notes, reviews and photographs about current design, design shops, cafes and restaurants and exhibitions and galleries in Copenhagen
news, notes, photographs and thoughts about design, architecture, planning and townscape and exhibitions in Copenhagen
If you are heading out to Refshaleøen on a Saturday afternoon, then how about sauntering along the canal. This was Design Werck today and, as far as I can gather, most Saturday afternoons. A pretty civilised way to spend a few hours on a sunny afternoon - the front of the gallery faces west and sitting here you look across the canal to Nyholm.
This has to be one of the the biggest flea markets for mid-century furniture in Denmark.
In a huge hangar out on Refhaleøen and just across from Copenhagen Contemporary, there are traders and dealers here with a phenomenal stock of furniture and lighting and ornaments and tableware. Most is from the mid 20th century and is what my parents at the time called “contemporary design”.
There are classic pieces of furniture by the acknowledged names but there is also plenty of good furniture of the period, made by all those Danish furniture factories and sold by all those ordinary furniture shops where ordinary people bought good furniture.
It was an interesting mix of customers from students and young couples looking for a bargain to well healed older couples reminiscing ….. remembering when they or their parents “had one of those” or something “just like that”.
This is the place to see just how much the way we live has changed … how many people buy a full set of six or eight matching dining chairs now? And why are there so many chests of drawers? It’s one of the most useful pieces of storage furniture invented. Sadly too many book cases … there is a steady stream of posts and newspaper articles about people still buying books but the number of bookcases here suggest that might be wishful thinking. That, or people vertical floor stack.
the set of six three-legged chairs on an upper shelf are the Heart Chair from Fritz Hansen designed by Hans Wegner in 1952. Wegner experimented with several designs for small chairs that pushed in tightly under a table for a small apartment. Perhaps the ultimate design using three legs and a triangular seat with a round table is the design by Hans Olsen - shown here wth an Egg Chair balanced on the top. Olsen, like Wegner, studied under Kaare Klint. Note how the frame over each leg of the table and the chair back rests form a continuous line. The chair bottom left is the Sawbuck by Wegner from 1951.
The four sections of the new cycle and pedestrian bridge have arrived from the Netherlands on a gigantic barge and are being lifted into place … the work started yesterday and it looks as if all the sections will be in place today.
These photographs show what will be the first fixed section from the city side as it was taken off the barge by a huge floating crane and swung across the harbour and lowered into place to be guided down by engineers on the quayside by BLOX and engineers in two small boats by the pier in the harbour. The sections in place, in the photographs, are the first section from the Amager side and the part that swings open on the the city side - general views are photographed here from Langebro.
The bridge will be completed by late summer and then the opening and closing of the swing sections will be controlled from the bridge house on the existing road bridge.
I hate to admit this, and it really does seem like a cliché, but, as a Brit abroad, when I can't sleep, I listen to BBC World Service. That's how, in the early hours, I caught a trailer for "My Perfect City" and then tuned in later to listen to the first in this new series that started today 3 March and will run for six programmes.
The idea is interesting … if you look at cities that seem to offer solutions to what are world-wide problem of managing rapid and, apparently, inevitable urban growth and, even if few of these cities are perfect, some ideas and some policies in some cities can stimulate a discussion about what a composite city - what a perfect city - might be like.
The first programme looked at The green city: San Francisco, USA.
Fronted by Fi Glover and with Dr Ellie Cosgrave and Greg Clark as the experts, the first part of the programme was very positive - about the success of the transit system in the city and the ways the city deals with waste … including the example of Bi-Rite food markets where they have a kitchen at the heart of the food market that uses deformed or damaged food or food close to a sell-by date that would otherwise go into the waste system.
San Francisco has a population of 885,000 - so in a good position to be a role-model for medium-size cities - and, of course, that is fairly close to the population of Copenhagen so there are interesting parallels and obvious differences. One comment was that San Francisco is a city that "loves to rehearse the future" - but then the programme got more sharply critical and, therefore, much more interesting.
It was pointed out that San Francisco is city with a population where a high proportion of its citizens have a high disposable income and it is an "enclave of liberalism" … in the order of these things neither necessarily bad problems, of course, but as a role model it is difficult to apply its solutions to cities with high levels of poverty.
