photographs and information about the building of the bridge and its operation.

Inside is like a good art magazine with a selection of newspaper cuttings about the bridge and some interesting photographs of odd objects found as work on the restoration progressed but there is also a review of the art installation Between the Towers by Randi Jørgensen and Katrine Malinivsky at Arken; what appears to be a declaration of love for the Eiffel Tower; an essay about the symbolism of towers through time and much more.

Ofelia Plads Live

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This is the first full summer for events on the new public space on the harbour at Ofelia Plads in Copenhagen.

Ofelia Live

Jægersborg Water Tower by Dorte Mandrup

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In any major city, industries change or the way that utility services are provided have to adapt or are modernised and substantial and striking buildings can become redundant.

In Copenhagen many of these industrial buildings have been converted in an imaginative way to become housing or major gallery spaces for exhibitions or have become venues for concerts or theatre … buildings mentioned here recently include the former locomotive works that are now an exhibition hall - used for Finders Keepers and the installation by Hiroshi Sambuichi in The Cistern - an imaginative conversion of an underground water reservoir in Frederiksberg that is now a dramatic gallery space.

Many of the buildings are not just striking or unusual but are normally exceptionally robust - they were built well and built to last - and some were designed by well-established or well-known architects and engineers so, from that point of view alone, they merit being retained but in reality that means justifying the cost by finding new uses.

It seemed worth starting an occasional series of posts here about some of those buildings.

The water tower at Jægersborg is on a high point above the city - about 12 kilometres to the north of the city centre and close to the rail line and Jægersborg suburban station. Designed by Edvard Thomsen and completed in 1954, it has a large circular water tank supported on a complicated and tight arrangement of concrete columns with 12 outer columns and 6 inner columns forming an inner hexagonal pattern of cross beams. 

The initial scheme included a plan for apartments but it seems the idea was abandoned because of noise pollution.

An extensive remodelling of the tower by Dorte Mandrup Arkitekter was completed in 2006 to provide leisure facilities on the three lower levels and student housing above. Accommodation is in pods with bed-sitting rooms with large, full-height windows angled to make the most of the views and the sunlight.

industrial buildings on Refshaleøen and Prøvestenen

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view of Refshaleøen from the south - presumably from the 1950s before more land was claimed and the huge sheds were constructed to the east

 

Comparing maps of Copenhagen from the 18th century or the 19th century with modern maps, you can see just how much of the city is built on land claimed from the sea. These interventions with extensive engineering works started in the late 16th and the early 17th century as naval dockyards were constructed on either side of Borgen - the royal castle that is now the parliament building but was then an imposing fortified building on an island just off shore from the wharves of the town along Gammel Strand. 

Then, in the 1620s, Christianshavn was built up in the water between the castle and the island of Amager to the south - closing in almost 2 kilometres of the sea between the old city and the island - and the naval yards were moved to that side of the harbour … to the sea-ward side of Christianshavn. 

At first these naval facilities were little more than sheltered moorings that were enclosed and protected by outer defences but over the subsequent decades and in the next century islands were formed inside the defences and permanent buildings were constructed … many of which survive.

Commercial wharves and large buildings for industry and utilities - the first power stations, railway yards, gas works, pumping stations and sewage works of the city - were nearly all built on land claimed from the sea. The harbour below Langebro is still a wide and impressive channel of water but nowhere near as wide as the original bay before coal yards, a meat market and then a power station were all built on new land out from the natural shore line.

And this process - pushing the shore line outwards or constructing new islands - includes all of what is now Refshaleøen at the top north end of Amager.

Then, inevitably, over years or decades, an industry or the economy changes and even large companies fail or move on and away - in the case of the great concrete sheds for the Burmeister and Wain shipyards at Refshaleøen, they were in full use for only around 30 years - and then buildings fall into disuse or are demolished and the landscape becomes marginal … or what is now described as 'post industrial.' Refshaleøen is post industrial and has been in a sort of limbo for twenty years.

But surely there are good reasons that any city needs this sort of open space … a place for paint balling or go karts and boat yards and scrap yards? ... but, unfortunately, it's politicians who define marginal but developers who identity and define potential.

And Refshaleøen is only two or three kilometres from the centre of the city so it’s too valuable to be left marginal for long but, in terms of future use, the remaining buildings - the vestiges of the industry that was here - are pretty amazing and with a lot of imagination - and a fair bit of investment - they can be given new roles.

Just as long as it is not too sanitised. Scruffy and lively can be good. Surely the worthy citizens of Copenhagen need scruffy sometimes?

 
 

east Amager and Refshaleøen

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Copenhagen does not have a design quarter or design area so galleries, design stores, studios and workshops are spread over the city and out into the surrounding areas … in fact, with rising rents, few designers or makers can find a studio in the historic centre.

This means, of course, that for visitors, it takes quite a bit of work beforehand to plan a way to get to see as many people and places as possible. 

Public transport in the city is good and it’s always possible to hire a bike but, even so, some areas like the part of the city at the top of Amager - the area south of Christianshavn, around the green open space of Kløvermarken, and out to Refshaleøen - doesn’t look that accessible on maps although, ironically, everyone arriving in the city at the airport and taking the metro comes first to this area that starts just where the trains dive underground. 

But, starting out from the city centre, the harbour ferry and the 9A bus will get you out to the furthest parts. 

Over the last week or so all the posts here have been about buildings and galleries that are well worth visiting and places to eat or have a coffee in this area … scroll on down or use the links below the map.

 
 

Refshaleøen

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Burmeister and Wain was founded in the middle of the 19th century with a foundry and engine works in Christianshavn but they established a new shipyard at Refshaleøen in 1871 and by the 1930s there were 8,000 people employed in these yards.

