Østerport building appears to be in limbo

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Work on the shop and office complex adjoining Østerport station appears to be in limbo.

Very odd and inappropriate dark pink glass cladding was actually taken off the new building last summer but what is left is a strange anaemic shell … like telling someone their new trousers are completely wrong and inappropriate and making them take them off but then leaving them standing there in their Y-fronts. Everything just looks wrong.

Now Arkitekturoprøret / Architecture Rebellion - a lobby group with the motto Lad os bygge smukt igen / Lets build beautiful again - has voted this the ugliest building in Denmark from the last five years.

It's difficult to see how or why this development has gone so wrong but it does raise important issues.

One reason - though not an acceptable excuse - might be that this not a new building but is an extensive remodelling of existing buildings to the street frontages but with a new addition in what had been a back service area. Were the planners less critical of the scheme and did they apply different criteria than they would have done if it had been a new building on a new site?

There was a brutal concrete block of shops here that are still at the core of the main range facing Oslo Plads but with a new façade and new offices above and there were earlier buildings back along Folke Bernadottes Allé - the main road to Nordhavn and Hellerup - and there the new work is even stranger, sitting across the top of the old as if it was intended to be some sort of symbiotic relationship but it looks more like a science-fiction horror movie where the new is swallowing the old and is simply waiting for a bout of indigestion to pass before finishing the job. The new building is a squat tower block in the angle of the earlier buildings that manages to loom over and overshadow the station platforms but is slightly but only slightly less obvious from the road. 

Surely, with such a prominent location, controls should have been much tighter.

Even a good building that is well designed is not a good, well-designed building if it is in the wrong place or does not respect and enhance the street or the district in which it is built. And this building seems to have broken most of the conventions without knowing what to put in their place.

Too often, architects and/or a developers see their most important aim should be to produce a unique/novel/trend-setting building that ‘pushes the boundaries’ and establishes the name or the reputation or, worse, is to be used as bait to lure in a prestigious tenant but when ego projects go wrong then boy do they go wrong.

 

the new work from Folke Bernadottes Allé …. even with the raspberry pink glass cladding removed, this is a very weird building

Oslo Plads - the new development in a post from April 2019
curious - a post here in August 2019 when the cladding was removed
the restoration of the railway station at Østerport

 

SPACE ODDITY at Vor Frue Kirke

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An exhibition from a project by students of Spatial Design at the Institute of Architecture and Design at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Schools of Architecture and Design (KADK).

the exhibition continues until 20 March 2020

SPACE ODDITY at Vor Frue Kirke
Vor Frue Kirke

Realdania - houses of the 20th century

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Realdania own important historic buildings throughout the country including a number of homes designed by some of the major Danish architects from the 20th century for themselves and their own families.

These have been restored by Realdania and they try to return the buildings to their original arrangement by removing later alterations if they are inappropriate and restoring interior schemes of decoration. 

Many of these houses are let to tenants but are open to the public at intervals. This is a list of some of these homes of architects that are open in the Spring. Please check with the Realdania site as numbers of visitors to each property are limited and for some houses it is necessary to book a ticket before the day the house is open.

Realdania also produce excellent guidebooks and these are available free on line … the name of the house is a link to more information on the Realdania site and images are links to the relevant pages to download the guide book.

 
 


House by Eva og Nils Koppels for Jørgen Varming (1952)
Skovvej 35A, Gentofte 
open 6 February 2020

 
 

House for JW Friis by Kay Fisker (1917)
Valnøddevænget 10, 3000 Helsingør
open 26 February 2020

 
 

House designed and built for himself by Arne Jacobsen (1929)
Gotfred Rodes Vej 2, 2920 Charlottenlund
open 3 March 2020

 
 

House designed and built for himself by Bertel Udsen (1956)
Bjælkevangen 15, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby
open 11 March 2020

 
 

House by Karen and Ebbe Clemmensen (1953)
Solbakkevej 57, 2820 Gentofte
open 18 March 2020

 
 

