THEME: DANISH ARCHITECTURE

Danish architecture in demand worldwide

Danish architects are on a global crusade, with prestige projects from Riyadh to Bergen. Their secret? They put people at the centre

By Jeppe Villadsen

Sydney Opera House. A few years ago, that would have been about the sum total of Danish architectural achievements abroad. For decades, Jørn Utzon’s famous shell-like opera house on Sydney’s harbour front was an extravagant exception for Danish architecture, which otherwise kept itself exclusively within Denmark’s borders.

But today the converse applies. Danish architect firms are storming ahead in China, Britain, the Baltic states, Saudi Arabia, Norway, Germany and Mexico. The youthful Danish architectural practice B.I.G. – Bjarke Ingels Group – recently won a competition to design Kazakhstan’s new national library, beating off high profile competition from abroad including Norman Foster and Zaha Hadid. Meanwhile Henning Larsen Architects are busily implementing a master plan for a
1.6 million square metre financial district in Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh, which will be a prominent new landmark in the city.

The international boom can be read directly in the export figures from Danish architect firms. For two years in succession, their international revenues have risen by about 40 per cent annually.

Last year – evidencing the effects of the financial crisis – the increase was a more modest 2 per cent.

Putting people at the centre

The Danish firm C. F. Møller Architects today generates 45 per cent of its revenues abroad, compared with just 10 per cent five years ago. But despite the firm’s glittering references, including the new Darwin Centre in London, an extension of the city’s renowned Natural History Museum, it is another quality that partner Lone Wiggers points to as a Danish characteristic: to design buildings that put people at the centre.

“Our city halls, hospitals, swimming baths and schools are based on master plans that put people – the user – at the centre. We strive to create something unique each time, by aiming to adapt the building to its actual location and function, and not least to the people who will use the building. Briefly stated, the building must be a joy for people to experience,” says Lone Wiggers, who explains that before a building is designed, scores of user interviews are conducted to find the way forward to the best possible building.

“It is a very democratic way in which to design a building, and for us it’s something in our veins, not just as architects, but at a deeper level: as citizens. This form of social responsibility is a cultural inheritance which we have grown up with as children of the democratic Danish welfare state – and this has in fact become an exportable architectural product,” says Lone Wiggers.

“We have a depth in what we do. It’s not just about designing ’a nice building with an attractive facade’. We make a facade based on a large body of thorough professional analyses regarding sustainability, locally available materials, local building traditions and the planned users of the building.

We will never allow office workers to sit in dark and gloomy places without daylight. We have a completely different way of going about things, and explain to the client that if they want a bit more out of their staff in the late afternoon, they have to give them proper conditions – then they will get better results on the bottom line.”

Lone Wiggers, partner in architect firm C. F. Møller

Nowhere to build in Denmark

It is also in Denmark’s cityscapes, that the director of the Danish Architecture Centre, Kent Martinussen, finds some of the explanation for the global crusade that Danish architects have embarked on in recent years. It goes hand in hand with the fact that Denmark – and especially Copenhagen – has in a few years transformed itself from an architectural desert to a playground for the leading lights in international architecture. Rem Koolhaas, Daniel Libeskind, Jean Nouvel, Zaha Hadid, Norman Foster and Frank Gehry have all undertaken architectural projects in Denmark in recent years.

The Danish architect firm B.I.G. has beaten off challenges from star names like Norman Foster and Zaha Hadid in a competition to design Kazakhstan’s new national library. The prestige project in the country’s capital Astana has a 360 degree panoramic view and an open courtyard.

Photo: B.I.G

”I think it has great significance that, having hardly seen any foreign architects in Denmark in 250 years, we have in recent years seen a whole host of international star names. It has stimulated Danish architects to reflect that ’If they can build over here, we can build over there’,” says Kent Martinussen.

The result has been that Danish architecture has become the talk of the town, he points out.

“The global architecture market is always on the look-out for something new, and it has clearly been noticed that something is happening in architectural circles in Denmark. Both because foreign architects are building here, and because Denmark is full of competent young architects, who are making things of high quality.”

“Danish architects have a reputation for being rational, and compromise- and dialogue-seeking collaboration partners. And aesthetically seen, it is still an asset to present an architecture which is more socially oriented – slightly more holistic – than many of the high profile firms. It is not Danish architects who are known for exceeding the budget by more than 100 per cent.”

Kent Martinussen, director at the Danish Architecture Centre

In autumn 2008, 120 leading American architects visited Denmark. It was the American Institute of Architects (AIA), that had chosen to hold its biannual conference in Denmark in order to see both its classic architectural edifices and its contemporary architectural icons in the new development areas of Copenhagen.

Schmidt hammer lassen is the name behind some of the most head-turning new buildings in Denmark, but in recent years has gained momentum abroad – so much so that the international market has quickly come to represent over half of the firm’s revenues. For example this competition proposal for the Masdar Square development which will be the heart of the master plan for Masdar City, a new sustainable zero carbon city on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi.

Photo: Schmidt hammer lassen

In connection with the visit, an AIA statement said:

“AIA has chosen to come to Denmark to study the legacy of its renowned modern architecture and design of the 20th century and to see how that tradition continues in the exciting new work being created by Danish architects and designers today.”

