FOCUS DENMARK

VOL. 3 2005

Colophon

Title:
FOCUS DENMARK

Subtitle:
VOL. 3 2005

Publisher:
The Danish Trade Council, Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Author:
The Danish Trade Council, Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Language:
English

URL:
http://www.netpublikationer.dk/um/6248/index.htm

ISSN:
1601-9776

Version:
1

Version/edition:
27-01-2006

Data formats:
html,htm,jpg,gif,pdf,css,js

Publisher category:
statslig

Table Of Contents

Clear winners...

Eating to the sound

Design is problem solving 

The epitome of Danish design

Good design creates added value

Drain the rain

Danish design for Far East manufacturers

It looks like anarchy…but it’s pure ecology

Luxury holiday houses are setting the trend

The master architect

Danish architects behind Liverpool’s most spectacular building

Ørestad: a new powerhouse in Northern Europe

Danish engineers build the world’s longest bridge

The natural feeling of a wooden floor

Danish contractor bucks the trend

Danish contractors working abroad

Port construction creates fish exports

One of Europe’s largest cultural centres 

Pure lifestyle

Cleaning Islam’s holiest shrines

Solid momentum in the Danish economy –but some clouds on the horizon

Clear winners...

Integration of design and functionality

DESIGN PRIZES: Danish designers are constantly winning prizes all over the world. Recently 10 Danish designed products received the world’s sought-after Red Dot Award. For Danes themselves however, it is still The Danish Design Prize, awarded by the Danish Design Centre, which is highest on the designers’ wish list. All forms of design can be selected. The assessment is based on function, aesthetics, sustainability and totality, but also considers user benefits, usage and communication value, just like form expressions and design solutions have to be seen in a greater strategic context. Among the 14 winners from 2004, three were outstanding.

The Danish medico company Coloplast received two prizes in the ’personal use’ category for products which integrate design and function in the best way. One of them is a sterile, surface treated and ready-touse catheter specially designed for women. The other is the extremely flexible plaster X-Treme Flex, which is based on research in moist wound healing. The plaster has been developed by Coloplast, and is marketed and sold by Johnson & Johnson under the name Compeed. Both products are the result of innovative development work, of the kind which has helped make Coloplast a global market leader in ostomy products. The company has a turnover of almost EUR 1 billion, of which more than a third comes from products which were not known four years ago. The fusion of design, function and life quality applies particularly to the female catheter SpeediCath Compact. The design challenge was to get an advanced sterile catheter to appear as a very common everyday item – and not a hospitalassociated product.

Attractive and active wheelchair for children

The company R82 won The Danish De sign Prize in the ’personal use’ category for its ’Cheetah’ wheelchair. R82 produces auxiliary equipment for handicapped children and youngsters. In the assessment of the wheelchair, its functionality and extreme manoeuvrability were emphasised. The wheelchair can be continuously adjusted to exactly suit the child’s level of activity. The seat’s construction ensures that the centre of gravity is maintained regardless of position.

     The structure of the chair is very flexible and can grow with the child, both in the length and width, and can be mounted on three or four wheels. The aluminium and glass reinforced plastic construction makes the chair light, safe, comfortable to sit in and easy to transport. The upholstery is easy to remove and cleaning is straightforward. The assessment states that the chair immediately appeals to be used. It expresses play and action and gives the small user, who has not chosen to be dependent on the chair, a positive and active image.

A Ferrari among wheelchairs
The ’Cheetah’ wheelchair was created in collaboration between experts from R82 and successful Aarhusbased design company 3PART. The two founders of 3PART, Henning Therkelsen and Simon Skafdrup, and several staff had been previously involved in auxiliary equipment during their studies and had developed a variety of vision projects. The most striking of these, Chairling, developed by Rasmus Thygesen, was awarded The Danish Vision Prize, but was never put into production.

     “They were all vision projects,” says Simon Skafdrup. “Several of the ideas and the experiences benefited us when R82 made contact with us and asked if we would be part of creating the wheelchair of the future.” ’Cheetah’ is the result of more than three years’ collaboration, and was designated the most radical product in auxiliary equipment for physically disabled individuals for many years. The wheelchair has helped give the users, children with impaired motor function, a whole new selfconfidence.

     “It’s a bit like a Ferrari” says Simon Skafdrup, who explains: “There is builtin speed in the design and that means a lot to children with impaired motor function who are forced to use a wheelchair. It has a wow effect which is beyond price.” The international rehabilitation industry was formerly characterised by a lot of small companies which more or less copied each other’s products. R82, which is among the world’s largest in the field, wanted a wheelchair that would be difficult to copy. In that task they have succeeded, says Simon Skafdrup.

     “First and foremost it has something to do with the materials. Several of the chair’s central components are made of glass reinforced plastic which is injection moulded, requiring large investments in tools. The components are therefore costly to copy, and in addition there are a number of features built into the chair. It was for instance a requirement from US users that the chair had to be able to grow with the user. In contrast to Denmark where wheelchairs are provided by the

public sector and changed according to age, a wheelchair in the US is mostly the user’s property. For growing children especially, that can add up to a significant cost. ’Cheetah’ can grow by 40% in height, width and depth.” Along with product development, 3PART prepared together with R82’s management and employees, a complete branding concept. R82 wanted to achieve greater visibility on the worldwide market and create a greater sense of cohesion between the company’s values and the messages being communicated to the world at large.

     When the new concept, together with the wheelchair, was presented at Europe’s largest fair for health aids in Düsseldorf, it resulted in the largest number of people in the company’s history visiting the R82 booth.

Durable commercial art 

For 50 years, the Danish Coop’s ground coffee brand ’Cirkel’ has retained high popularity in Denmark. And throughout its history the brand has been marketed with artist Aage Sikker Hansen’s profile drawing of a beautiful coffee girl, which received Danish Design Centre’s Classic Prize. The jury stated that Sikker Hansen had brought art into everyday life. The coffee

girl is charmingly lovely and simple. She still functions exactly as intended half a century on. Aage Sikker Hansen drew for the people, and his drawings and poster art have decorated Danish homes for decades. Sikker Hansen’s drawings are applied art at its best. Durable images, of which the coffee girl is a shining example.

Eating to the sound

SOUND AND DESIGN: Sound has great influence on us human beings. The food we eat must sound right, the car we drive in must sound right. When the fridge door closes, the sound must be right. Brüel & Kjær specialises in measuring equipment to get the sound right.

Cornflakes tipped into the plate, milk added, the first spoonful into your mouth, and your head is filled with the wonderfully crispy, crunchy sound which epitomises breakfast.

The crunchy sound is a crucial factor in people’s choice of cornflakes. That Kellogg’s Cornflakes has become the world’s biggest cereal brand may very well be due to the fact that they are made with the crunchy sound as one of the key production parameters. The sound is so important that it determines the sellby date. Not because the corn flakes have lost their crispiness, but because the crunchy sound changes after a certain time.

Lars Barkler with the entire design process of 2250. From the various individual components which had to be packed into the analyzer, and different solution models, to the finished analyzer. It lost in weight and size and won in form and content.

In its continuous tests of crunchy sounds, Kellogg’s uses measuring equipment from Denmark’s Brüel & Kjær, the world’s largest and leading manufacturer of equipment which measures sound and vibration. The equipment is used by industry and environmental authorities all over the world.

Accurate measurement
“Sound is one of the most important influencing factors on humans,” says Vice President Lars Barkler who heads Technology and Marketing at Brüel & Kjær. “Sound has many facets. It can be too loud, too low, too deep, too piercing or simply wrong. To achieve the right sound level in the right situation it is necessary to make measurements. This is where we come in with equipment which is the most accurate in the world according to our customers. It has to be too, because the accuracy of measurement can have major consequences, both legally and in a human sense.” It is especially in the environmental area that sound measurement can have crucial consequences. Once a motorway or a large factory has been built, the sound measurements on which they are based have to be right. If the measurements subsequently turn out to be inaccurate, it can lead to enormous compensation payments and protracted court cases.

     “If you look at the development of air traffic and airports, it is the sound and noise level which are the decisive factors,” says Kalle Hvidt Nielsen, President of Brüel & Kjær. “That is one of the reasons why huge sums of money are invested in getting the sound level right.”

The right ’wrooom’
Among Brüel & Kjær’s biggest customers are car manufacturers, which spend enormous

amounts on either removing or creating sound. The company’s know-how in building acoustic laboratories to measure sound and vibration around new car models is legendary. Three dimensional sound pictures can be produced which accurately show connections between for example engine vibration in one place and undesired sound effects in a completely different place in the car.