House by Viggo Møller-Jensen (1939)
Borrekrattet 7, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby
open 15 and 22 April 2020

the house is about to be restored and is opened to give people an opportunity to see the house before work starts

 
Møller Jensen.jpeg
 

House by Halldor Gunnløgsson (1958)
Rungsted Strandvej 68, 2960 Rungsted Kyst
open 16 April 2020 

 
 

House by Poul Henningsen (mid 1930s)
Brogårdsvej 72, 2820 Gentofte
open 27 April 2020

 
 
 

an earlier scheme for a new hotel in the Tivoli gardens

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Towards the end of 2006, the British firm of architects Foster + Partners won an international competition to design a hotel for Tivoli.

That design, like the more recent design by BIG, was to have a tall circular tower and was described by the architects as:

“driven by a careful urban strategy concerned with the preservation of Copenhagen's low skyline, the scheme comprises an elegant cluster of interconnecting cylinders that combine to form a generous podium corresponding to the heights of the surrounding rooflines. Elegantly rising from the podium, a slender sculptural tower acts as a marker for the scheme and relates in scale to the City Hall tower opposite, adding to the language of spires in Copenhagen. The landscaped roofs of the lower buildings extend the greenery of Tivoli and reinforce the buildings sustainable profile. In addition to allowing for rainwater collection, the buildings are oriented to maximise natural light and views while reducing unwanted solar gain in the summer, but capturing the suns rays in the cooler winter months.”

A photograph of a model of the proposed hotel shows just how high the tower would have been - tall enough to throw a shadow across the square in front of the city hall in the later part of the day and, visually, it would have competed with and from angles it would even have blocked views of the tower of the city hall.

If built as designed, the hotel would have had a frontage to HC Andersens Boulevard and that would have meant the demolition of Slottet -  or Tivoli Castle - the building designed by Vilhelm Klein that was completed in 1893. that would have been an unfortunate loss as not only is it a good building in itself and part of the extensive and important new building works across the west side of the city in the late 19th century but it was the first home of what was then called the Kunstindustrimuseet before it was moved to Bredgade. The museum is now known as Designmuseum Danmark.

the building designed by Vilhelm Klein that was completed in 1893 and was the first home of the Kunstindustrimusset before it was moved to Bredgade in the 1920s

reopening

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Frihedsmuseet / The Freedom Museum or Museum of Danish Resistance in Churchillparken, at the entrance to Kastellet, was destroyed in a devastating fire in 2013.

Fortunately, almost all of the collection was saved and a new museum has been built on the site. Designed by Lundgaard & Tranberg, the main galleries will be below ground.

The building above ground - with the entrance, the shop and cafe and staircases and lifts down to the exhibition space - is reminiscent of a concrete pillbox. Fine wires will support greenery as camouflage. The museum is expected to open on 5 May.

Lundgaard & Tranberg Arkitekter
Frihedsmuseet

 
 

the Arne Prize 2020

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Six buildings or architectural projects in Copenhagen have been nominated by Arkitektforeningen - the Architects Association - for their Arne Prize for 2020 and the winner will be announced  on 22 January 2020.

This prestigious prize was inaugurated in 2007 and, to be considered, work has to be in the metropolitan area and to have been completed within the past year.

nominees for the 2020 Arne Prize ……

Karen Blixens Plads - university square
Architect: COBE

Cityringens metro stations
Arup

Holbergskolens Næste Skur - shed built with recycled materials

Sankt Kjelds Plads - climate neighbourhood
Architect: SLA

Havebyen Mozart 74 - private house
Peter Kjær Arkitekter

Venligbolig Plus - affordable housing
ONV Arkitekter

Arkitektforeningen

Karen Blixen Plads, a new metro station on Cityringen and Sankt Kjelds Plads

Ørkenfortet / Desert Fort, Christianshavn

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Work is moving forward fast on Ørkenfortet, the Desert Fort - the large office building that is at the centre of the harbour at the Christianshavn end of Knipplesbro - the central bridge that crosses the harbour between the centre of the city and Christianshavn.

