Store Bededag - Great Prayer Day in Copenhagen

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Tomorrow is the fourth Friday after Easter so that means it is Store Bededag or Great Prayer Day in Denmark.

Great Prayer Day fascinates me because it seems to show just how practical Danes are and even when it comes down to organising religious festivals.

By the late 17th century it seems that there was a problem because people were marking different saint days and choosing different saints to celebrate. Not quite a day off work for someone somewhere but in 1686, Christian V rolled together all the days for celebrating minor saints through the Spring into one day off and decreed that, thenceforth, there would be just a single holiday .... Great Prayer Day.

Then, last year, the Danish government down graded it as a public holiday so tomorrow, for the first year since 1686, Danes will not take the day off from work or, rather, not take the day off and still be paid.

The reason? The state has to pay for increased expenditure on defence and, apparently, everyone working through what should otherwise have been a public holiday helps.

With many events through the year in Denmark, there are distinct foods linked to specific celebrations …. fastelavnsboller for Lent or goose for Mortenaften - the feast of Saint Martin in November - or the special beer on the first Friday in November for julebrygsdag or Christmas Brew Day. For Great Prayer Day it's Hveder .... wheat buns flavoured with cardamom.

The logic is impeccable. Because it was a religious festival, bakers could not work on the Friday, so they baked these yeast buns on Thursday so citizens had bread for the holiday.

The buns are light and are baked in trays and dough, formed into small balls, is set out in the tray in lines with regular spaces between. As they rise, they come up against the adjoining dough to form almost-square buns with a domed top. Edges, where they touch the next bun, remain soft while the tops brown in the oven.

Inevitably, these soft, light, rolls, with a delicate hint of cardamom, rarely last until Friday. The normal way is to eat them warm, pulled apart and spread with butter.

By tradition, church bells are rung on Thursday evening to mark the start of the religious holiday on Friday and, in Copenhagen, there is a centuries-old habit for citizens, on Thursday evening, to walk the ramparts - the high banks of the city defences - or families walk around the rampart of Katellet - the fortress at the north end of the inner city - with views from there across the city and across the harbour and the sound.

When I was at school, we had to write reviews or criticisms of books and music and works of art and the one word that was always scrubbed out with red ink, when these efforts were marked, was the word nice. I remembered that this afternoon when I walked across to buy wheat buns and I realised just how "nice" these Danish traditions are. Maybe I'm just getting old in a bad World but these days I'm really happy when anything is nice.

Hveder - wheat buns bought this afternoon from the local baker

 

‘On Copenhagen’s Vold the evening before Great Prayer Day’
painted by Andreas Herman Hunæus in 1862
Statens Museum for Kunst

 

walking on the ramparts of Kastellet

Copenhagen Light Festival 2024

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Copenhagen Light Festival opened tonight and continues through until the 25 February.

There are 79 light works that have been set up in streets, squares and parks across the city and seven events that include an opening concert and a family run at night with lights. The works vary enormously in form from laser displays through floodlighting to sculptures in light and many of the installations include sound.

Details of locations and, where relevant, times are set out in the online programme but, In general, lights will be switched on at 5pm.

This year, for the first time, there will be guided walks but, if you want to explore independently, there is an app for the festival that can be downloaded and that includes an interactive map with information about each installation and about the artists.

Copenhagen Light Festival - programme

 

The Wave - Ofelia Plads

Du som er i Himlene - Højbro Plads
Vivid Verve - Jorcks Passage
PiXLEarth - Knasten, Havnegade 14
Bron, Broen, Bridge - Knippelsbro

Kulturnatten 2023

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Kulturnatten is a major annual event when museums, galleries, churches, major historic buildings and departments of national and city government in Copenhagen and Frederiksberg open for an evening - most from 6pm through to midnight.

There will be special exhibitions, concerts or demonstrations and, at many organisations, there are tours of areas that are rarely open to the public so this is when citizens can see what happens behind the scenes.

At many of the venues there will be stalls for street food and drink and, because Kulturnatten is always on the Friday of the mid-term school holiday, many of the events are aimed at families.

