Architectural Design 27

tegnestuen vandkunsten, birkerød søhuse housing, birkerød, copenhagen 1994-1995

Thu, 17 Sep 2015 16:11:10 GMT

birkerød søhuse, birkerød, copenhagen, denmark 1994-1995.
architects: tegnestuen vandkunsten.

the vandkunsten set.
www.vandkunsten.com

mogens lassen, systemhuset housing, ordrup 1937

Thu, 17 Sep 2015 16:10:44 GMT

systemhuset housing, ordrupvej 70, ordrup, denmark 1937.
architect: mogens lassen (1901-1987).

I came across this classic in Danish modernist housing, mogens lassen's experiment in concrete construction, systemhuset, from 1937, while cycling around gentofte looking at arne jacobsen villas.

lassen and his engineer, ernst ishøy, expressed the minimal concrete skeleton with refined lightweight infill facades. if I tell you that the two surrounding brick houses are contemporary - 1930's on the right and 1940's on the left - maybe you can imagine just how exceptional it was at the time.

lassen's use of colour was inspired by le corbusier's claviers de couleurs which he adapted for the nordic light. in fact, throughout the 1930's lassen was le corbusier's most faithful proponent in denmark, making it all the more surprising that he had turned down a job offer from the swiss master on a visit to his office.

later in his career, as his works became more traditionalist, lassen insisted he had been a romantic in love with the mediterranean rather than a modernist. the almost constructivist systemhuset begs to differ.

crisp, light, and transparent - I like everything about it. but it is the parent generation of every endless "system house" of the sixties and seventies. maybe all nightmares begin as poetry.

remarkably, the house appears untouched since 1937 with the original cast glass, perforated steel balconies, and window details in faded colours. the slender concrete construction is sagging, but so will you be at 73 :)

this photo was uploaded with a CC license and may be used free of charge and in any way you see fit.
if possible, please name photographer "SEIER+SEIER". if not, don't.

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hans christian hansen, architect: gasværksvejens skole / school, copenhagen...

Thu, 17 Sep 2015 16:09:43 GMT

link to full size image (4057 x 4558px).

gasværksvejens skole / school, vesterbro, copenhagen 1969-1971.
architect: hans christian hansen, 1901-1978, working for the copenhagen municipal architects department.

schoolyard facade in reflected light.

this is a tough building, and a far cry from hansen's previous school in leafy suburban copenhagen. whether you can be too tough for an old working class neighbourhood is a valid question; the woman who runs the school called it robust when I met her, indicating that was a good thing.

a small discovery: the basic massing and organisation in plan is identical to erik gunnar asplund's carl johanskolan in gothenburg, sweden (1915-1924). and not by accident, I am sure.

there is a 19th century main building across the yard, you can catch the reflection of its red brick walls in the windows. hansen's addition is a four storey concrete box with classrooms and a smaller one for the gym. the classrooms are on double-loaded corridors that provide a deep plan good for a tight budget, but also a dark interior, questionable at best as social spaces.

but hansen had made an art of working on a budget, and his teaching spaces are generous and bright, high ceilings everywhere.

artful too is the draping of the two buildings in a pagoda-like roofscape of cheap corrugated roofing sheets, recalling local industrial architecture like the drying sheds of old Danish tile works. the corrugated sheets were a stable of hansen's vocabulary, but he was not alone in celebrating this most humble of materials.

it is in fact one of the things uniting an otherwise scattered group of architects on the left, a group I hope to show with the next building that hansen was a part of, and a group we are going to be exploring over the coming weeks.

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the comments I have added to some of my hans chr. hansen photos can be read together as a kind of mangled, yet surprisingly brief essay on hansen. repetitious and opinionated, it reflects the writer above his subject, but until someone does some serious research on hansen, a complete lack of competition makes me immune to criticism. enjoy :)

01. introduction, amager 1966.
02. the engineer as ideal, hansen's pre-war architecture, sundholm 1939.
03. the church he didn't build. war and the return to tradition, 1942-1944.
04. following fisker. wartime housing, hulgårds plads 1943.
05. the architect finding himself in a kindergarten, skydebanen 1948.
06. developing the restless section. hanssted school 1954.
07. early industrial. nyborggade transformer 1958.
08. the brutalist, bellahøj 1961.
09. perfect self-confidence, ringbo nursing home 1961.
10. perfect idiosyncrasy. ringbo bell tower 1961.
11. the masterpiece, bremerholm 1962.
12. on the fine art of knowing when to be a backdrop. svanemølle 1966.
13. industrialised construction, a first response. svanemølle 1966.
14. concrete charm, bellahøj gas regulator 1967.
15. late irreverence. gasværksvejen school 1969.

the hans chr. hansen set.

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michael sten johnsen, stens hus

Thu, 17 Sep 2015 16:08:40 GMT

architect's own summerhouse, denmark
architect: michael sten johnsen, b. 1938

as you have probably gathered from the number of photos, I was moved by this house. we spent the better part of a day there with plenty of time to simply enjoy the place, discovering the logic - or some of it - of its many twists and turns, the architect's gift of place-making and pondering that rare thing: the home as a personal document, almost an autobiography, of its maker.

the full set.

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Skuespilhuset, Copenhagen

Thu, 17 Sep 2015 16:08:18 GMT

The Royal Danish Play House

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