The interior at all levels has been gutted and all original windows and all external cladding have been removed. Work has started on cutting down new internal courtyards or light wells within the concrete structure of the block and on removing hefty concrete retaining walls along both the street frontage towards Torvegade and at the level of the quay on the end of the building towards the harbour that formed a base for the building.

Ørkenfortet was designed by Palle Suenson (1904-1987) and was completed in 1962 as offices for Burmeister & Wain who were a well-established and major engineering and ship-building company in the city. However, the engineering works closed in the 1990s and many of the buildings were demolished and replaced with office blocks along the harbour and large apartment buildings along the canal to the south.

The building by Suenson was taken over by Nordea Bank in the 1990s but, in 2017, they moved to a new office close to the metro station at DR Byen further south on Amager and the harbour building is now being converted into a hotel with almost 400 rooms for the Hilton Group.

read more

Planning Statement - appendix to the Local Plan
updated news on the development from atp ejendomme

notes:

In Danmarks Kunstbilbliotek / the Danish Art Library in Copenhagen there is a drawing of the building by Palle Suenson Inv. nr. 53296 - a perspective from Knippelsbro

While tracking down information on the building I came across a web site that revealed that the building was given a nickname by locals who called it Røven or The Arse. Initially, I assumed that was because the building was thought to be butt ugly but actually it was because at lunchtime workers in the office came out onto the forecourt and sat along the parapet of the wall along Torvegade and, for people walking along the pavement below, the only thing that could be seen from the street was a line of backsides.

 

photograph from 1965 showing Knippelsbro and Torvegade with the office building designed by Palle Suenson in the foreground and the engineering works of Burmeister & Wain beyond along the harbour as far as the canal and around the south and east side of Christians Church

 

not just in cities and towns …..

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model of the new Wadden Sea interpretation by Dorte Mandrup

This blog is about Danish architecture - about buildings and the built environment - and about design and making or design and manufacturing so, in the recent posts about climate-change mitigation, the schemes discussed have been about dealing with flooding from rain storms in the city.

Work to mitigate the consequences of climate change is crucial because it has been predicted that, with global warming, annual rain fall in Denmark could increase by as much as 30%. This will not be spread evenly through the year but there will be sudden and dramatic storms with torrential rain falling over a relatively sort period of thirty minutes or an hour.

I was not in the city for the devastating storm of 2011 so I did not see first-hand the damage done then as drains were overwhelmed and - as streets flooded - buildings were inundated but I had seen some of the videos that people took showing the intensity of the rain.

Then, about a month after I moved to Copenhagen, there was a sudden storm that flooded local streets. Where I was living, each apartment had storage space in the basement and I lost packing boxes, tools in plastic boxes later rusted and books that had been left down there were ruined. For nearby businesses, damage took months and in some cases years to sort out where floors lifted and electric systems were damaged beyond simple repair. In that storm, the water was about 30 cm deep across the basement with water running down from the street and pumps had to be brought in but in 2011, I was told, water had come up to the level of the basement ceiling so I can see why city politicians have spent so much money and time and effort on trying to make Copenhagen more resilient. Some 300 schemes have been completed or are, to use a bad pun, in the pipe line.

Denmark is renowned for its modern architecture and for furniture design but the country also has a strong and world-wide reputation for its engineering and this is crucial for the successful completion of appropriate mitigation projects.

But this is not to suggest that all the problems and all the major protection plans are urban.

Denmark is a relative small country but it is a country made up of islands - there are some 443 named islands - and it has a disproportionately long coast line of around 8,750 kilometres. To put this in perspective, there is one land border - the border with Germany - and that is just 68 kilometres across.

And the country is low - not as low as parts of the Netherlands of course - but the highest point is just 171 metres above sea level. It is also something of a moving problem as the sea takes away and then redistributes sediment and builds up new land elsewhere and to such an extent that the calculated area of the country is changing regularly.

It has been calculated that 17% so nearly a sixth of Danish homes are vulnerable to flooding with 10,644 along streams, 393,574 in hollows liable to flood and 64,000 homes along the coast.