     “It is science and technology at a very high level,” says Business Development Director Thomas Kønigsfeldt. “And an area which is taken very seriously by the industry. When a motorcycle enthusiast invests a pile of money in a Harley-Davidson, it must have exactly the Harley sound which helps create the experience of riding one. So naturally Harley-Davidson has our measurement equipment installed as an integral part of its production line. No Harley-Davidson leaves the assembly line before it has been acoustically tested to produce a very accurate ’wrooom’.

RED DOT the supreme analyzer In 2005, Brüel & Kjær received the Red Dot design award for its latest hand-held analyzer type 2250. The Red Dot is the world’s most sought-after acknowledgment in the design area. The analyzer is the result of several years’ development and represents a high point both regarding design and technology. “We set the objective to develop a hand-held analyzer which would be our smallest so far and at the same time capable of doing more,” says Lars Barkler. “Actually we had an analyzer which could do it all. When we asked our customers about their needs, we found that our 10 year old analyzer had it all and was the best on the market. So it was quite a challenge to make a perfect analyzer even better.” The 2250 analyzer is much used in the work environment. The measurement technician will in many cases have to measure the noise level in all kinds of weather and often in areas which are difficult to access. One of the development parameters was therefore to make it so small that it could be operated with one hand, and be resistant to all kinds of weather. It also had to be able to provide all the answers in one measurement take so that the technician would not have to go forwards and backwards several times. “2250 is based on Windows and can be extended with different software modules,” says Barkler. “The combination of the software, a hardware and design which build on consummate ergonomics, and a user interface which is user friendly, reliable and well thought through – that is likely to be the combination which gained the Red Dot award. Plus its success with our customers. 2250 has been something of a quantum leap.”

Design is problem solving 

PUMPS: Be – Think – Innovate. These three words are the Grundfos vision statement, expressing the values the company wants to communicate to its customers. When a new product is launched, it is crucial that the design of the product accords with the vision. Design is not styling – design is problem solving.

Denmark’s Grundfos, the world’s leading manufacturer of pumps, frequently wins awards for the industrial design which lies behind the company’s pumps. Last year Grundfos won the Danish Design Prize for its waste water pump SE1/SEV. The judging panel noted how the pump had been designed with special consideration for the environmental problems connected with waste water. The pump is easy to handle, has a smooth, dirtrepellent exterior and is easy to clean. The pump is also durably constructed for a long service life, and the cooling function provides maximum flexibility so it can be used both in and out of water.

     “To Grundfos it is very important that our products express the values which are built into our vision: Be - Think - Innovate,” says Kim Klastrup, Group Senior Vice President and responsible for branding and global marketing. “When we launch a new product it must meet the promise that our vision expresses. It must hit all three words because otherwise we compromise on our promise.”

The procedure
To fulfil market expectations as well as meeting the company’s requirements of itself, Grundfos follows a 7 step procedure each time the company markets a new product:

“It is a process where everybody can take action and adjust the product throughout the procedure,” says Klastrup. “The design process thus becomes an integrated part of production and marketing. We do not separate these things. To Grundfos, design is not a question of styling things in a certain way. To us design is about solving a problem.”

Designed to save money
20% of the world’s electricity is used to run pumps. Large industrial pumps, small circulation pumps, waste water pumps and pumps for water supply. Pumps of all kinds.

     “20% of the world’s electricity consumption is a lot. Really a lot,” says Kim Klastrup.

“When we started toying with the idea of our latest circulation pump Alpha Pro, we had a clear aim: Not only did we want to optimise the operating efficiency – we wanted to aim for a genuine low energy construction which could compete with other “green” energy solutions. With Grundfos Alpha Pro we succeeded in making a pump which uses only a sixth of the electricity consumption of a conventional pump. It corresponds to an annual energy saving of between 50 and 80 Euro per pump for the entire service life of the pump.

     In European homes alone there are around 100 million circulation pumps. If they were exchanged for new circulation pumps, the saving in electricity would correspond to the combined annual energy consumption of Berlin and Hamburg.

     “AlphaPro represents a completely new way of thinking about pumps. Permanent magnet technology is used, electronic control is built in and the hydraulic effect has been optimised on a number of points. The result is an energy labelled construction in class A, where performance, function and operation form a synthesis. It is good design because the task has been solved optimally”.

In 2003, Grundfos received the Industrial Design Prize for an immersion pump which is able to run on renewable energy. The pump is used for water supply in places where the electricity supply either is nonexistent or where the voltage can fluctuate. The pump can be run using a wind turbine, solar cells or a simple generator. Kim Klastrup, Branding Director of Grundfos, proudly shows the fountain at the Grundfos headquarters in Bjerringbro, Denmark. The fountain is run by solar cells and the company’s solar pumps.

The epitome of Danish design

TOTAL SOLUTIONS: It started as a single door handle, and has since developed into a design range of more than 22,000 individual parts. d line has become a design concept used throughout a building

It started as a single door handle, designed back in 1966 especially for the University of Odense in Denmark. The L-door handle in stainless brushed steel by the designer and architect Professor Knud Holscher, has now spread around the world. Over the years, the product range has been expanded into more than 22,000 individual parts covering bathroom accessories, sanitary panels, handrails, wardrobe accessories and signs. The entire programme showcases the wellknown minimalism of Danish and Scandinavian design.

“Millions and millions of people touch Knud Holscher’s door handle every day,” says director Hans Christian Petersen of Carl F International, which produces and sells the designer’s d line range. On a global scale, d line is the largest and biggest selling product range in its segment. And although it is a niche, the range has become the epitome of Danish design for quality conscious architects all over the world. They are the 100,000 people who we target in 46 countries.”

Concept
d line is still being developed with individual elements which enable architects give buildings a consistent design programme.

     “We offer total solutions where new parts designed to harmonise with d line’s existing range are developed in collaboration with Knud Holscher, the architect and us,” says Hans Christian Petersen. “It helps to create and emphasise our thoroughly prepared design concept.” Since the arrival of the first door handle, d line has won numerous international design awards including the prestigious Danish ID Classics Prize in 1999.

     “The entire d line range forms an integrated part of everyday life for millions of people,” says Hans Christian Petersen. “Knud Holscher aims for discreet and elegant minimalism in his work. He is essentially not interested in luxury products, although most of his output has the stamp of exclusivity. It is rather the functional, dexterous solution to everyday challenges which hold his attention.”

Added value
Carl F is Denmark’s largest company in building hardware. d line products are mainly exported, generating annual revenues of more than DKK 100 million (approx. EUR14 million) and accounting for 10% of company sales.

     “The products are almost exclusively manufactured at our own factory in Denmark, which has perfected the technique of bending a steel pipe so accurately that the bending in all cases constitutes the radius of the straight section,” says Hans

Christian Petersen. “It is possible to manufacture more cheaply in low wage countries in the Far East. But we have instead chosen quality, and keep prices competitive through subsidiaries and our own sales channels. By thinking like our customers we help create the vital added value.”

http://www.dline.com  

Good design creates added value

INDUSTRIAL DESIGN: For Casper Storm and Jan Steen Jacobsen, good design and commercial success go hand in hand. Which is why designers need to be involved from the start in the product development process.

In 2004, Casper Storm, 30, and Jan Steen Jacobsen, 37, who run the industrial design company SPEKTRE^®, received the German Red Dot Award for the water gun Nito Ergo. It is used for cleaning and rinsing in production and food companies, and has made cleaning significantly easier and more user friendly. The award created considerable international interest in the product.

     “Naturally the product’s commercial success is the central thing to us,” says Casper Storm. “But the Red Dot Award does show that design and commercial success are related. By focusing on good design, companies are waking up to the added value that it provides. It sharpens the market profile and identity, and ultimately increases earnings.” SPEKTRE^® focuses mainly on hardcore products – industrial products which are often a world apart from the ’soft’ and more fashionable consumer products.

     “But designing a product for a factory building rather than a trendy café doesn’t mean that it has to be ugly. To us it is vital that function and aesthetics form a synthesis. When a product suddenly finds its optimal functional expression, it becomes beautiful and aesthetic by itself. And it is exactly in this field that the industrial designer is indispensable.” Many industrial designers know a thing or two about the uphill battle they face to exert influence on product development. Prejudice and ignorance about the industrial design process both have a long history.

     “Until relatively recently, industrial design was regarded as just another added cost, and that designers were only interested in aesthetics. Today we are often involved as sparring partners with the development, production and sales departments. When our involvement starts from the earliest stages of product development, companies recognise that fresh eyes can add far more to a product than good looks. There are often a range of rationalisation gains and production improvements awaiting companies when designers participate.”

http://www.spektre.dk

Ready to kill – germs No – SPEKTRE has nothing to do with James Bond and his evil opponent. Casper Storm and Jan Steen Jacobsen’s Nito water gun is designed for peaceful purposes – washing walls, floors and surfaces in food companies. The handle of the gun is positioned so that the hand is in the optimal resting position during use. It ensures that the wrist is not strained by twisting. The water gun is further optimised for user safety. The gun cannot be accidentally activated, because the trigger is placed so that it is enclosed on all sides. The gun is also constructed so that the handle has the same temperature regardless of whether cold or hot water is being used.