This year 230 organisations or venues across the city will be participating.

Over the years I've seen mock trials in the law courts; explored the main rooms and offices of city hall; seen the work of conservators; explored behind the stage of the national theatre; wandered through the main rooms of the Treasury and watched demonstrations of horsemanship and carriage driving at the Royal Stables.

This year I'm planning to see inside the Mast Crane at the north end of the harbour; see the great steam engines at the power station at the south end of the harbour working and possibly this will be a chance to look around the Traffic Tower where the train system for this half of the country is controlled. I'm also keen to see rope making on Nyhavn and the displays at the Ministry of Climate.

Entry to all the buildings and events is with a Culture Pass - DKK110 for adults - that can be downloaded through an app or can be bought at 711 stores throughout the city. Entry for children under the age of 12 is free.

The pass gives free use of public transport within the city from 4pm through to 4am on Saturday and includes the harbour ferries and rides on a fleet of veteran buses brought out for the evening.

Every year has a distinct graphic style for publicity and posters from previous years can be seen on an online archive that goes all the way back to the poster from the first Kulturnatten in 1993.

Kulturnatten
programme of events
posters

next week ......

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Next week … on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, the 10th, 11th and 12th August … the annual craft market will be on Frue Plads with works from more than a hundred professional designers and makers who are members of Danske Kunsthåndværkere & Designere … the Danish association of artisans and designers.

Frue Plads is the square alongside Vor Frue Kirke - the square alongside the cathedral in Copenhagen.

Frue Plads Marked
Danske Kunsthåndværkere & Designere

TOUR OF CPH - Sunday 2 July 2023

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On 2 July 2023 - to coincide with the opening of the world architecture congress in the city - a car-free cycle route was established around the centre of the city with a major cycle event for families - for any citizens as well as any tourists who could rent or borrow a bike - as long as they were on two or three wheels.

The ride covered about 8 kilometres in all through the streets of the old city and with twenty stopping places at key historic sites and major buildings where there were panels with QR codes for information.

The route took cyclists first from the Danish Architecture Center over Lille Langebro and along the quay, on the Amager side of the harbour, before riding through Christianshavn and then up to Holmen and close to the opera house.

Heading back along the canal past the Arsenal, they crossed back to the centre over the Inner Harbour Bridge to Nyhavn and then out towards Tolbod before heading across to the King’s Garden and then down through some of the busiest shopping streets in the city to Gammel Strand and around Frederiks kanal and so back to the Architecture Center.

There was an app for route.

All cars and all other motor vehicles were barred from the whole route with just five crossing points, with barriers and marshals, where some locals in their cars were allowed in and out but the only point where there was free and open access for vehicles to enter the central area was at Knippelsbro where vehicles could cross the bridge from Amager to the centre because bikes on the route were under the bridge on the quay.

Cyclists could join and leave the route at any point but there was an official start and finish at the Danish Architecture Centre where there was a festival area on Bryghuspladsen - in front of BLOX - with activities divided into four themes ……..

Green Everything - food, urban gardens and Hello Kitchen
Splash Splash - Green Kayak rubbish collection + fishing in the harbour
Active City - street sports, dancing and Parkour
Game’ on Move it - gaming, exercise + working out

TOUR OF CPH
Sunday 2 July 2023
12 to 15pm

I’m not sure if this event was as well as or instead of the annual Car Free Sunday.
If a date and a list of roads to be closed is published later in the summer, I will post infrmation on the blog

car free Sunday September 2021

Many of the cyclists were wearing T shirts with the motto Driving Change for Healthy Cities …. a campaign supported by Novo Nordisk that continues on from a similar cycle ride last year when the barriers for the opening section of the Tour de France last year were kept in place for a second day so that cyclists in the city could try the route

In the city, bike jams are surprisingly common.
OK …. not that surprising when you think about the number of bikes here.
But it’s usually at busy road junctions in the morning or in the evening when cyclists are commuting between home and work ….. here it was simply a hard turn to the left and then immediately a turn to the right to ride down to the canal in Christianshavn that slowed down the cyclists on the Tour.

