Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
On the world stage, Danish architecture has shone especially bright since the mid-20th
century, its enlightened, innovative approach to design pushing boundaries and enjoying
accolades across the globe.
Among its deities is Arne Jacobsen (1902-71). An innovator in international modern-
ism, the pipe-smoking architect pioneered Danish interpretations of the Bauhaus style.
Among his celebrated works are the Radisson Blu Royal Hotel in Copenhagen, the func-
tionalist town hall he designed for Aarhus (with interiors by Hans Wegner), and his Kube-
flex prototype summerhouse at Kolding's Trapholt museum, all of which encapsulate Ja-
cobsen's masterful sense of proportion.
Equally famous is Jørn Utzon (1918-2008), whose work reflects the organic trend with-
in modernism. Creator of the World Heritage-listed Sydney Opera House, constructed in
the 1960s, Utzon famously incorporated elements as wide-reaching as Mayan, Japanese
and Islamic influences into traditional Danish design. In Jutland you can admire Utzon's
work in Esbjerg and Skagen, but the best place to visit is the Utzon Center in Aalborg.
This impressive design and architecture space was the last building designed by the celeb-
rated architect before his death in 2008.
Utzon is not the only Dane to design an architectural icon for a foreign city, with
Viborg-born architect Johan Otto von Spreckelsen (1929-87) responsible for Paris' cube-
like, monument-cum-skyscraper La Grande Arche. Completed in 1989, the building's abil-
ity to balance the dramatic and the unorthodox with a sense of purity and harmony under-
scores the work of many contemporary Danish creations. Among these is Henning
Larsen's award-winning The Wave, a striking yet soothing housing development in Vejle,
Jutland, sculpted like giant white waves.
An even more recent example is Denmark's National Maritime Museum in Helsingør, a
concrete and glass complex ingeniously built in and around a former dry dock. The mu-
seum is the work of prolific firm BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group), whose groundbreaking cre-
ations also include the Copenhagen apartment complex VM Bjerget (Mountain
Dwellings), a stepped, pyramidal structure whose clever configuration gives each apart-
ment a sense of spaciousness and privacy more akin to detached suburban abodes.