 

Drain the rain

GUTTERS: It started with plastic gutters, and expanded to windows and skylights. Innovative plastics manufacturer Plastmo aims to become a total supplier of light roofs in the next five years.

Let the sun in and drain off the rain. Both functions are crucial for buildings all over the world. It is also the guiding principle for ACO Plastmo, which since 1958 has been one of Europe’s leading manufacturers of gutters. Plastmo was the first company in Europe to produce plastic gutters. In whole lengths, without the labourintensive and unreliable joints which form the weak points of traditional zinc gutters, and at prices which quickly outcompeted them.

     Plastmo has since developed into far more than a gutter manufacturer. Today the company makes light roof solutions in different plastics as well as roof windows in a distinctive design. In 1995, Plastmo was taken over by Germany’s ACO Group, whose main product is surface drainage systems. Plastmo became the Group’s Nordic bridgehead handling all its products in Northern Europe, the Baltic States and Russia.

Windows
“We had a brand and a sales platform accounting for a considerable market share in plastic gutter systems, which the ACO Group could exploit for its products,” says ACO Plastmo’s managing director Klaus Hadsbjerg. “In return we gained access to ACO Group’s global dealer network. That gave us the muscle to expand the company in Denmark into the entire Group’s competence centre in plastic products.” ACO Plastmo has in recent years acquired two other Danish plastics companies, Hvidbjerg Vinduet, a window company which today manufactures traditional windows in various materials, as well as Multi-Lite which makes rooflights and roof coverings. Plastmo itself has expanded its gutter range to include metal gutters.

Total supplier
“Our ambition is to become a total supplier of light roofs within a few years,” says Hadsbjerg. “It means a considerably expanded product range produced more rationally and at lower cost without compromising on quality, in order to maintain our position with the dealers. My guess is that we will double our size in five years.” The construction market in the Baltic States and Russia will be key contributors to that growth. ACO Plastmo is the first manufacturer of plastic gutters which has started production in Russia.

     “In Moscow and St. Petersburg alone there is enormous potential,” says Klaus Hadsbjerg. “Regarding newbuild and renovation, there is an annual need for 20,000 kilometres of gutters in CIS. And although plastic gutters are still considered a luxury product in Russia, there is no doubt that it will become one of the building materials of the future.”

ACO Plastmo regards itself as more than the traditional production company which makes gutters. “In itself it is a somewhat neutral product,” says Klaus Hadsbjerg. “We want to create partnerships with our customers regarding total solutions which let the sun in and drain off the rain in a far more creative way. We do that by constant product development and by providing attractive and innovative solutions. Ultimately it is about creating added value for our customers. It can be for builders merchants or the DIY stores, or for engineers and architects.”

Danish design for Far East manufacturers

INDUSTRIAL DESIGN: Increasing numbers of manufacturers in China and Vietnam are realising that success requires its own original design. The Danish design company CBD has opened offices in both Beijing and Hanoi and welcomed many major customers

When the new tiger economies in the Far East become members of WTO, it will lead to increasing respect for original production. It will put an end to buying a product in the West and then copying it millimeter by millimeter. If a manufacturer from the Far East wants to ensure success, it must be with an original product, produced for the domestic market. A product with its own design and its own expression, not just a copy of one that already exists.

“If you want to gain success in the Far East you have to go with the flow.” Karaoke has become such an essential part of Far Eastern culture, that one of CBD’s first successes was the design of a karaoke system.

“Copy production in the whole of southeast Asia is increasingly being cracked down on,” says Nils Toft and Henrik Jeppesen, partners and owners of the design company CBD in Copenhagen. “If say Chinese companies want to make progress and not end up as mere subsuppliers to Western manufacturers, then their independent product development needs to be brought up to speed. Increasing numbers of companies have realised this, not just in China and Vietnam, but in the entire southeast Asian region. To create an independent identity with their own superbrands they have also found out that the use of design helps to pave the way for success.”

Potential
In addition to heading one of Scandinavia’s largest and most dynamic industrial design companies, Nils Toft and Henrik Jeppesen are in charge of the first western design companies in Vietnam and China. Three years ago, CBD opened an office in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, where the company today employs 17 people. CBD in Beijing employs 20 people, and this year the company has opened a new office in Hangzhou.

     “In both Vietnam and China there is enormous potential in capable production companies,” says Nils Toft. “And an even larger potential in the rapidly growing middle class, which wants a share of the same material wealth which exists in the West. Applying our know-how as industrial designers and sparring partners to ’read’ the opportunities in the local market has brought us some of China’s and Vietnam’s largest companies as customers.” “It is our ability to interpret the active trends on different markets, and then convert them into useable design, which makes us necessary,” say the two designers. “Not necessarily because the Vietnamese manufacturers want to export. Most of them are still not mature enough for that. But just to cover domestic needs with products which have the functionalities and attributes required by the home market.”

Local modes of expression
Both Toft and Jeppesen emphasise that their task in southeast Asia is not to make Chinese and Vietnamese design into a derivative of Danish minimalism and aesthetics.

     “Naturally we are loyal to our roots, but that is more reflected in the Danish view that aesthetics must be subordinated to functionality. We are very conscious that it is not us as designers who must be branded, but the company and the product. Through good and independent design and on the conditions set by market forces.” China’s TV City, one of the world’s largest TV manufacturers employing more than 100,000 people, is among CBD’s customers in China. With the population’s increasing wealth and purchasing power, attractively designed TVs are products which are selling well. CBD also carries out tasks for the electronics manufacturer (including mobile phones, computers and TV) Amoi and the white goods giant Haier.

http://www.cbd.dk

It looks like anarchy…but it’s pure ecology

ECOLOGICAL VILLAGE: In a small village 70 kilometres north of Copenhagen, 140 inhabitants live as ecologically as possible. In houses made of straw, with energy from sun and wind, with reuse of rain water and on nature’s terms.

The diversity of expression of the houses is seen in the architecture, planting, technical solutions and choice of material. What could seem anarchy from the outside is in reality an expression of optimum exploitation of the district plan’s opportunities within the framework of building law.

For the vast majority of people, a move to The Ecological Village in Torup would be a return to Woodstock, Flower Power and experimental youth which disappeared into the shadows of yuppies, the fashion race and the IT bubble. But to the 140 inhabitants of the village 70 km north of Copenhagen, it is naked reality. The Ecological Village in Torup has developed into a serious and inspiring idea concerning both a different form of self-administration and – as regards to building – a number of technical challenges to traditional construction thinking.

This house is being constructed from bales of straw which are then coated in mud. Done in the right way, a straw wall can last for many decades and helps provide an amazing indoor climate

     The village is based on fundamental attitudes to sustainability, ecology, self-administration and social ecological lifestyle. The first houses date from 1989, and the current chairman of the village council, Leif Hierwagen, was among the first to move in. A few of the inhabitants have experience from communities and alternative types of dwellings of the 1960s and 1970s, but the vast majority have exchanged common singlefamily houses or apartments for ecological homes out of a wish to live a healthier and in their view, a richer life.

Legal
“Although several have experiences from previous alternative communities, the village today has an individuality and independence that’s hard to find elsewhere in Denmark,” says Leif Hierwagen. “What can seem pure anarchy from the outside, actually builds 100% on current legislation. All that has been created in the village has happened without any form of dispensation and strictly according to legislation.” The district plan is in many ways a direct extension of the conceptual framework of the village itself. The plan has for example been awarded the European Sun Prize for the best district plan in Europe. The purpose of the plan is to ensure harmonious development of the village with due consideration for the surrounding environment and in an active social, cultural and commercial interplay with the existing village Torup and its environs. The district plan also ensures that the inhabitants of the village have the greatest possible independent influence on the design of the buildings.

Alternative
“We often emphasise that everything in the village complies with all existing regulatory requirements, because that’s another way of saying that it is actually possible to build homes and live in this way,” says Hierwagen. “The ecological village is not a figment of the imagination, but very much a practical alternative, where all our electricity comes from a wind turbine and heat is mainly generated from solar panels, with sustainable insulation and a number of other alternative forms of heating. Rain water is collected and used for example for flushing toilets instead of just being drained into the sewers. We also have our own biological purification plant.”