So the programme looked just down the Bay - to Bay View and Hunters Point - with serious levels of poverty and high levels of pollution from toxic waste from former heavy industry including shipping docks.
Then, two very strong points were made … first that, in economic terms, sustainable urban development is linked or constrained or even shackled to or by the drive for infinite economic growth but also, government policies and national economic policies might not be aligned or might even be in conflict with the hopes and aspirations of a city - even a large city - when it comes to green policies.
Next in the series will be a programme looking at The Smart City and that will focus on Seoul.
BBC World Service - My Perfect City
The Copenhagen Architecture Festival - CAFx - begins tomorrow and runs through to 14 April with events throughout the city and also in Aarhus and Odense.
A bright if slightly cold Sunday afternoon so it seemed like a good time to walk over to the south campus of the University of Copenhagen to look at progress on the new landscaping for Karen Blixens Plads by COBE.
The main construction work is finished and the paving done but the area is still fenced off although it might be the best time to take photographs before it gets swamped with bikes and students.
Wulff & Konstalli have just completed an extensive renovation of their café and food store in Islands Brygge.
The most obvious change is in the arrangement inside with high bar-stools and new high tables so there is more seating in front of the counter but it actually feels more open and less crowded.
Now Spring sunshine has arrived there are plenty of tables and chairs outside where you can watch the local street life.
Wulff & Konstali
Isafjordsgade 10
Copenhagen
With the title Irreplaceable Landscapes, this major exhibition at the Danish Architecture Centre starts with the new Icefjord visitor centre and research centre that overlooks the Sermeq Kujalleq glacier in Ilusulissat on the west coast of Greenland.
Then, in the main exhibition space at BLOX, are models and information panels for an astounding trilogy of buildings - the three new visitor centres designed by Dorte Mandrup in three different countries that overlook three of the distinct seascapes of Vadehavet / The Wadden Sea.
Vadehavscentret - The Wadden Sea Center - overlooks the marshland of Vester Vedsted in Denmark; the Vadehavscenter - Wadden Sea World Heritage Center - in Wilhelmshaven in Germany incorporates the remains of a war-time bunker and Vadehavscenter - The Wadden Sea Center - is on the tidal waters of Lauwersoog in the Netherlands.
Irreplaceable Landscapes continues at the Danish Architecture Centre until 26 May 2019
“This exhibition has been created by a group of young crusaders who are passionate about making society better. It is the result of a collaboration with Roskilde Festival, which every year builds a temporary city with its own unique brand of broad-mindedness, tolerance and acceptance. Here, young people can get involved, party and celebrate their freedom. This exhibition is a product of the spirit: They have been invited to speak out - to share their ideas for our common future.”
Sustainable Cities
continues at Danish Architecture Centre In Copenhagen
until 2 June 2019
This report from the engineering consultants ARUP sets out many of the important principles that now guide planning policies for the city of Copenhagen.
It has a short introduction by Frank Jensen - the major of Copenhagen - where he writes about the efficient use of limited resources and concludes that "It was thought that environmentally friendly development would limit economic growth. However, quite the reverse turns out to be true. Green growth can, indeed, boost economic development and the quality of life .… the business of introducing sustainability into the city poses very different issues than affecting it in the country as a whole … and require city specific solutions."
The report sets out the problems and some of the solutions that the city has adopted - often through the use of innovative technology - and the achievements, in terms of environmental gains, along with lessons to be learnt.
There are good, clear graphics, a lot of information and interesting details about projects under eight main sections.
Headings for those sections of the report give a good indication of priorities for the city, in terms of sustainability, both now and for the future ….
THE HARBOUR TURNS BLUE
MEETING THE RISING DEMAND FOR WATER
CYCLING: THE FAST WAY FORWARD
TRANSPORT: THE GREEN LIGHT
MAKING THE MOST OF WASTE
THE FORCE OF PUBLIC SUPPORT FOR WIND POWER
KEEPING THE CITY WARM EFFICIENTLY
KEEPING COOL UNDER CO2 PRESSURE
just a few of the facts:
22% of Denmark's total electrical consumption is produced from wind turbines … the highest proportion in the World
there are 42 kilometres of Greenways through the city where cycling is prioritised
waste sent to landfill is now less than 5% of the amount dealt with in that way in 1988
the city heating system is one of the largest in the World and supplies 500,000 people with reliable and affordable heating
This new apartment building on Dorotheavej - affordable housing designed by Bjarke Ingels Group - has just been nominated for the Bygningspræmiering - the annual city architectural award.
