Architecture is omnipresent in everyday life; it is encountered every day. Architecture creates the framework for how people live their lives, move around and interact with others. Often one looks at the facade, but does not know the story behind it. From April 21 to October 3, 2021, the exhibition “Backstage” at the Danish Architecture Center shows which processes, steps, tools and ideas are behind the facades that surround us every day.
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The Danes have an innate belief that they can always do things a little better, and that rubs off on Danish architecture. What’s at stake when we build the walls we all live within? What forces drive the development, what mistakes do we make along the way, and how do we rectify them?
The backstage of architecture
This exhibition encourages its visitors to look “behind the facade” of the architecture that surrounds us. It touches upon issues that engage neighborhoods and communities, but that also divide them.
The exhibition focuses on central dilemmas of Danish architecture, but which affect most cities and communities around the world: Can we (still) afford to live in the city? How do we protect biodiversity? Is urban space primarily for the young? Is there any room for the vulnerable homeless? Are cities equipped to deal with climate change?
Moreover, another component of “looking behind the facade” are the tools that (Danish) architects, designers and urban planners use to shape the environment. Architecture does not start with the construction of an object, but much earlier. It is a long process. Therefore, the exhibition offers insights into the process of creating architecture and shows what thoughts are in the facades and what has remained of the ideas in the end, i.e. which ones have really been realized.
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Who rewrites the architectural rules of play?
The exhibition takes the form of a theater stage with various backdrops, scenes and stories that can be viewed independently of each other, but which together make up a whole story.
Visitors are guided through five sets, each of which addresses a specific topic. Here the visitors meet award-winning Danish architectural firms and architects such as Jørn Utzon, Dorthe Mandrup, Bjarke Ingels and Jan Gehl, each of whom has helped rewrite the architectural rules of play.
Through showcases, photographs, 1:1 installations, architectural models, films and interactive elements, Backstage shows what distinguishes Danish architecture, what it means to people in their everyday lives, and asks how each individual can influence and shape their environment.
Architecture from the perspective of art
To provide perspective on the exhibition’s overriding theme, the internationally renowned visual artist John Kørner was invited to give his take on how architecture impacts us.
In his graphic series Understanding the Impact of Architecture (2014–2020), Kørner zooms in on architecture and its influence and impact. He does not offer solutions or answers, but instead presents the issues and invites us to reflect on them.
For more information click here.
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Another current exhibition by the Danish Architecture Museum is “Hello Denmark”. Read the article here.
In the summer of 2021, the new Hans Christian Andersen Museum will open in Odense. The brand-new museum aims to rethink how the story of Andersen’s life and work is told. The museum will provide an artistic experience, which combines landscape, architecture and modern exhibition design, and it will offer new perspectives on one of the most beloved and creative thinkers in world history. The new museum was designed by the Japanese star architect Kengo Kuma and his team, the garden was designed by Masu Planning.
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Hans Christian Andersen is not merely one of the most famous and read authors in world history, admired everywhere for his fantastical fairytales. Starting in the summer of 2021, his amazing stories will also serve as the foundation of a brand-new type of museum, which will not simply communicate about Andersen, but as Andersen:
“We have to dive into the fairytales as the very first thing, because they are what everyone knows.The idea is not to retell the stories, but rather to communicate their familiarity and inspire further reading of Andersen,” says Torben Grøngaard Jeppesen, the head of Odense City Museums.
The vision for the museum is to spatialize the experience of Andersen’s literary universe and stage a complete artistic experience in which architecture, sound, light and a stream of images constantly create new encounters between each visitor and Andersen’s fairytales.
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New perspectives on ourselves, on nature and society
”Hans Christian Andersen’s artistic universe is fantastic, because it reverses how you imagine this world you thought you knew, but without putting anything else in its place. His fairytales do not point towards a universal truth, but rather into the open – towards the peculiarity and multiplicity of the world. In the new museum, we maintain this ambiguity by using Andersen’s own artistic strategies as the starting point for how the garden, the house and the exhibition have all been shaped, as well as for the many artistic contributions that will also be part of the museum,” explains Creative Director of the new museum, Henrik Lübker.
As such, the new museum will provide a space for the pursuit of puzzlement, the imagination and magic adventures, all of which will provide food for thought and create new perspectives on ourselves, on nature and society –both for the Danish and the international visitors of all ages thatrush to Odense every year to experience the birthplace of the poet, which will also be part of the new museum.
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Kengo Kuma and poetic museum architecture
The new museum is designed by Japanese star architect Kengo Kuma and his team, who are also behind the new Olympic stadium in Tokyo. As part of the design process, the esteemed architect has found inspiration in Andersen’s fairytale ‘The Tinderbox’, in which a tree reveals an underground world, which magically reveals new perspectives right in front of the beholder.