     The district plan also considers many other aspects. It ensures a good mix of housing and business, a social environment with a balanced composition of ages (about 30 of the village’s inhabitants are pensioners and about 40 are children of school age). In addition, the inhabitants’ health has been considered, traffic safety is optimal and environmentally friendly, and waste handling aims at a high degree of recycling and composting. The district plan also involves soil balance, which ensures that the inhabitants can cultivate a large number of crops and vegetables in an ecologically sound way.

It is the village’s own wind turbine which – after a detour to the public electricity net – supplies the inhabitants with electricity

The houses
Seen from the outside, it is the houses which attract the attention. There are now 60 of them, and the village has the appearance of an exploratorium for sustainable building. Nowhere else in Denmark has such a wide range of different building designs in one location. Some houses have apparently traditional architecture, but with surprising constructional details. Others have amazing shapes and expressions which clearly signal attitude and purpose.

 
Almost all the houses have solar panels combined with various forms of growth houses. They are all positioned to optimally exploit sunlight. In this case, the house is lagged on the outside with insulation rendered with natural material.

     “No house exists which is 100% ecological,” says Leif Hierwagen. “It is not possible with the climate we have in Denmark. But you can get quite close. When every opportunity is exploited, I would reckon that about 60% of a building can be done using sustainable elements.” “And it is sustainability which is the overall feature of the entire village,” says Leif Hierwagen. “My claim is that The Ecological Village is one of the most sustainable projects which has been instituted in Denmark. The central feature of this sustainability is the versatility and connectedness of the village. It applies to the physical areas including building, energy consumption, cars, inventory etc. In addition, there are the biological factors such as biodiversity, ecology and selfsufficiency with fields, kitchen gardens and herb gardens. In the social area, the village has a large number of networks, events and activities which help to create an integral whole and meaning for all the inhabitants. There is also the psychological environment where the entire process regarding the establishment and operation of the village has contributed to our personal development. The combination of all these areas is in my view the epitome of sustainability.”

http://www.dyssekilde.dk  

Luxury holiday houses are setting the trend

WELLNESS: Holiday villages with luxury homes to rival the biggest and best luxury hotels are the future, when Europeans need to escape from hectic everyday life and relax

Projects in Germany
The homes often form part of large holiday village projects where they are built in beauty spots close to water, outdoor sports facilities and with shopping facilities close by. In Germany, the construction of entire holiday villages has developed into an export success for Planet-Huse in recent years. The company is today involved in five large projects in Germany and several more are in the pipeline. The two most recent projects are on the German Baltic Sea coast, and on the North Sea coast close to Cuxhaven respectively. The projects have 50-100 luxury homes which have been developed as investment objects intended for letting.

     “Holiday villages with luxury homes of the same standard as luxury hotels are quite simply the future,” says the director of Planet-Huse, Torben Basse. “The personal experience of living in your ’own’ home, the location close to nature, and in addition the luxurious facilities which help create summer atmosphere all year round, has become a serious competitor to wellness-breaks the large hotels are offering.”

Looking for locations
Planet-Huse is constantly on the outlook for suitable areas for development of new holiday villages in Germany an elsewhere in Europe. Areas close to water and natural environments are the preferred locations. These areas are being developed in close collaboration with local authorities and environmental organisations. The homes are prefabricated in Denmark and sold mostly as an investment for letting.

     “We are currently producing about 250 homes annually, but that figure will soon double when our new factory in Germany comes fully on stream,” says Torben Basse. “There is an amazing need for holiday homes everywhere in Europe, and we are able to sell everything we produce.” Planet-Huse produces four standard versions in sizes from 61–140+ m². Each version has a vast number of combination possibilities. The homes can be individualised and supplied with a range of high tech features. One of the great success parameters of the homes is the architectural design with large shared rooms and a minimum of corridors which optimally exploit the space. The use of large window sections makes the proximity to nature and the local surroundings a quality mark in itself.

http://www.planet-huse.dk  

The master architect

HENNING LARSEN: At 80 years of age he has almost iconic status. Henning Larsen wins major international architectural competitions with impressive regularity.  With his inventive use of light and materials he creates great art every time.

For many decades, some would claim centuries, Denmark has produced a wealth of great architects who have left their mark on architecture and design all over the world. Names such as Arne Jacobsen, Hans J. Wegner, Børge Mogensen and Poul Kjærholm are legendary in industrial design and furniture. And when it comes to architecture, names like C.F. Hansen, Christian and Theophilus Hansen, Jørn Utzon, Johan Otto von Spreckelsen, Schmidt, Hammer og Lassen, C.F. Møller and 3 x Nielsen have helped make concept architecture into great art.

     Over the last 50 years, one name in particular has stood out: Henning Larsen, whose numerous notable buildings have given him almost iconic status. Still very lively at 80, Henning Larsen is today Danish architecture’s grand old man.

     “I guess there are a couple of them,” says Henning Larsen, “not least Jørn Utzon, who with Sydney Opera House must be the Danish architect who has created one of the most significant buildings, or rather sculptures in the world.”

Sydney Opera House
At the time when Utzon was working on the competition project for Sydney Opera House, Henning Larsen was creating a name for himself as an architect after being employed at the Arne Jacobsen firm.

     “One of my good friends, Erik Schytt Poulsen, was employed by Utzon and was the only staff member engaged in the competition regarding Sydney Opera House. They were pressed for time and one day Erik phoned and asked if I could help in completing the project. It was actually with a somewhat different look that Utzon won the competition in Sydney,” says Henning Larsen, “but it turned out to be technically impossible. The buildings would have collapsed. Utzon’s genius was evident in how he thought things through in a different way and thus created the monumental shells which today make the Sydney Opera House one of the major works in world architecture.” Henning Larsen himself has created another major works of contemporary times. The Foreign Affairs Ministry Complex in Riyadh, the Saudi Arabian capital, is not just the greatest building Henning Larsen has designed, but also one he considers to be among his most important.

Islamic architecture
“The Foreign Affairs Ministry Complex in Riyadh reflects Islamic building traditions with a closed exterior, contrasted with a paradisiacal interior where compartmentalisation and the feeling of the space, light and shadow form a synthesis. I think we have succeeded well with that,” he says.

     Over the years Henning Larsen has studied Arabic architecture and Islamic building traditions, as well as Japanese architecture about which he is enthusiastic.

     “Not just me personally, but also several of my staff at the drawing office have a fund of knowledge about the architecture of different cultures, - not least in Islamic architecture,” he says as he continues on the theme of the Foreign Affairs Ministry Complex in Riyadh: “Don’t ask me why I was selected to take part in the competition for the Ministry complex back in the late 1970s. We were 12 architects including world famous names like Kenzo Tange and Ricardo Bofill who were invited to Saudi Arabia. It was the first time I was in the country, and I was hit by the entire combination of the climate, the atmosphere and the surroundings. And then the everyday life in Riyadh. When you are moving around in other cultures, it is important both to give and take. I won the competition and designed an attractive and functional building, but I have also learned a lot from studying Islamic architecture.”

Room sequence
The Foreign Affairs Ministry Complex was an enormous construction of about 85,000 m² – with a gigantic contract of many millions of dollars.

     “A short time before we were due to present the plans, a delegation came from Riyadh to Copenhagen”, says Henning Larsen. “They were clearly puzzled by how the drawing office functioned – and also by our rather modest premises. But the Ministry Complex was built - on time and on budget.” Henning Larsen based the plan of the building on the classic Arabic square form, oriented towards Mecca and adjusted to a triangular shape of the site. Outwardly the building appears a closed structure, but within it opens into a sequence of 1000 rooms, which alternates between the intimate and the monumental. Henning Larsen has exploited light to amazing effect, and there is a strict logic to the organisation of the rooms.

Light
“I am much occupied with light as a fellow player in architecture,” Larsen says. “And naturally also shadow. They are two aspects of the same thing. It is light, both the natural and artificial, which creates the rooms and the atmosphere. And since I am much occupied with what I call room sequence, the logic and natural arrangement of larger and smaller rooms and their connections, then I consciously use light and shadow to create this connection. It is also light which makes me so fascinated by glass as a building material.

     If I were to choose the most serene building from my own constructions, then it would probably be the structural addition to the Glyptotek in Copenhagen. The original architects, Vilhelm Dahlerup and Hack Kampmann, had left two inner courtyards and one of them has become a building within a building, called ’The Chest’. It is far from a large construction, but I think it is successful. The size in itself does not have any importance. It is the architectural quality, the functionality and the logic which are essential.”

