vor frue kirke, copenhagen cathedral, 1811-1829.
architect: c.f.hansen, 1756-1845.
Tags: c.f.hansen hansen architecture arkitektur vor frue kirke church katedral cathedral apse apsis classicism classicist neoclassicism neoclassicist copenhagen københavn denmark danmark seier+seier creative commons CC
VM-housing, copenhagen, 2002-2005.
architects: PLOT, now BIG and JDS architects.
the VM houses is an interesting project in a problematic new part of copenhagen, ørestad, which is situated so close to the centre of town that it could easily have been integrated into the existing urban fabric but which was instead planned as a suburb with green and urban spaces equally unappealing.
in general, units in the ørestad plan are very large (c. 120 flats pr building) and entirely independent of each other, bureaucratic decisions made to please investors but resulting in very poor urbanism.
the VM-houses was the only project to engage critically with the flawed plan and ultimately the only project to succeed architecturally out there.
the plans of the two blocks of flats are twisted into the shape of the letters V and M, hence the name. these are not arbitrary shapes, they are derived from an analysis of sun, views, scale and space-making between the houses, issues that the masterplan ignored.
as such, we are looking at a basic funktionalist approach, even if PLOT achieved just a little more funk than what is commonly seen in scandinavia.
in questions of large scale urbanism, the shape of balconies loses much of its importance. their triangular plan is experienced, to some degree, as an extension of the angular geometry of the buildings. they are loud but not incoherent.
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Tags: VM-husene VM-housing arkitektur housing københavn copenhagen kopenhagen köpenhamn orestad ørestad denmark danmark plot big jds bjarke ingels julien de smidt architecture VM glass house balcony modern modernist modernism architects arquitectura dansk danish nordic scandinavian scandinavia architektur bygning arquitetura Architectuur Architettura gebäude haus gebouw bouw batiment maison edificio huis casa bolig boligbyggeri seier+seier creative commons CC
bagsværd kirke - bagsvaerd church, copenhagen, denmark 1967-1976.
architect: jørn utzon, 1918-2008.
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the great vaults and hidden skylight, looking north in the main space. the two colours of light, blue and orange, work together perfectly.
more utzon here
Tags: jørn utzon jorn jørn utzon architect arkitekt bagsværd kirke bagsvaerd church kirche eglise copenhagen kopenhagen københavn denmark danmark dänemark architecture arkitektur architektur arquitectura arquitetura Architectuur Architettura modern modernism modular prefab prefabrication concrete vault clouds beton creative commons CC seier+seier
st petri church, klippan, 1962-1966.
architect sigurd lewerentz 1885-1975.
bathroom detail. how to move beyond products and back to materials.
here is a slightly wider view by josep: www.flickr.com/photos/19126774@N00/1693685963/in/set-7215...
the lewerentz set.
Tags: lewerentz sigurd architect architecture arkitektur klippan st petri church kyrka kirke brick mur mursten masonry bathroom detail design nordic sweden swedish scandinavia scandinavian seier+seier creative commons CC
palácio do planalto.
architect: oscar niemeyer.
oscar niemeyer is 100 years old today. and alive. and working. I have been going through our old brazilian photos to find something typical of his work.
this is the palácio do planalto on the praça dos três poderes in brasilia. it's all there: the apparent weightlessness of the concrete construction, the formal monumentality achieved with shapes from mid-century pop art, the vast emptiness, the surrealism...
at 100, niemeyer has never been more busy which is hardly surprising - he is after all the father figure of a dominant trait in today's architecture, namely that we build monuments to brand cities, countries, companies rather than to improve the local community. anything to attract the attention, the tourists, and the investment from afar, anything loud and outlandish enough to be visible at great distance.
niemeyer did this 50 years ago when he designed the key buildings of brazil's new capital, brasilia. famously, brasilia was placed in the middle of nowhere, far from the two competing and corrupt urban centres of rio de janeiro and sao paulo. something can indeed be said in favour of moving government away from those places and also of niemeyer's ability to give the new brazil an architectural face, so to speak, a face which would need to be seen and remembered in the furthest reaches of an enormous, developing country.
but if that argument were true of brasilia, it cannot also be true of every other provincial town vying for coop himmelblau or frank gehry to drag them out of obscurity with some empty gesture.
more niemeyer here.
Tags: oscar niemeyer roberto burle marx lucio costa architecture brasilia brasil brazil modernism arquitetura brasileira arkitektur marble column arquitectura Architektur Architettura Architectuur brazilian modern modernisme palácio do planalto Praça dos Três Poderes brasilien bresil birthday centenary centennial anniversary building modernist mid-century gebäude haus gebouw bouw bygning batiment maison edificio huis casa jenskristianseier seier+seier creative commons CC