”The idea behind the architectural design resembled Andersen’s method, where a small world suddenly expands to a bigger universe,” explains Kengo Kuma.
The museum site covers an area of 5,600 square meters and contains a children’s house and an underground museum, which intertwines with a surrounding magical garden. On top of that, the museum will consist of a wide array of state-of-the-art technologies and approaches to set design, which will all add to the experience of Andersen’s magical universe coming to life.
Substantial donation from The A.P. Møller Foundation
The new museum is one of Denmark’s largest and most ambitious museum projects in recent years, and it has been made possible through a substantial donation from The A.P. Møller Foundation as well as contributions from Nordea-fonden, The Augustinus Foundation, Knud Højgaards Fond and the City of Odense.
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Text Credit: H.C. Andersen’s House
The BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group has published a new book which has no less goal than to take a visionary look onto the architecture throughout the course of time.
The word “formgivning” means “design” in Danish – the home of star architect Bjarke Ingels. But if you translate it literally, it means “to give form to that which does not yet have form” – in other words, to think into the future. Architecture plays an outstanding and important role in this matter, because it can be used for designing how we want to live and work in the world of tomorrow.
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Formgiving – Past, Present, Future
In “Formgiving – an Architectural Future History”, the third part of a trilogy of books by the BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group (“Yes is More – An Archicomic on Architectural Evolution” and “Hot to Cold – an Odyseey of Architectural Adaption”), one can view projects personally selected by the star architect over 700 pages, using a textbook-like structure divided into the sections Past, Present and Future: Each is further structured around six major themes – Making, Feeling, Sustaining, Thinking, Healing, Moving – which are explained in the first part of the book, “Past”, and represent, so to speak, the “Big Bang” of architecture. However, they are also representing concepts which, according to BIG, should apply to the architecture of the future.
The book is also a catalogue for the exhibition of the same name, which had its first stop at the Danish Architecture Center in Copenhagen between summer 2019 and winter 2020 and is to be presented at other locations. The concept of the book corresponds to the three major chapters of the exhibition: Past, Present and Future.
Sustainable and seemingly effortless Projects
The projects are presented in the main part of the book (Present): From the innovative project Copenhill to the colourful LEGO House to residential buildings like the Klein House in the USA or the conversion of a World War II bunker into the contemplative Tirpiz Museum (Denmark) to future projects such as the Vertical Oases in the Observation Tower in Dubai, which is still under construction, or visions such as the City of New Hope, a possible city on the moon, one gains an insight into Bjarke Ingels’ ideas and thoughts to become inspired for sustainable and at the same seemingly effortless projects.
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The architect is a master in overcoming boundaries: he creates innovative yet sustainable architecture that enables people to live and work in a new and modern way. In Formgiving, developments and projects are presented that reach up to fifty years into the future, often of fantastic and imaginary proportions, but pragmatically implemented by BIG to create the world of tomorrow.
Insight into the universe and the way BIG thinks
In addition to previously unpublished essays by Bjarke Ingels, Formgiving includes photographs by renowned (architectural) photographers such as Laurian Ghinitoiu, Iwan Baan and Rasmus Hjortshøj. There are also images of Lego models from BIG’s projects that were on display in the exhibition and the Masterplanet project – the collective master plan for global crowdsourcing. Formgiving is thus a comprehensive and exciting insight into the universe and the way BIG thinks.
You can find the book to order here.
For the first time, the Danish Architecture Center (DAC) presents a Danish exhibition that uses everyday life as a way to understand architecture. Hello Denmark celebrates Danish architecture and design and explores what makes Denmark and Copenhagen popular around the world: a healthy and happy everyday life.
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Denmark is often highlighted in international contexts as a role model when it comes to creating optimal living conditions for the population; conditions that contribute to a high quality of life. Denmark has been named the world’s happiest country several times, and before the coronavirus left its mark on the world, the New York Times included Copenhagen as one of its of recommended places to visit in 2020.
What are the ingredients in the Danish people’s coveted recipe for the good life? Can it be linked to the architecture and design traditions?
The exhibition Hello Denkmark shares the common narrative about Denmark as a world-class design and architecture nation. This narrative bears witness to a design tradition and strong set of values that permeate all of Danish society, shaping the life – every day – from the smallest teaspoon to an entire city plan.
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In this exhibition, one will experience six installations, each representing an element from the everyday life the Danes value so highly and that influence how they build, reside and live. It is about a close relationship to nature; the trust upon which the society is built; the insistence on hygge; the unique bicycle culture; the design-infused society; and the need to live near water.
Hello Denmark opened on June 8, 2020, in Copenhagen at the DAC. The exhibition is supported by the philanthropic association Realdania and the Knud Højgaard Foundation.
The exhibition Nordic Urban Spaces at the Nordic Embassies Berlin shows Nordic architecture and urban planning. The exhibition is open until 28 September.