The talent
When asked what tackling a new assignment involves, Henning Larsen replies: “Hard work, familiarisation and experience. You have to think big from the beginning, have an overall view of the scope of the task, and see it from different perspectives. Construction today has many requirements – from the contractor, the challenges of new materials, planning and one’s own requirements for perfection. It makes modern construction so amazingly complicated. At the same time new technical opportunities make it highly inspiring because almost everything is possible today. And naturally, all these demands also require talent.” Henning Larsens Tegnestue is today one of Denmark’s largest architect firms employing around 100 people, many of them talented architects.

Copenhagen Opera House
The architect firm’s assignments, of which many are abroad, comprise construction of institutions of higher education, hospitals, libraries, residential buildings, museums and concert halls. The most recent great project for Henning Larsen was here in Denmark –Copenhagen’s new Opera House. It was inaugurated in January this year and has caused plenty of debate for and against. Henning Larsen wanted five years to build it. The contractor insisted on four – and they succeeded thanks to thorough and professional work.

     In a birthday article about Henning Larsen in daily newspaper Berlingske Tidende, architectural correspondent Torben Weirup writes: “The story of Henning Larsen includes the fact that neither the process nor the result of what should have been the great Danish architect’s main work in Copenhagen was satisfactory. It is a story about a forced construction, a confrontation between two very strong and autocratic personalities –the shipping magnate Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller and the architect Henning Larsen – and a compromise concerning Henning Larsen’s artistic vision of the place.” About Copenhagen Opera House, Henning Larsen himself says: “The Opera House is intended to be a large sculpture in the sky and harbour space, on its own island with channels and bridges. From the Opera House you can also see the city and the port in a completely new way – and underneath the large metal roof large parts of Copenhagen are reflected, The Marble Church, Amalienborg and Frederiksstaden.” Regarding the criticism of the Opera House, Henning Larsen says: “Now it is there and although something could have been different, I am nonetheless very happy and very proud. The reception hall in particular I am very fond of – and the warm maple shell which contains the opera hall itself. It has altogether become a very fine Opera House. It just needs to be completed with the planned residential buildings on both sides,” ends Henning Larsen.

http://www.hlt.dk  

Danish architects behind Liverpool’s most spectacular building

ARCHITECTURE: Liverpool’s new city museum will become an architectural beacon – a British counterpart to Sydney Opera House. Danish architects are behind the proposal for a new waterfront which will be the focal point when Liverpool becomes the European City of Culture in 2008

The Århus based architect firm 3 x Nielsen has orchestrated one of Great Britain’s most striking constructions, Liverpool’s new city museum. The museum will become a British counterpart to Sydney Opera House when it is completed in 2008, when Liverpool takes over the mantle of European City of Culture. A monumental piece of architecture which for decades will mark Liverpool’s traditionrich waterfront.

     3 x Nielsen won the Liverpool assignment in competition with several of the world’s most prominent architects. Both because of the specific architectural design, and its consideration of location and exploitation of the public space that Liverpool’s waterfront affords. 3 x Nielsen also made a brilliant presentation of the project, which shows that the firm is based on teamwork in preference to individual achievements.

Focal point
“It was our vision, not just for the museum building itself, but equally for the area that gave the result,” says architect Michael Kruse, one of the managers of the project in Århus. “Instead of seeing the museum solely as a monument, our proposal was for a focal point which condenses Liverpool’s identity and community life.”

     Liverpool’s Merseyside area is undergoing tremendous development as its historic fabric is being turned in to an urbane and vibrant public waterfront. Unlike many waterfront cities, Liverpool is gifted with a clear and precise urban edge towards the River Mersey. At Pier Head, the Three Graces – three striking buildings from the city’s glorious trade period – mark a significant and sudden change in building height and density, clearly marking where city and docklands meet.

Respect for history
“It is in the middle of this area, which has a channel system, historic buildings and a flow of people, that the museum will be built. It is very much a question of understanding the entire area rather than just building a house,” says Michael Kruse. “In 2004, the dock areas were added to UNESCO’s list of the World’s Cultural Heritage, and it is exactly this respect for the unique, historical area which characterises our proposal. The museum will become the world’s largest museum of city history and the first national museum to exhibit popular history and handle social history subjects in all their complexity. The museum aims to attract up to a million visitors annually, and the city council hopes that it will become a cultural beacon which can help Liverpool rise to renewed greatness.” “It is essential that the building does not compete with the surroundings, but rather becomes a part of the environment,” says Kruse. “This forms the basis of the architectural expression. There is no back and front. Regardless of where you are standing, the building forms an integrated part of the public space. Inside the museum you can look out with the feeling that you are in the middle of it all. The actual central axis of the building forms a natural part of the harbour promenade, where you can move in and out of the building without necessarily visiting the exhibitions in the museum.”

Difficult construction
Aware of the prominent context, the building still needs to state itself as a clear landmark on the Liverpool waterfront. Emphasising the inviting and public nature of a 21st century museum, the building is conceived as a fold in the expanse of the waterfront made up of inclined and elevated platforms. The interior platforms serve as exhibition spaces while the exterior platforms serve as informal amphitheatres, elevated panoramic observation posts or passages.

     “It will be a relatively difficult construction because of the location and the complexity of the place,” says Michael Kruse. “There is both a channel and a railway tunnel running under the building, and the foundation itself will be a bit of a challenge. We have then made a virtue out of necessity by letting the construction form part of the architecture, for example by letting the building function as a bridge in itself. In that way it also becomes a bridge between the museum and everyday life, between different spaces and between city and water.” The project in Liverpool is estimated to be costing around EUR 100 million

http://www.3xnielsen.dk

Arts and Media Centre at Salford University 3 x Nielsen has won another prestigious UK building project with the Arts and Media Centre at Salford University in Manchester. The 21,000 m2 building will be a unifying icon for the entire university. The Arts and Media Centre will give Manchester’s educational world a new boost and attract new British talents in art, fashion, design, media and performance. 3 x Nielsen has designed an open and dynamic building which will provide the ideal conditions for inspiration and knowledge sharing. The study and workshop areas are woven together in a mixture of single and double floors. The areas are condensed around an open, light space with a conchoidal staircase which moves up through the entire building under a glass roof. The softly shaped exterior of the building will bind the whole campus together as the pivotal point of the university. The facades will be shaped as an almost interactive ’skin’ which reflects the artistic contents of the building.

Ørestad: a new powerhouse in Northern Europe

CONSTRUCTION: Ørestad is a new urban district close to the centre of Copenhagen. It forms the nucleus for the entire Øresund region, which will provide the driving force for the development of a market of 200 million inhabitants. A number of impressive construction projects are under way in Ørestad, accounting for 40% of all building activity in the region

The Øresund region –Greater Copenhagen and the south of Sweden connected by the impressive Øresund Bridge and tunnel – is establishing itself as a Northern European powerhouse. It has universities and educational institutions which are attracting, across professional boundaries and country borders, the most outstanding research worldwide. By virtue of its location, it has become a commercial centre stretching from Germany to Russia. A market with more than 200 million inhabitants with the Øresund region as its natural focal point.

     At the centre of the Øresund region a brand new city is rising up, Ørestad in Copenhagen. It’s a vision which was born 15 years ago, based on an area of wasteland in the immediate vicinity of Copenhagen city centre and the international airport, and which today accounts for more than 40% of all building activity in the entire Copenhagen region. It is a project which can easily be compared with La Defense in Paris and The Docklands in London.

Four quarters
“Only more so”, says Carsten Arlund, project manager at the Ørestad Development Corporation. “In contrast to many other large projects which have emerged round the world, Ørestad is the result of very careful city planning. The objective is to create a mixed city with international and city oriented companies, with all kinds of housing, with culture and future oriented educational institutions. And it is extremely important to us to ensure that it will be a pleasant place for both residents and workers. That there will be life between the buildings, and that traditions arise. Ørestad must be a city for people of all ages.”

     Ørestad is divided into four quarters, each with their own distinctive character. The most northerly of them is almost complete with a concentration of large institutions such as universities, colleges and cultural institutions including Danish Broadcasting City. And Ørestad is well on its way with a unique mixture of high-tech companies, shopping centres, offices and plenty of housing.

The heart of the city
“Ørestad City and the city district as a whole will have a broad spectrum of activities which will make Ørestad a modern counterpart of Copenhagen’s old city centre,” says Arlund. “It is the combination of business and housing which provides the opportunities for making the city district into a really modern and future oriented alternative. Since the world’s most modern driverless Metro runs through Ørestad, it is possible to live and work here, only 10 minutes from Copenhagen’s historic centre in a quarter with lots of dynamism – and at the same time have large natural areas right on the doorstep”.