Peter Theibel, international consultant at the Danish Association of Architectural Firms (Danske Ark), comments that the growth in Danish architectural exports is coming from both new and well established firms, although it is still the large practices that have the lion’s share of the international market.

”Many young companies don’t only work locally, as was customary before. They are born global and bid for projects all over the world. And the big companies found it necessary to go beyond the country’s borders in order to expand, because Denmark’s building stock covers much of the available space and there is little room to keep adding new buildings year after year,” says Peter Theibel and adds that several of the biggest Danish architect firms have set the target that 60-80 per cent of their revenues will come from international tasks.

“There is a special Danish keynote in our mindset as architects, and that is in reality what we are exporting. It may well be that Danish design in furniture is Arne Jacobsen or PH lamps, but in architecture Danish design is a method – a way of doing things. And it concerns considering all parties and emanates from the democratic society we live in, where no one is ignored. That you have both pedestrians and cars in a street. You have some who collect waste from a building, while others work inside the building, but both parts must function.”

Louis Becker, partner in Henning Larsen Architects

City award in New York

Danish architects don’t only work with architectural hardware like houses, hospitals and libraries. Denmark also has a strong tradition for developing liveable and people-friendly urban spaces, which are beginning to be sought after around the world.

”We are known for making some good rooms – some light rooms, some high rooms – and for our tradition of social responsibility in the way you build. One of the reasons for this is the Danish architectural courses, which to a much greater extent than in many other countries are based on a creative understanding. It is reflected in the building projects that Danish architects win abroad – they are spectacular buildings and often also prestigious buildings.”

Peter Theibel, international consultant at the Danish Association of Architectural Firms (Danske Ark)

Architect and city planner Jan Gehl recently received an award from New York’s city authorities for his work in improving the environment in New York’s streets and public spaces. Over the last couple of years, his firm Gehl Architects has advised on the improvement of the urban environment in New York.

The Danish city consultants have taken their inspiration from Copenhagen’s streets, squares and cycle paths. The closing of Broadway to traffic has resulted in 750 kilometres of cycle paths, sidewalk extensions and a number of new places in Times Square, Herald Square and Madison Square. The aim is to create 2,900 kilometres of new cycle paths in New York in the coming years.

Gehl Architects will assist with a similar transformation of Sydney up to 2030. They have previously been involved with introducing cycle paths in London, Melbourne and Rotterdam.

Henning Larsen Architects is also behind a discovery centre which will be the cornerstone of a new Syrian educational programme, Massar, giving Syrian children the opportunity to meet and discover the world through play. Massar’s ambition is to create better educational opportunities for youngsters in a country where 40% of the population is under 14. The discovery centre is placed on a 170,000 m² river-bed site in the centre of Damascus. The centre’s floor forms a plateau in the river-bed, from which ramps and staircases rise up and become an innovative sequence of rooms ready to be explored. The idea for the shape of the discovery centre originates from the unique Damascus rose.

Photo: Henning Larsen Architects

A new architecture

Environmental sustainability is a key principle for many Danish architect firms, both in city planning and building design. Long before climate change hit the headlines, Denmark had carved out a leading position in energy-efficient buildings. Competences that – besides the cold Danish climate – stem from the fact that since the oil crisis in the 1970s, Danish regulations for new buildings have been among the world’s most stringent in relation to energy saving. C. F. Møller Architects has been researching in the field of sustainability for 20 years. But it is only recently that investors have begun to show an interest, says Lone Wiggers, a partner in the firm.

”There was very little demand for it until about 18 months ago, when things really started to move. In 2007, around 4 per cent of our projects were what I would
call ’over standard’, that is with innovative, energy-efficient elements above and beyond what the law demands. In 2008 the figure rose to 21 per cent, and I expect that this year it will be above 50 per cent. In a few years, all our buildings will be of this type, provided that the investment and the interest continues, and that we manage to broadcast the message, that in the long term there are simply no economic arguments for not building in a sustainable way, despite it costing a bit more to construct. You could say that as architects we Foreign turnover by country in the Danish architectural profession know what is cheap today and expensive tomorrow,” says Lone Wiggers.

She furthermore sees the requirement for sustainability as a fruitful means of experimenting with and developing architecture.

”We think that it is rewarding to see the new requirements as a challenge and experiment with them: Shall all the windows face this way? Should they be placed high up the building? How do we fully exploit daylight, so that we don’t use electricity, but just get the daylight in without becoming overheated? And how do we get solar cells on the facade to look attractive?“

Ensuring a future for the company also plays a role at C. F. Møller Architects.

”We had to get into sustainable architecture, or we wouldn’t have had a business in a few years. And we have put so much effort into it, that we are ahead of the field, because we think it makes sense to exploit the advantage we have in this area,“ says Lone Wiggers.

Architect firm 3xN’s Museum of Liverpool is situated on protected dock areas by the River Mersey. In 2004, the docks were added to UNESCO’s list of World Heritage Sites, and the museum will be placed next to a row of distinctive buildings, ”The Three Graces”, on a promenade which the project will make into one of the city’s main attractions.

Photo: 3xN Architects