I now live on Nyhavn in Copenhagen where the quay is just 15 metres wide and the level of the water is less than 2 metres below the edge of the wharf. There is hardly anywhere better to live but, to put climate change in some sort of perspective, current predictions suggest that if global warming continues and glaciers and the Greenland ice mass melt then sea levels could rise by 1.5 metres …. and right now, right here, the front door of the building where I live is 20 steps and 1.8 metres above the Baltic.

So, extensive engineering schemes are needed to protect coast lines around the country and there has to be ongoing discussion about the other policies needed to protect some areas. Particularly important, rare or unique natural landscapes habitats like the Wadden Sea area on the west coast of Denmark are being protected and last week there was a debate in the newspaper about the possibility returning areas of peat bog at Vejen Mose in Jutland to their original state because draining the land for agricultural use has released carbon deposited there …. as much as 1.4 million tonnes of carbon emissions each year.

These decisions are not easy and not cheap but are now urgent and, as with all policies about climate change and sustainability, complicated and difficult compromises will have to be made.

Wadden Sea dikes
Dorte Mandrup Wadden Sea Centre

 

Sankt Annæ Plads is at the centre of one of the most densely occupied districts of the historic centre of Copenhagen. The wide street overall is 460 metres long and 30 metres wide and three years ago the area was excavated and the centre lowered to absorb and, in a storm, hold back rain water and there are now large fast-flowing drains below continuous grills to take rain water from roofs to vast tanks where water can be held so it does not overwhelm drains and sewers and can be released into the harbour as when it is appropriate.

Sankt Annæ Plads

 

Langelands Plads - a new underground car park with climate landscape

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aerial view from Google Earth shows Langelands Plads while the new underground car park was exposed.
The south end of Axsel Møllers Have is to the right with the roof of public swimming pool and public baths bottom right. The baths were designed by AAK Lauritzen and opened in 1934. Apartments around the squares would have had toilets but would have used the public baths.

Langelands Plads in Frederiksberg is about 400 metres north of the main shopping centre and Frederiksberg metro station.

Work on a extensive scheme to remodel and develop Langelands Plads began in the Spring of 2017 and was completed and the square was reopened at the end of May 2019.

A new underground car park was excavated across the east side with three levels below ground that has parking for 200 cars. Access is down a ramp at the south-east corner of the square but with separate access points for pedestrians leaving or retrieving their cars.

Mature trees were kept on the west side of the space and the area was resurfaced and paved and is now tightly packed with features with raised steps for seating across the north-east corner; a large, shallow pool; seating, including picnic tables and, of course, play equipment including a slide; a sand pit and an area for ball games enclosed by high fencing.

The square is also part of storm water planning for the district so the paving tiles are actually a permeable surface and there are holding tanks for water below the square.

The design was by the architectural consultants RUM

additional photographs and read more

RUM

 

climate change - Scandiagade

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Rain storm works at Scandiagade were completed and formally opened in June 2019 and I visited a few days later to take some photographs and explore the area but have only just got around to writing the post.

I'm not sure why it has taken so long and it now feels like a serious oversight because this is a brilliant piece of landscape planning and the designers - the architectural studio 1:1 Landskab - have created a beautiful and really quite amazing new public space.

read more

20180503_Plan farve_0.jpg

WORKS + WORDS BIENNALE

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Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademis Skoler for Arkitektur, Design og Konservering

This - the second Biennale - is in the main exhibition space at KADK - Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademis Skoler for Arkitektur, Design og Konservering / Royal Danish Academy School for Architecture, Design and Conservation - in their buildings close to the Opera House.

To paraphrase the open invitation from the academy to architecture schools to participate in the exhibition, the Biennale is about contemporary artistic research in Europe that aims to develop new ground in the field of architecture and is characterised by combining the making of works with reflections in words.

read more

WORKS+WORDS at KADK,
Danneskiold-Samsøe Allé,
1435 Copenhagen K

the exhibition opened on 28 November 2019
and continues until 19 January 2020

WORKS+WORDS

last chance to see the Bauhaus #itsalldesign at Designmuseum Danmark

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There are now only a few days to see the Bauhaus #itsalldesign - the exhibition at the design museum in Copenhagen that marks a century since the Bauhaus was established.