     Ørestad City is the heart of Ørestad. It will become a geographical and transportation hub of the entire Øresund region with close relations to the Metro, the motorway network which connects the south of Sweden with the rest of Europe via the Øresund Bridge, and the overall railway network. Ørestad City is still under development, but a number of companies have already established their business in the city which rapidly is developing its character. When Ørestad City has been fully expanded in a few years, the city district will have 5,000 residents and be the workplace for more than 30,000 people.

High technology
A large number of companies have already moved to Ørestad. The first was the pharmaceutical company Ferring, which has concentrated a number of its international activities in a 20 storey building close to the Øresund Bridge and Copenhagen Metro. Half of Ferring’s 400 staff are Danes, one third are commuting Swedes and the rest are comprised of 24 other nationalities.

     Telecompany Telia has placed its technology centre in Ørestad, and telecompany 3, IT company Dell and not least Medicon Valley Academy will help attract other high-tech companies in the telecom, IT and life science industries.

Ørestad North is characterised by a concentration of universities and large cultural institutions. One of Ørestad’s most striking buildings is the round Tietgen College. It has 400 homes which all have a view to Ørestad’s channels system – one of the city district’s most distinctive features.

Infrastructure in space
Large sums have been invested in Ørestad’s infrastructure in the form of roads, channels, Metro and supply lines with a view to getting the city district integrated into the rest of the capital’s systems. All public spaces are made in beautiful Chinese granite. One of Ørestad’s distinctive features is that it is built up around environmentally sound solutions. It means for example that public transport is prioritised, that rainwater is exploited, that waste is reused and that the soil balance is maintained. Roads and paths are localised so that access to the Metro stations is as easy and clearly defined as possible. The roads are positioned so that they don’t generate increased traffic in the area as a whole.

International Golf
The visions and ambitions are skyhigh for the course at the Royal Copenhagen Golf Centre, which is under construction on a scenic area west of Ørestad City. The area is hilly and has amazing views over the skyline of old Copenhagen.

     The driving range will open at the beginning of 2006, a 9 hole pay-and-play course in 2007, and the 18 hole international championship course in 2009. The latter has been designed by the world famous golf course architect Ron Kirby, and will contain seven artificial lakes. There will be space for 40,000 spectators.

 
Ørestad is characterised by a number of architectural experiments which help make it into one of the world’s most modern city areas. “With very few limitations apart from the fact that skyscrapers are not allowed to be built because of the closeness to Copenhagen Airport in Kastrup, the architects are more daring in Ørestad than many other places”, says project director Carsten Arlund, Ørestad Development Corporation. “One of the most exciting residential buildings is what is called the VM Houses, 212 co-ownership and owner-occupied residences. The construction consists of two very non-traditional buildings which have from 4 to 12 storeys. There are 76 different types of apartment which can all be adjusted according to the needs of the residents. The buildings also contain different communal rooms, a café and a daycare nursery with space for 48 children.”

Danish engineers build the world’s longest bridge

BRIDGE DESIGN: The world’s longest road bridge is being built across the Gulf of Thailand. It is being constructed on the principles used for the Great Belt Bridge in Denmark – by the same experts who invented the method: Denmark’s COWI

There are many ways to build a bridge.

     But – project for project –only one is the right way when all the variables are taken into account: time, environment, land or seabed conditions, plus many others – not least of which is price. And there is one company that stands out from all the others for its skill and expertise in building the right bridge at the right price: Danish consulting engineers COWI.

Thailand’s Department of Highways was well aware of that fact, when they sent an express mail to COWI in late December 2003: “We have a feasibility study for a bridge project which will connect Bangkok with Phet Buri across the north western corner of the Gulf of Thailand. The bridge will become the world’s longest road bridge crossing water. 47 kilometres, and a further 50 kilometres of connection over land. A project of almost 100 kilometres. Can you help us make the study into a project which can be implemented in practice? Please respond immediately, if not sooner.”

Conceptual thinking
“Naturally we could do so, although we used a few days for it,” says head of department Ejgil Martin Veje of COWI, which has thus added yet another spectacular bridge project to the extensive portfolio which carries COWI’s seal: Qatar-Bahrain Causeway, Subiyah Causeway in Kuwait, SuTong Bridge in China, The Great Belt Bridge in Denmark, The Normandy Bridge in France and Stonecutters Bridge in Hong Kong. And a vast number of others which all have required, in one way or another, the special competencies of COWI.

Assembly line production
The Gulf of Thailand project is a shining example. Based on COWI’s experience from the Great Belt Bridge and the Øresund Bridge in Denmark, where for the first time in history a gigantic floating crane was constructed for mounting prefabricated bridge elements between the bearing constructions, COWI proposed a similar model in Thailand, adjusted to Thai conditions. The method results in dramatic time saving compared to the more traditional method where the elements are cast on the bridge itself.

     “Above all it is a major logistical task to work out at sea, where there is often a strong swell and windy weather. Not least in Thailand, where we also have to consider the monsoon season,” says Jesper Rasmussen, COWI’s project manager on the task. “If you are sailing 20 kilometres out to the middle of the bridge each day, it takes almost three hours. For that reason we suggest that nearly all constructions are done on land and shipped out for installation. It also provides a far more durable construction to make concrete elements on land where they are produced on an assembly line.”

Completion in 2007
“It is crucial that the construction method is already thought through at design level,” says Veje. “When we were presented with the Thailand project, there was only an overall layout available, and a feasibility study which obviously does not go into details regarding the design itself, and construction methods from a university in Bangkok. Since it is a “Design-and-Build” project, it was our task, in addition to planning the bridge, to advise the Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok together with our local collaboration partner Arun Chaiseri Ltd, on possible construction methods for building the bridge.

Whereas the focus with traditional bridge building on land is often on material costs, on water it is about finding the best construction method. An inappropriate solution can become unbelievably expensive.” The time schedule for the world’s longest road bridge is two to three years. It requires that an average 50 metres is added each day. The aim is for the bridge to be completed before the King of Thailand’s birthday in 2007.

http://www.cowi.dk  

The natural feeling of a wooden floor

FLOOR ELEGANCE: Each year about 100 million m² of floor are installed in Europe alone. A quarter of this total is in solid quality wood, while the rest are laminated floors with a wood veneer. Junckers, a market leader in solid floors, wants to get into the laminated floor market without sacrificing on quality

For more than 70 years, solid wood floors from Junckers Industrier A/S in Denmark have been the preferred choice for combining classical elegance with optimal properties. 100 million square metres tells its own story about the popularity of Junckers floors, in buildings including the White House in Washington, the Pompidou Centre in Paris and the Bolshoy Theatre in Moscow – plus a vast number of private homes all over the world. Now the company is speeding up development. In the future, Junckers must not just be the preferred flooring for stylish residences and grandiose buildings. Junckers must be the flooring which is chosen when only the best is good enough.

     “Junckers’ solid wood flooring is continually acknowledged as the best brand in the world,” says the company’s managing director Lars Hermansen. “In the future that also has to be seen on our bottom line. You will see us becoming far more aggressive, and listening much better to the market.”

Turbocharged product development
The strident new tone from the old company also carries the message that product development is being accelerated. Since the establishment of Junckers in 1930, the company philosophy has been to produce solid wood floors on a sustainable foundation. For many years this resulted in a number of innovative production methods of which Junckers alone was the master. The company concentrated on production in preference to being guided by the market. Externally the product range was accompanied by the slogan ’Take It or Leave It’. Internally this resulted in stiff administrative procedures which were not always the most rational. This was part of the reason why, 18 months ago, Junckers went through a painful suspension of payments which led to a restructuring of the company.

     “Today we are far better prepared to compete,” says Lars Hermansen, who was employed to turn the company’s fortunes around with new visions and ideas. He believes that over the next couple of years, Junckers will be back in the lead regarding quality floors.

Listening to customer needs
“There is an enormous market potential for quality wood floors,” says Hermansen. “In Europe alone 100 million square metres are installed annually. But almost threequarters of these floors are laminated floors, comprising a 2-4 mm surface layer of wood veneer glued to chipboard or MDF. So far we have only produced solid floors which in general will always be slightly more expensive because they are made of the same wood all the way through. Now that we are listening more to customers, it is natural that we will also start offering laminated floors. Only with the difference that they must match our own quality requirements. But in principle we will offer what customers want.” The product range has already been expanded with a number of trendy new floors. In the USA where Junckers has a strong position on the west coast, a new laminated floor in bog oak was a success from the start. American customers have really taken to the floor with its characteristic dark interplay of colours. Black Oak, as they call it, originates from oak trunks which have lain for several centuries in a bog. Today the wood is rare, so Junckers has developed a special process which gives parquet strips a glow of mystery at the same time as keeping the oak’s strength and natural properties. Junckers has also launched a number of new floors in light Nordic colours.