Like good Scandinavian design, the urban design projects of the “Nordic Urban Spaces” exhibition in Berlin stand out for their restrained, striking forms and pragmatic approaches. They are not functional buildings. Their planners have accepted the challenge of creating added value beyond pure utility, be it in terms of design, function, ecology, energy or participation. A simple example of this is the “Cykelslangen”, a 230 meter long and four meter wide bicycle ramp that opened in 2014. The slender, steel bridge winds its way through Copenhagen harbour. The construction of the Copenhagen office Dissing+Weitling architecture enables cyclists to quickly cross the Fisketorvet shopping centre area without coming into conflict with pedestrians.
In addition to the experience of having the ramp completely to oneself, it offers cyclists a spectacular view over the harbour. It lies between the modern building facades and above the water surface as an iconic design element.
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Best-Practice
Videos projected onto a wall convey the contents of the project much more impressively than the sparsely described photos, plans and diagrams on blackboards. Thanks to headphones, they allow us to immerse ourselves in the image videos, some of which are very atmospheric and well explained. Too bad, more of this would have benefited the exhibition in order to grasp the essence of the plans more quickly. As a current collection of Scandinavian best-practice examples, the project show is definitely worth a visit.
In cooperation with the Institute for Urban and Regional Planning of the TU Berlin, the Nordic Embassies in Berlin are showing 41 projects of different scales until 28 September: urban planning, parks and riverside promenades, bridges, public buildings, housing construction and underground stations are among them. But there are also examples of participation and ecological initiatives for adults and children. What they have in common is that most of the concepts in Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Iceland have already been implemented or are still to be implemented.
Important Facts:
Where: Nordic Embassies, Rauchstraße 1, 10787 Berlin, Germany
When: 6 June to 28 September 2018, Monday to Friday 10-19.00 h, Saturday and Sunday 11-16.00 h
There is a high degree of functionality and technology in major infrastructure projects like the Fehmarn Belt tunnel, which will carry motorists and rail passengers under the Fehmarn Belt between Rødbyhavn in Denmark and Puttgarden in Germany from 2021 onward. However, the tunnel should also be much more – it has to add value to the environment and be a great experience for all who travel through it. This is landscape architect, Jørgen Becker-Christensen’s basic idea. Together with Schønherr A/S, he has been the driving force behind the aesthetic design of the Fehmarn Belt tunnel on behalf of the consultant consortium, RAT (Rambøll-Arup-TEC JV), and in close collaboration with the client, Femern A/S. “A bridge is a visible landmark in the landscape.
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With a tunnel, we had to think differently, and it’s been very exciting to have an active role in the tunnel project,” says Becker-Christensen.
Jørgen Becker-Christensen has to integrate the huge reinforced concrete project, i.e. the tunnel, portal building, ramps and toll station, into a very flat landscape on Lolland. And he also had the idea of creating a link between landscape and tunnel when he looked at where the Fehmarn Belt tunnel is to go ashore on Fehmarn on the German side.
“There is a slight upward slope here, all the way to the point where the tunnel portal will be. The slope is probably only 12 metres high, but it means that you can just get a glimpse of the Fehmarn Belt before you drive down under it.”
On the Danish side, the tunnel portal has to be in the heart of a new land area off Rødbyhavn’s coastline – this will be established by using seabed material dredged from the Fehmarn Belt to make way for the immersed tunnel. A recreation area will be created west of Rødbyhavn that has beaches, lagoons and hiking trails, while east of Rødbyhavn a more natural area will be established with marshes and wetlands.
The experience will already begin, however, at the toll station, which is located approximately 2 km before the tunnel portal.
Here, Becker-Christensen‘s office is looking to create an area where motorists will not be needlessly distracted: a simple landscape space will guide motorists quickly through the toll station, where all the lanes are bound together under one large roof. “We will create a green zone, so when driving, you do not see a lot of technology, just lush greenery instead. In addition to the toll station, you will also be able to see into the control centre. This is to demonstrate that it will be a safe experience: you can drive into the tunnel and know that someone is constantly monitoring your journey,” says the landscape architect.
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The 18-km journey through the tunnel will be straight all the way except for a curve close to Germany, which is why Jørgen Becker-Christensen and his colleagues have worked on techniques to break the monotony.
“We have worked with the tunnel walls, which will contain architectural lighting. The intention is that the varying light experiences will break up the journey. There will also be sequences of light that can be animated – a flock of birds which follows the motorists – picking up on the fact that the section is known as the “bird flight line”.
New roads and supply lines are now being established. And here, landscape architect Schønherr has been involved in a number of tasks, including drawings of a new pumping station and two new footbridges across the motorway and railway. “We have taken the approach that we need to create an architecture that has a feel of permanency and which will interact with the landscape while being functional and of the locality,” says Jørgen Becker-Christensen.