The German design school was forced to move twice - first to Dessau and then to Berlin - and only survived until 1933 but it’s programme of teaching and the architects, designers and artists who taught in the school had a profound influence on design, architecture, graphics, photography and product design through the 20th century.

the Bauhaus #itsalldesign
Designmuseum Danmark, Bredgade 68, Copenhagen
the exhibition ends on 1 December 2019

 

restoration of the railway station at Østerport

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Østerport station is at the centre with its distinct hipped roof. The track to Klampenborg and Helsingør is to the north and the later tracks, along the line of the fortifications, to the south - the bottom left corner of the view. The road across the front of the station is here called Oslo Plads with the Nyboder houses to the south - the bottom of the view - and the edge of Kastellet - the earthworks of Kastelvolden to the right and the trees and lake of the public park of Østre Anlæg to the left. This was taken before work on the metro station was finished but the glass pyramids over the metro platform and the steps down into the station can be seen in front of the apartment building north-west of the station

photograph of the station from the marshalling yard to the south taken in 1896 - before building work was completed

the construction of the Boulevard line in 1917 to link Østerport to the central railway station. The corner of a building on the left is Statens Museum for Kunst with the trees of Østre Anlæg beyond and Østerport station in the distance

 

outline history of the station …..

1897 Østerbro Station  designed by Heinrich Wenck (1851-1936) completed

Station known to local people as Østbanegården

1917 Boulevardbanens / Boulevard Railway constructed along the line of the old city defences across the north side of the old city to connect Østerport through to the Central Station via new stations at Nørreport and Vesterport

1923 Østerport Station rebuilt under Knud Tanggaard Seest (1879-1972) chief architect for Danish Railways from 1922 to 1949

1934 suburban line to Klampenborg opened

1 July 2000 new service started with trains from Helsingør to the central station and then on to the airport and across the newly-opened bridge to Malmö. 

September 2019 Metro Station on Cityring opened

Danske Statsbaner - DSB or Danish Railways - have restored the railway station at Østerport with an extensive and major project that has taken two years.

The station was designed by Heinrich Wenck (1851-1936) and it was completed in 1897 as the terminus of the coast line from Helsingør to Copenhagen although, twenty years later in 1917, the Boulevardbanens or Boulevard Railway was constructed along the line of the old city defences across the north side of the old city to connect Østerport through to new stations at Nørreport, Vesterport and then on in a wide curve to the Central Station.

The railway lines here are below street level and the distinct station building runs across the top at street level and faces on to a broad street called here Oslo Plads but in fact a part of the busy main road out from the centre to Hellerup and on along the coast to Klampenborg.

The building takes the form of a large elongated hall parallel to the street with timber posts that support a large hipped roof. Inside there are two cross corridors, running back from the street with high barrel ceilings lit by semi circular windows set in large dormer windows in the front and back slopes of the roof.

Over the years the interior had been altered with secondary walls subdividing the space but, with the restoration, waiting rooms and a large information office have been removed and suspended ceilings taken down to open out the space.

In the new arrangement, there is still a large station store, a coffee shop and office space but by using glass walls there are now open views diagonally through the building that creates a new feeling of this as an open and unified space.

Archaeological investigation uncovered the original colour scheme and this has been reinstated using linseed oil paint with deep iron red and dark blue green colours that give the interior a richness but without being overbearing … an effect that is in part achieved because the paint finish is matt rather than having the gloss of a modern paint.

The terrazzo floor has also been restored.

The original building had a deep veranda across the front and the ends but in the alterations in the early 20th century, the outer walls were moved forward to the front edge of the roof but it was not possible to reinstate those features.

It is where the building looks weakest because this later brickwork, along with poorly detailed windows, look too simple and too rustic or 'vernacular' for what is a major public building.

However, we should just be grateful that the building survived because in the 1960s there were plans to demolish the fine 19th-century station and replace it with a high-rise tower although, fortunately, that scheme was abandoned.