Sports floors
“One of the areas where we continue to have a very strong position is in sports floors, which have special requirements for strength, friction and elasticity,” says Hermansen. “The safety of people doing sports is close to our hearts. Our specially designed subconstructions are one of our best competition parameters regardless of whether it is a fixed or floating floor. Since entire floor concepts are involved, we also take into consideration that the sports centre is often used for other activities than sport such as concerts, theatre or large meetings.”

     “Sports floors account for about 25% of our production and so are an important part of the company’s turnover,” continues Lars Hermansen. “And although aesthetic expression naturally plays a part here, the focus is rather more on functionality, strength, ball reflection and cushioning. And increasingly how the floors can suit the needs of TV broadcasts from large sports events. We have perfected the line markings for different sports and the exploitation of floors for advertising space.” It is however the natural wood and the feeling of quality that it adds to a room that inspires the new Junckers to claim its place among the world’s leading floor manufacturers in the future.

     “The unique feeling of walking on a quality floor made from nature’s own product, where no two pieces of wood are identical, cannot be compared with anything else. It is that feeling we must go out and tell the world that Junckers can supply.”

http://www.junckers.dk

Danish contractor bucks the trend

CONSTRUCTION: International contractors are becoming increasingly national. But Pihl & Søn is bucking the trend and has doubled its revenues by maintaining an international strategy

For more than a century, Danish contractors have carried out important and challenging projects all over the world. They are still engaged in many countries and ready to continue the old tradition of exporting their know-how. Their activities comprise infrastructural projects e.g. roads, railways, marine installations, airports, power plants, dams and water supplies, and many kinds of buildings. The solutions they offer include the design, as well as providing financing in one form or another.

     “Danish contractors are performing well abroad, thanks to highly skilled personnel who are good at planning and managing often complicated tasks in many different environments,” says director Søren Langvad, Pihl & Søn. Besides being a director of one of Denmark’s largest contractors, Søren Langvad chairs the export committee of the Danish Construction Association.

     “The trend we are currently seeing is that international contractors are ceasing activities outside their own country borders, and are reluctant to accept contracts which carry high levels of risk,” he says. “At international level, fewer European companies are now offering their services abroad. But Pihl & Søn, along with other Danish companies, has bucked the trend. We have maintained a strategy which is loyal to our principles of having activities both in Denmark and abroad.” Over the last five years this strategy has resulted in a doubling of revenues for Pihl & Søn, and there is an increasing influx of orders from abroad with a suitable mix of large scale tasks in Europe, Africa and the Caribbean.

http://www.danskbyggeri.dk  

Danish contractors working abroad

Construction of port facilities in race against the clock

The port authorities in Jamaica had already ordered five gigantic container cranes from China when Pihl & Søn took on the task of expanding and building the Gordon Cay container terminal in Kingston. The company was extremely pressed for time, says Project Manager Simon Collins of Pihl & Søn.

     “It was an absolute must that the 542 metre long quay structure was completed when the cranes arrived by ship from China. Since part of the construction had to be built during the hurricane season, which causes very difficult water conditions, we decided to drain the harbour area where the work was to be carried out. Using sheet piles, we could keep our feet dry while we built the new quay. And when the cranes arrived in the middle of December the construction was ready.”

     Not only did Pihl & Søn’s technical solution offer a virtually guaranteed ontime delivery, the company’s bid was also the least expensive compared to the South American, European and local bids that the Jamaican port authorities received.

     “It has something to do with our experience and knowledge of constructions in water, but also with leadership style, management and planning,” says Collins. “We never promise more than we can keep, and at the same time we keep our promises.”

     Since the mid 1990s, the Gordon Cay container harbour in Kingston has developed into the Caribbean’s largest transit port for containers. Pihl & Søn has carried out construction work since 1995, when the company built the first section of the terminal. Pihl & Søn has since expanded the construction fourfold, and has also helped restore and build a number of other quay structures and installations in the harbour.

http://www.pihl-as.dk

Port construction creates fish exports

Eritrea in north eastern Africa has every opportunity to develop its fishing industry with an almost 2,000 kilometre long coastline and a jurisdiction in the Red Sea of 90,000 km². International studies by the UN have predicted an annual export potential of around 70,000 tons of fish for human consumption. This could bring muchneeded foreign exchange to Eritrea, whose GNP per capita is among the world’s lowest at approx. USD 200.

     To create the necessary conditions for exports of fish and fishing products, Pihl & Søn is building three fisheries in the Eritrean towns of Gelallo, Tio and Eddi. The project comprises construction of processing factories, administration buildings, workshops and an electricity supply plant. In all three towns piers are being built for boats, as well as construction of roads.

     “The projects are being built from scratch on virgin beaches,” says Simon Collins, Project Manager at Pihl & Søn. “They will help Eritrea to start its own exports of fish and fishing products. The feasibility studies which have been conducted by the Eritrean Ministry of Fisheries show that when exports really get going, it can finance the installation in just 10 years. It is thus a pilot project with great potential.”

One of Europe’s largest cultural centres 

ARCHITECTURE: Denmark’s second city, Aarhus, is in the process of making itself a dignified competitor to Copenhagen regarding cultural facilities. A new art gallery and an expansion of its concert hall are helping to turn the city into a cultural magnet for the whole of Denmark

In a recent survey of growth in Denmark, the country’s second largest city, Aarhus, shot to the top of the list. The city is the centre of an area with around 650,000 inhabitants, and boasts annual growth rates of almost 3%, while the capital Copenhagen manages about half that figure. Research intensive companies in life science, IT and telecommunication are the engines of growth, often rooted in the pulsating research environment around the University of Aarhus.

     The cultural profile of Aarhus also helps to attract a lot of young talent to the city. A profile which is being further sharpened by the enlargement of Aarhus Concert Hall, making it not just the largest of its kind in Europe, but a unique cultural centre for both music and theatre.

     “It will be a multifunctional hall which sizewise will surpass all other similar places in Europe,” says Aarhus Concert Hall director Hans N. Hansen. “The expansion comprises a new symphony concert hall for an audience of 1,200 people, a special concert hall for rhythmical music, new facilities for the Royal Academy of Music, Aarhus, as well as a new hall for the children’s theatre group Filuren.”

     The Aarhus based firm CF Møller are the architects of the project which will make the Concert Hall the focal point of Aarhus city centre. The area is already developing into a veritable culture park with a new art gallery, libraries, theatres and workshops with a diversity of artistic and cultural activities. The ’old’ concert hall, which dates from 1982, occupies more than 15,000 m2, and the expansion will more than double that area. Today Aarhus Concert Hall attracts more than 500,000 visitors annually.

Architectural diamond Schmidt, Hammer & Lassen is among Denmark’s leading architectural firms. It is best known for Copenhagen’s most striking modern building, The Royal Library, known as “The Black Diamond”.

Absorption and pulse When gallery director Jens Erik Sørensen in 1996 presented architectural firm Schmidt, Hammer & Lassen’s winning project for a new art gallery in Aarhus, he said enthusiastically: “We are getting the building we have dreamed of. An art gallery with a flexibility which has validity into the new millennium with its requirements for modern exhibitions. It meets all our ambitions.” The Aros art gallery opened in 2004, and in the first six months attracted almost half a million visitors, three times more than expected. It is proving a great success, not only because of the quality of the museum’s permanent and changing exhibitions, but equally because of the museum’s architecture and integrated interplay with the city’s other cultural institutions. “One of the most remarkable qualities of Aros, apart from its obvious exhibition qualities, is the democratic architecture of the building,” says communication manager Bjarne Bækgaard. “Instead of being aloof and withdrawn, Aros is almost provocatively central with open access from two sides. When you move on foot through the city, access to Aros forms part of the city’s path system. There is free entry, and the building becomes a part of the public space. It invites all the citizens of the city to step inside.” On first impression, the art museum Aros is a 50 x 50 m cube in a green landscape, close to the impressive Concert Hall and a number of other notable cultural buildings in the centre of Aarhus. Two access ramps form a dynamic connection between two of the city’s busiest quarters. And as you approach Aros, the building progressively yields a panoramic vista of horizontal and vertical lines. “It is a building to be used,” says Bækgaard. “In all its monumental greatness, Aros has both become a place for artistic absorption, but at the same time a natural part of the urban environment which reflects the pulsating life of the city.” With its 17,000 m2 of space, of which almost 7,000 are exhibition areas, Aros in Aarhus is northern Europe’s largest art gallery.

Free concerts In addition to the public areas, the new Aarhus Concert Hall will also become home to the Royal Academy of Music, Aarhus, which will thereby gain significantly improved practice and teaching facilities. The agreement between the Concert Hall and the Royal Academy of Music includes an obligation for students of the academy to give free concerts 180 times a year in the various concert halls.