Out to the north-west of the city centre, just over 4 kilometres from city hall, this is an interesting area just below Bispebjerg and Nordvest cemetery, with a mixture of older apartment buildings and new apartment developments but also older industrial buildings on either side of a main road and, to the west, just beyond this site, low suburban housing.
The main road, Frederiksborgvej runs north - climbing up the long slope up to Bispebjerg - and Dorotheavej is on the west side, itself rising up a slope across the hill, with the new apartment building just in from the main road and on a very wide site with a long frontage to the street that faces south.
The form of the block is a long, gentle and sinuous curve back away from the street towards the centre but hard against the pavement at each end with the area in front planted with grass and trees. There is a high and wide archway through to the back of the building at the point where that curve is furthest back from the street.
The apartments have the typical through form - typical for Copenhagen - so here with a series of seven separate entrances along the façade and each giving access to a staircase with an apartment on each side at each level those apartments are relatively narrow but deep and run through from front to back of the block.
By coincidence - in the middle of a series of posts about housing schemes that are classified as vulnerable with what are now defined by the Danish government as parallel communities - the most recent newsletter from Realdania to arrive in my inbox is about a new research project funded by them and to be undertaken by the Aarhus School of Architecture to map out and assess buildings in these vulnerable neighbourhoods.
The report will include a valuation of the heritage and cultural value of these buildings and will be completed in May and then submitted to housing organisations and municipalities.
For readers who are not Danish and might not have heard of the them, Realdania is a major philanthropic association that was established in 2000 and is now involved at all levels with the built environment by undertaking research, providing subsidies and grants for restoration or improvement of historic buildings of all types or by supporting major new building projects. They have also acquired important historic buildings of all periods which Realdania have restored and given to public bodies or restored and then let to appropriate tenants but usually with some access for the public.
They now have a strong catalogue of publications and they send out the regular newsletter with information about their projects or about exhibitions where they are involved or with information about their new publications. Many of their assessments, and their technical reports and guides to historic buildings and monuments can be read on line.
This exhibition is on the three levels of the staircase gallery at the Danish Architecture Centre and is about art projects that have been used to bring about positive changes in vulnerable residential areas.
People living in these large housing schemes can feel marginalised or can be isolated by poverty and many, newly arrived in Denmark, are separated from the support of family or old friends. Becoming involved in art - or merely being given access to something new and something that is special to where they live - can improve day-to-day life or can stimulate a new interest; create a sense of involvement; bring a new sense of pride to an area and can create a sense of ownership and a sense belonging to a place.
Several of the projects give people an opportunity to tell their own story as an individual rather than being simply an anonymous part of a larger statistic about crime or poverty … statistics that quantify and define problems but can only be a starting point for resolving them.
Projects shown here are in Tingbjerg in Copenhagen; Gellerupplaned, to the west of the city centre in Aarhus, and a projects around Blagværd, a northern suburb of Copenhagen, including Kunst Vild in VærebroPark in Gladsaxe.
Communities Without Walls
continues at Danish Architecture Centre
until 2 June 2019
This design prize is awarded by Design Denmark and the Danish Design Centre in Copenhagen.
The awards go back to 1965 but in this form date from 2000 when the Industrial Design Prize and the Industrial Graphic Design Prize were merged.
Finalists were selected by a jury of 15 at the end of February and the Award Show will be at Dansk Industri / Danish Industry or DI at Industriens Hus on HC Andersens Boulevard - close to the city hall - on 13 May 2019.
Better Work
Better Learning
Feel Good
Game Changer
Healthy Life
Liveable City
Message Understood
Outstanding Service
Save Resources
an interesting post about the judging from Danish Design Awards
all 45 finalists selected for this year
Since 1902 the city of Copenhagen has made an annual award for the best architecture of the year.
Finalists for 2019 have been selected and the overall winner will be announced at the city hall on 10 April.
There are now four categories under which designs are considered for the award.
New buildings and extensions of residential, commercial and cultural institutions.
Restoration, reconstruction, renewal and conversion of listed buildings and buildings worthy of preservation, renewal and transformation of cultural or architecturally valuable urban areas and conversion of other urban areas.