A strong feature of the new arrangement of the interior is the broad and open corridor that runs across the full width of the building to provide a clear access to the doorways to the staircases down to the platforms so circulation seems obvious and rational with good natural and good electric lighting and careful placing of signs and departure boards. At one end the corridor takes you out to the Irma food store - while keeping under cover - and at the other end there will access to take passengers out and down to the new metro station that opened at the end of September.

With the completion of the large new metro station, this restoration of the railway station is part of the complete re-planning of public transport for passengers coming into or travelling round or through the city.

Østerport will now be a major hub with an interchange between suburban trains, a regular service with trains to the airport and from there over the sound and on to Malmö and the new metro circle line and with local buses and links to the ferry terminal for the boats to Oslo and with the terminal for cruise ship further out at Nordhavn. For now these links are by bus or taxi but the metro station at Østerport will be the start of the next stage of the metro line with the completion of the M4 line to Orientkaj and then an extension to the terminal for cruise ships.

Passenger numbers for Østerport are expected to increase from 30,000 to 45,000 people a day.

The work on the restoration has been by KHR Architecture who designed the concrete shopping centre and the sunken office with a pyramid roof and a third staircase down to the platforms for the trains to Sweden that are all also being restored and extended.

Climate - Change for a Sustainable Future

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The last week of this major exhibition at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation in Copenhagen.

Climate - Change for a Sustainable Future - Architecture, Design and Conservation shows the work of 29 major research projects that look at different aspects of the impact of climate change and look at innovative solutions to our need now to build and manufacture in a sustainable way.

These projects look, for example, at reassessing waste in the fashion industry; look at how new materials can be developed or at how materials that are now considered waste can be used and there are projects that look at how traditional techniques, like those used by carpenters in the past, when they constructed timber-framed buildings, might provide solutions to modern problems that now we have to tackle or at how computers and new techniques, like laser cutting or the use of computers and scanners, can determine the most economic way to cut timber for different products to eliminate waste.

This is a daunting subject but an inspiring exhibition that shows that problems that effect our buildings and our towns and streets as the climate changes and the need to use materials in a sustainable way is now a core framework for the teaching of architecture and design in the academy.

The problems have been identified but, with imagination, the changes we have to make - in the way we design and build or design and manufacture - can be seen as not just a challenge but as a change to a new approach that can and has to be seen as something positive.

the exhibition
Climate - Change for a Sustainable Future
at KADK, Danneskiold-Samsøe Allé, 1435 Copenhagen K
ends on the 15 November 2019

Dreyers Arkitektur Galleri at the Danish Architecture Center

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Nye bølger i dansk arkiektur / New Waves in Danish Architecture

Dreyers Arkitektur Galleri exhibits the work of young Danish architects and provides an opportunity for them to show recent work or to explore new directions and new trends.

When the Architecture Center was in the old warehouse building close to Knippelsbro, there was a relatively large gallery space on the first floor and exhibitions by the Dreyers Galleri could spread out to a landing area but at BLOX exhibitions so far have been on the rather awkward staircase gallery that spread down three challenging and restricted landing spaces.

Now, for the first time, the Dreyers Arkitektur Galleri has spread out to include space in the ticket entrance area to BLOX and the outer lobby to the car park. It is an opportunity to show just how broad a church the architecture profession is - to use a useful English phrase - with the work of four very very different architecture offices.

New waves in Danish architecture
continues at the Danish Architecture Center
through to 16 February 2020

Rural Agentur

Studio Elements
Christiansen & Andersen

Mette Lange Architects

arkitekturens værksteder / architecture workshops at Louisiana - Tatiana Bilbao

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From 18 October 2019 - this is the third in a major series of exhibitions at Louisiana Museum of Modern Art on arkitekturens værksteder - on the workshops, studios or offices of architects - to look at their approach to architecture and the very different work methods that carry them through that process from the development of ideas and then on to design and construction.