Pure lifestyle

KITCHENS: In the last two years, more kitchens have been sold in Denmark than ever before. The new kitchens signal a relaxed and elegant lifestyle, and Scandinavian design is spreading like wildfire around the globe

     One of these kitchen companies, the fast growing Designa Køkken A/S, is opening a 800 m² kitchen showroom in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. The shop is owned locally, but supplied directly from Designa’s factory in Kjellerup, Denmark.

     “Regarding price we are at the low end in Europe, and in south east Asia we are a western and soughtafter brand,” says Henning Christensen, owner and director of Designa Køkken A/S.

Quality at a low price
Henning Christensen makes no secret of the fact that a Designa kitchen is budget priced. Nonetheless it is a kitchen which can easily compete on quality.

     “I produce large batches for stock in contrast to most kitchen factories,” says Christensen. “The vast majority of European kitchen manufacturers produce to order and that compromises not only production price but also delivery times. We are able to supply kitchens at a few days notice, while most others have delivery times of up to 6 weeks. Our entire concept means that we can supply at prices 25–40% below our competitors.” Henning Christensen puts his hand on his heart when he talks of the quality differences between various kitchen brands.

     “Strictly speaking there are no differences,” he says. “All manufacturers have the same semifinished components of chipboard supplied from the same factories. The same applies to the doors and fronts which also come from a handful of specialist factories. The competition parameters lie in design, marketing, logistics and price. And we have gained success because we do things more efficiently than most others, even down to the smallest detail.”

Gazelle company
The success of Designa Køkken A/S is reflected by the fact that for six years in succession, it has been named a gazelle company by Denmark’s largest business newspaper Børsen, and Dun & Bradstreet. Since Henning Christensen started as a oneman operation back in 1992, the company has grown to around 170 staff, generating revenues of DKK 300 million (approx. EUR 50 million).

http://www.designa.dk  

Cleaning Islam’s holiest shrines

CLEANING: Cleaning is arguably one of the world’s oldest professions and is an industry that tends too often to be taken for granted. Danish equipment manufacturer Nilfisk-Advance has, however, achieved global success through attention to detail. This has led to some interesting applications in exciting locations, including recently the most holy shrines of Islam

Nilfisk-Advance AS will celebrate its 100^th anniversary in 2006. When the Bröndby- based company was originally formed – as Fiskar & Nielsen, after the names of the two founders – few would have predicted that it would eventually grow into the world’s leading supplier of professional cleaning equipment. That, however, is precisely the position the company enjoys today with operations around the globe and sales in excess of 550 million euros. It is not surprising, therefore, that Nilfisk machinery is used to clean some of the most prestigious buildings and sites in the world. Nevertheless, the recently awarded contract as the main supplier of equipment to clean the Islamic holy shrines of Mecca (Makkah) and Medina (Madinah) in Saudi Arabia, count amongst the most notable orders received by the company ever. As Joergen Klausen, General Manager, International Markets explains; “First of all the status of these sites is extremely significant. Everything has to look in picture perfect condition all the time, and the demand in this respect is exactly the same as it would be, for example, royal palaces. But unlike royal palaces, these sites are being constantly walked through by millions of visitors and are the focus of enormous public attention, so the challenge is immense. Given the circumstances, we really consider it a great honour to have been selected as the equipment supplier.”

Working constantly
One of the prime considerations of the contract was that the machines chosen for this work should be able to withstand the rigours of working under extremely difficult and demanding conditions. This is hardly surprising. The daytime temperatures can reach as much as 55 degrees C. with very high humidity as well, and the machines are used more or less continuously for 14 to 16 hours per day. But the real challenge is the number of people passing through these sites. During the month of Ramadaan, for example, more than 2 million pilgrims visit Mecca (Makkah) each day, leaving behind huge quantities of trash. There are also frequent food and drink spills on the marble and granite floors and on the many carpets. As Joergen Klausen points out: “This is as tough as cleaning can get. There is constant traffic and as soon as an area has been completed, it is time to go back and start all over again. Meanwhile the work has to be done as quietly and as inconspicuously as possible.”

     Mecca (Makkah) is the holiest place for Muslims all over the world. It was here that Muhammad was born, and it was this city that formed the focus of much what he did while he was alive. The city is the goal for the yearly pilgrimage for Muslims during the last month of the Islamic calendar. Going on such a pilgrimage at least once in a person’s life is one of the Five Pillars of Islam. The city of Medina (Madinah) is where Muhammad went after he found little support for his ideas in his home city. Because he was welcomed in Medina (Madinah) and because he spent some important time there, it too has become a holy place. It was whilst Muhammad was in Medina (Madinah) that he had his followers face Mecca (Makkah) while they prayed instead of facing Jerusalem, which had previously been the focal point.

Successful mergers
Although Nilfisk-Advance traces its roots back almost a hundred years, the real take-off point for the company came just 15 or so years ago when it was acquired by the Danish investment group NKT. This spawned a number of growth activities, but the most significant of these was without question the 1994 acquisition of American marketleader, Advance Machine Co. Although the merging of these two companies was difficult, the result was a cleaning equipment manufacturer with a truly global outlook. This was something quite new since the American, European and Asian markets had tended to operate quite independently of each other.

     Since then numerous other acquisitions have been successfully completed, including notably Euroclean from Electrolux in 1998, and fellow Danish group Alto in 2004. Today, the company’s customers are being served by 52 individual group companies in Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific. The Group also has product development and manufacturing facilities in Denmark, Italy, Sweden, Hungary, China and the USA, as well as an extensive network of exclusive dealers.

Solid momentum in the Danish economy –but some clouds on the horizon

By Steen Bocian,
Chief Economic Analyst,
Danske Bank

The economic upswing in Denmark is becoming selfsustaining. At 2.1%, economic growth was a little above trend last year, though the labour market was rather slow to react to the improved economic conditions. However, this is quite normal, as companies are often hesitant to acknowledge the sustainability of an upswing and employ more workers. The Danish business community is now, though, in no doubt that a solid upswing is underway. Business confidence has been climbing and is currently at a very high level. And with a natural limit as to how much faster companies can allow their employees to run, the labour market has strengthened considerably in recent quarters. The trend in unemployment has definitely turned down and the number of people in work is on the rise – 30,000 people have found employment over the past 18 months. The rise in employment is increasing both household consumption and corporate investment, which in turn is creating more jobs. The Danish economy now finds itself in a virtuous circle.

     On top of this, the export sector has been showing signs of incipient growth. Exports have long been languishing due to the sharply weakened dollar that prevailed from 2002 to 2004. Since New Year, though, the tide has turned on the financial markets and the dollar has strengthened by around 10%. This has meant Danish companies becoming increasingly competitive and at the same time has helped spur European growth a little. Overall, exports (current prices) jumped 9.2% in the first half of 2005 compared to the same period last year. If exports can maintain their momentum, the result will be a substantially more balanced upswing in the Danish economy, and not one that is solely dependent on domestic demand. This will mean not only a less vulnerable upswing, but also one that is much more sustainable, as the sharp growth in private consumption observed in Denmark must be expected to gradually slow. This is because consumer appetite for durable goods will to some extent become satiated, while the significance of more temporary growth impulses, such as last year’s tax cuts, will fade.

     There are, however, a few clouds on the horizon. Hurricane Katrina’s ravaging of the Mexican Gulf coast may impact the global economy in a way that puts a damper on the otherwise very positive outlook for growth in the Danish economy. Hurricane Katrina has, first and foremost, meant a leap in already very high energy prices –especially gasoline. This will diminish the purchasing power of Danish consumers and hit private consumption growth.

     The greatest concern with regard to the high energy prices is, though, primarily the scale of the impact on the global economy. Should a lengthy slowdown in US growth materialise, it might have a ripple effect that could ultimately undermine Danish exports before growth in the sector has really taken hold. Currently, the US economy is not expected to be blown off course, it will merely see a temporary slowdown in the fourth quarter of this year. If this forecast holds, Denmark will experience slightly lower growth towards the end of the year, mainly due to more muted growth in exports. However, this is unlikely to threaten the present economic upswing.

     A quite different, but rapidly approaching, problem for the Danish economy is, in theory, of a more positive nature – a labour shortage. If growth carries on as expected, a shortage of labour might arise as early as 2006. At the moment, real unemployment (number of registered unemployed plus the number of people on activation schemes) is just 6,500 from its historical low. With demographic developments exerting a downward pressure on the work force, a major job for the politicians is to implement structural reforms that aim to boost the supply of labour. Increasing the labour supply will reduce the risk of the upswing being derailed by bottlenecks that lead to rising wage and price pressures and thus less favourable market conditions for Danish companies.