Refurbishment of apartments established in buildings that previously served other purposes.
Urban environments, such as squares, parks and facilities and gable decorations, signage and furnishings.
A major exhibition has opened at Designmuseum Danmark on the history, the staff and their teaching and the work of the Bauhaus school of architecture and design.
This reassessment was conceived by Vitra Design Museum and Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn to mark 100 years since the opening of the Bauhaus.
review to follow
the exhibition continues until 1 December 2019
Designmuseum Danmark
This report from Arup Smart Cities was commissioned by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was published in 2016. It makes important points that should be considered alongside a recent report on updating the Finger Plan and a major report on an initiative for the development of the Copenhagen region. Planning for future urban growth has to factor in new technology and the role of smart data.
Growing Smart Cities gives a brief overview of the approach to digital and smart technologies in the Danish cities of Copenhagen, Aarhus, Vejle, and Albertslund and, for context, brief assessments of developments in smart technologies in other countries.
The report identifies a growing number of companies undertaking research and developing projects but one aim of this report is to find ways for these to be scaled up and to find ways to ensure that they are carried forward.
The approach is two-fold, looking first at growing smart Cities in Denmark - so at digital technology for urban improvement and mentions several times the word liveability - but, for obvious reasons, looks at the financial and investment potential of developing these new technologies in Denmark.
There is encouragement for education to address a potential shortage of people with appropriate digital skills with a need to teach a new generation of students who will be qualified when research departments scale up projects - to take them forward - and to work with business who now have to assess long-term returns from what is often considerable investment.
The conclusion is that "Denmark has an opportunity to become a world leader in smart cities."
The 5C bus route through the city provides one good example of the use of smart data in Copenhagen.
New buses were introduced on this major cross-city route last year. These buses cross the city - passing through the major transport hub at Nørreport, stoping at the central railway station and run out to the airport so it is crucial that passengers have reliable and up-to-date information.
Displays at the bus stop show arrival times for buses approaching the stop - an information service already well established on other bus routes - but once on the bus there are side panels that show the next stop and route maps with information about changing to another bus service whose route intersects. Large overhead displays updates to show clearly, for the next stop, times for buses on other routes and, as the bus approaches the central station, there is not just information about the next available train and the time of departure (updated in real time) but also the number of the platform where the train will depart.
Passengers have access to the same data on their phones if they are planning their route ahead and phones, and for passengers travelling with a rejsekort or travel card, an app on a home computer records trip details for reference but also, of course, this data is available for the efficient management of the system.
With the opening of a new circle line of the metro this year and with plans for a light railway, the system will, more than now, allow passengers to swap between different systems and data systems will make this as easy and as reliable as possible.
An exhibition at Officinet - the gallery in Copenhagen of Danske Kunsthåndværkere & Designere - to show the works of the Danish artist Torgny Wilcke and the English artist Simon Callery.
Both artists have used the colour yellow for a common element and both use what are essentially functional every-day materials - for Callery heavy canvas and Torgny Wilcke timber and corrugated metal strip for roof covering.
Both work on a large scale with a strong presence in the space and both hint at potential practical uses for their works … the wall pieces by Simon Callery reference storage and the large floor pieces by Torgny Wilcke have been used for seating so they are challenging boundaries between art, craft and design.
Both use proportions to bring order and to assume control of the space in the gallery.
the exhibition continues at Officinet until 24 March 2019
Bredgade 66, Copenhagen
Danske Kunsthåndværkere & Designere /
Danish Association of Craft and Design
Torgny Wilcke
Last night was the opening of the redesigned interior of SPACE10 - the Research and Design Lab in the Meat Market district of the city.
They now have a new street-level gallery space and café area - a Test Kitchen that has been developed with Depanneur - and office space on the first floor has been rearranged so the work areas can be reconfigured for an increase from 10 to 30 people now working here.
Spacon & X have designed the area "not to last but to adapt" with a strong steel framework with panels that can be inserted as required, in part to reduce noise, for work pods.
With this project, SPACE10 and Spacon & X have reassessed how people work in flexible common space with the aim to boost "innovation, wellbeing and morale."
The opening was also an opportunity to launch SolarVille
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.... and longer articles about architecture and design are posted on danish design review
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