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tagensbo kirke / church, landsdommervej 35, copenhagen NV.
architect: hans chr. hansen 1901-1978 (for once working in his own name).
I used to find hans chr. hansen's tagensbo church the ugliest building in copenhagen. so much for first impressions, you might add, except that I still find hansen church to be one of the ugliest buildings in copenhagen. I have also grown to love it.
over the next few images, we are going to take a closer look at the qualities of hansen's most important work in his own name, going through this exhilarating, infuriating, ugly, beautiful and seriously endangered house.
we begin with its glorious rooftop belfry, reminiscent of arne jacobsen's tower for his town hall in aarhus - a surprising connection with jacobsen and hansen residing at opposite ends of the refined-modernism-to-brutalism axis.
it should however remind us that hansen and jacobsen were born in the same year in the same country, trained at the same school and both began their career in the copenhagen municipal architects department where they worked under poul holsøe in an idiom best described as
asplundian. is this their shared upbringing in nordic classicism making itself seen?
as we have come to know hansen, I am pretty sure the concrete skeleton of the belfry and of the facade in general was unpainted to begin with. the paint is recent and has added little but its own weight to the building.
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previous hansen texts:
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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