The company survived the war and seem to have been very successful through the 1950s and 60s but struggled through the economic challenges of the 1980s and finally closed in 1996.

Since then, buildings have been demolished - air photographs of the area from the 1950s show just how many buildings, yards and docks and quays there were - but one prominent building survives - the looming concrete bulk of the Sektionshaller that can be seen as a clear landmark for visitors on the approach into the harbour - if they arrive by ferry or cruise liner - and the halls can be seen from most places on the inner harbour. That's hardly surprising as the main hall is 65 metres high, 165 metres long and about 60 metres wide. 

It was built around 1960 on land claimed from the sea and behind a long line of earlier welding sheds across the west end - the front of the building seen from the harbour - and with a massive dry dock to the east that is about 240 metres long and almost 40 metres wide.

This is now a venue for major concerts and events … the sheds and dock had their moment in a European spotlight when DR (Danish Radio) hosted the Eurovision Song Contest here in 2014 but the music most associated with Refshaleøen is a bit more … well … robust so coming up is Engage on 27th May, Distortion at the beginning of June and Copenhell on the 22nd and 23rd June.

Refshaleøen

the new NOMA

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There have been a few rumours and some drawings have been published for the new NOMA in Copenhagen … one persistent rumour being that Bjarke Ingels has been commissioned to design the new restaurant although that is still to be confirmed.

The new site is at the north end of Christianshavn Vold - an arc of water and redoubts that defended the harbour - and it can be reached by walking along Refshalevej from Christiania. The restaurant will look south across the water of Stadsgraven to Dyssen ... the long narrow strip of the outer defence and the only thing that stood between the good citizens of Copenhagen and the Dutch vegetable growers on Amager.

The site is overgrown and feels remote from the city, particularly when compared with the warehouse opposite Nyhavn that has been the home of the restaurant for the fourteen years since it opened. But then at first that building felt, if not remote, then at least a bit of a hike from the centre before the new inner harbour bridge opened last summer - so it is hardly surprising that NOMA did not stay in the old warehouse and hardly surprising that they chose a surprising site.

One web post, speculating about the work planned to convert the existing buildings on the site, described it as an elongated ‘søminendepot’ which I take to mean a store for sea mines … which could explain why there are very few buildings nearby. 

However, although it does feel remote, this is just a kilometre - as the sea gull flies - from the royal palace on the other side of the harbour so, when you leave the restaurant and turn out of the gateway, some months from now, there will be a clear view of the dome of the Marble Church.

 

from the entrance gate to the site of the new NOMA looking across the harbour to the Marble Church

TAP1

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With the major re-development of the Carlsberg area out to the west of the city, the events venue TAP1 had to move out and the huge industrial building they occupied has recently been demolished. No more concerts or trade events or Finders Keepers there.

However, the same team have found a new site on Amager - this time a former distillery - that is out to the east of Kløvermarken - the big open green space south of Christianshavn. The large, concrete-framed building runs parallel to the old coast railway and seems to have had high platforms all round for loading and unloading. 

It is planned that the construction work for the conversion is to be completed so that the first events in the new venue can be in the Autumn and, with a building over 165 metres long and around 40 metres wide, there will be space for two separate halls so presumably they are now planning a varied and full programme.

TAP1 Raffinadervej 10

 

Prismen

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On the walk across to look at the new Pelican storage building the light was good for taking photographs of the Prismen sports and culture centre that is just to the south - on the opposite side of Prags Boulevard.

Designed by Dorte Mandrup, the sports hall opened in 2006. 

This part of the city lacked sports facilities and the hall covers a large space for a variety of community activites and although its envelope of polycarbonate panels might look like an out-of-town shopping shed from the outside - the inside has amazing natural light and it feels more like a large public square that happens to be covered.

The shape and volume is deceptively simple so, although it looks like a large wedge, there is a complex relationship with buildings to the east with two traditional Copenhagen apartment buildings of U shape - both around three sides of a courtyard - and with a short street between them so the slope of the roof runs up to four high gable ends and the building closes off two courtyards and a short street. The plan is also a wedge shape that tapers in on the north and south side and forms interesting triangular public spaces towards Prags Boulevardand to Holmbladsgade to the south.

PRISMEN, Holmbladsgade 71

 

a new hotel and restaurant in the centre of Copenhagen

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Work is moving forward fast to convert a de-commissioned mid century electricity sub station in the centre of the city into a new restaurant and luxury hotel.

The massive concrete building on Bremerholm - opposite the Magasin department store - has a monumental facade of bronze slats that was designed by Hans Hansen from the city architects office and completed in 1963.

Acquired by the Kähler Group, the hotel will be called the Hotel Hermann K after the potter Hermann Kähler who established the ceramic factory in Næstved in 1839. The hotel will be part of the Brøchner group that includes SP34 and the Hotel Astoria at the central railway station.

A massive new doorway has been cut through the front and inside there is a high and dramatic entrance area.

journey to the pier’s end

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There is a light and sound installation on the recently completed public space of Ofelia Plads immediately north of the theatre and across the harbour from the opera house in Copenhagen. It is by the collective Obscura Vertigo with a soundtrack by the sound designer Peter Albrechtsen. Pulses of light respond to the movement of people as they walk along the pier through the line of forty triangles.

Continues until 5 March.

Our Urban Living Room

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The next few days are your last chance to see Our Urban Living Room, Learning from Copenhagen ... the exhibition at the Danish Architecture Centre about the work of COBE the Copenhagen architecture studio. It closes on the 12th January.

review

 

Our Urban Living Room,

Danish Architecture Centre, Strandgade, Copenhagen