Tatiana Bilbao continues
at Louisiana Museum of Modern Art
Gammel Strand 13, Humlebæk
until 5 April 2020

 

Reinventing Cities

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This exhibition was organised as part of the C40 World Mayors Summit in Copenhagen in October and shows the winning designs in a global competition for carbon-neutral and resilient urban regeneration.

“14 cities have identified together 31 under-utilised spaces to redevelop, including several empty plots of various sizes and abandoned buildings, historical mansions, underused markets, a former airport site, car parks to transform, and an abandoned incinerator and landfill.”

Through this competition, C40 and the participating cities invited architects, developers, environmentalists, neighbourhood groups, innovators and artists to build creative teams and to compete for the opportunity to transform these sites into new beacons of sustainability and resiliency with innovative climate solutions that combined noteworthy architecture and local community benefits.

  

Reinventing Cities continues until 15 November
DI (Dansk Industri) H C Andersens Boulevard 18, Copenhagen

P-hus Ejler Billes Allé in Ørestad Syd by JaJa Architects

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Copenhagen may well be the city of bikes but there are also some good car parks. This is the the new P-hus at the corner of Ejler Billes Allé and Robert Jacobsens Vej in Ørestad Syd with space for 600 cars. The facades with a grid or large-scale chequered pattern with Corten metal sheet on the upper levels and large areas of open or pierced-work brick for the lower floors was designed by JaJa Architects who also designed P-hus Lüders in Nordhavn …. the car park with an urban square on the top that opened in 2016.

 

Den Danske Model / The Danish Model

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Since the Danish Architecture Center moved to their new building, in addition to a series of major exhibitions, there have been small displays and video presentations in lobbies, on staircases and spaces around the building that have included video interviews with Danish designers and architects and areas with examples of classic Danish furniture.

With the large exhibition on the work of the architecture studio BIG - Forgiving - From Big Bang to Singularity - now occupying so much of the exhibition space then the more general introduction to Danish architecture and design is currently in The Hall - the area above the main exhibition space that can be used as a venue or conference space or lecture theatre.

Made in Denmark has a number of long banner panels - with interesting quotes about design from Martin Nyrup, Jens Thomas Arnfred, Anders Lendager and others - and they are also showing the short film The Danish Model.

Obviously, the film is best seen on a large screen but as this part of the exhibition programme will change in October and, as it is an extremely good introduction to modern Danish design, then the link to the film through vimeo is included here.

 
 
 

BIG will be less big

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PLAY - the section of the exhibition in the Golden Gallery

model in LEGO of the new headquarters for LEGO designed by BIG

Formgiving - from Big Bang to Singularity - the current exhibition at the Danish Architecture Centre on the work of the Danish architecture practice BIG - the Bjarke Ingels Group - is ….…. well the best word is big.

It has taken over nearly all the exhibition space in the new building. It's in the lobby from the underground car park; it's by the ticket desk; it climbs up the main staircase and on the way fills the smaller exhibition space known as the Golden Gallery; fills the main exhibition area - literally from floor to ceiling - and then comes down through the different separate landings of the staircase that takes visitors back down to the shop and then the exit.

The exhibition will continue until the 12 January 2020 but actually this is the last few weeks to see the full exhibition because on 20 October the part titled PLAY in the Golden Gallery will be dismantled for a new exhibition - the Cabinetmakers’ Autumn Exhibition that will open on the 8 November - and the part of the exhibition down the staircase to return to the shop will revert to the exhibition space for the Dreyer’s Gallery that showcases the work of young, newly-established architects.

The part of the BIG exhibition titled Play in the Golden Gallery is part of the introduction to the main exhibition and this is where there are a series of models of key building from BIG that are made from LEGO and with stacks of LEGO bricks in the centre for children (of all ages) to try their hand at designing and building.

The landings on the narrow staircase back down show the possible future for the architecture practice under the titles THINK, SENSE, MAKE and MOVE as you descend and looks at how architecture could develop to end with ideas about moving a colony of people to Mars. BIG think big.

Formgiving - from Big Bang to Singularity
Danish Architecture Center
Dreyer’s Gallery