 

Public Structures - Kunsthal Charlottenborg Biennale

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Public Structures explores the potential of advertising for artists to comment on how "value is constantly constructed and circulated."

The Biennale was curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist - director the Serpentine Galleries in London and Jeppe Ugelvig.

Works are shown in advertising panels and the exhibition opened on the 19 June in the main hall of the central station. From 3 July to 16 July the panels will be shown at numerous venues around Denmark.

Public Structures
Kunsthal Charlottenborg courtyard
26 June 2023 - 23 July 2023

artists:
Akeem Smith, Bless (Desiree Heiss & Ines Kaag), CATPC (Congolese Plantation Workers), Eric Andersen, AA Bronson + General Idea, Hans-Peter Feldmann, KAWS, Koo Jeong A, Luki von der Gracht, Maja Malou Lyse & Esben Weile Kjær, Martine Syms, Minerva Cuevas, Michael Rakowitz, Pippa Garner, Rasheed Araeen, Rosemarie Trockel, Serapis Maritime, Shuang Li, Sungsil Ryu, SUPERFLEX, Tromarama, Yinka Shonibare CBE, Yugoexport/Irena Haiduk

 
 

design festival June 2023

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In 2023, the annual design festival in Copenhagen - 3daysofdesign - runs through the 7th, 8th and 9th of June.

Exhibitions, launches for new designs, openings, talks and discussions … will be held in studios, design stores, exhibition venues, embassies and courtyards throughout the city.

Every year I try to emphasise just how important it is to plan your route around the city if you want to see as much as possible. This year there are just under 300 design companies, designers, design stores and museums and galleries participating and, just now, when I looked at the programme, there are 549 events listed.

For the first time this year - the tenth year for 3daysofdesign - there will be three official hubs for the festival …….. in the city it is in 25hours Hotel at Pilestræde 65, out on Refshaleøen the hub is Copenhagen Contemporary - Hal 6, Refshalevej 173A and down at Carlsberg Byen the events are centred around Mineralvandsfabrikken, Pasteursvej 20.

Around these hubs are 13 districts, each with a distinct logo, so events and openings are grouped together.

3daysofdesign
hubs & districts
programme

 

CAFx - Copenhagen Architecture Festival 2023

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A festival on urban planning, landscape and our built environment within the overall festival theme of Life Form.

Through the festival, there will be over 100 events throughout the city including exhibitions, films, talks, book launches and guided walks.

These will explore ideas about regenerative design, bio-inclusive biometrics, symbiotic co- creation and architectural asceticism.

Many of the events will be in two post-industrial areas of the city ..... around Halmtorvet and Kødbyen .... the old hay market and the meat market .... and in Jernbanebyen .... the old railway works.

Copenhagen Architecture Festival
1 June - 11 June 2023
events

 exhibition - Spaces of Dignity
1 June 10 August 2023

 Design in the Age of AI
SPACE10
from 2 June 2023


note:
If you subscribe to Politiken on line, they published a guide to the festival with essays and the full programme on 13 May 2023 and that can downloaded as a pdf file

 
 
 

Copenhagen Photo Festival 2023

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Today is the grand opening of the 13th Copenhagen Photo Festival. The "overarching theme is rewilding" and the festival is dedicated to the UN's 17 sustainable development goals.

The events are centred on Beddingen, the festival park on Refshaleøen, with 13 separate exhibitions, both inside and outside, in the old ship-building yards but there will also be exhibitions, workshops, talks and screenings around the city with major exhibitions on public spaces including Fang din By at Bryghuspladsen and exhibitions on Højbro Plads and Bertel Thorvaldsens Plads.

There are six major solo shows with the works of Nanna Heitmann, Craig Ames, Erik Berglin, Daniel Hinks, Hilla Kurki and Kristina Knipe.

On Sunday 4 June, in partnership with the festival, there will be a photo book market and talks throughout the day at GL STRAND

Copenhagen Photo Festival
Festival Office Villa Kultur
Krausevej 3
2100 København Ø

Programme
1 June - 11 June 2023 

Fang din by - Uden filter / Capture you city - without filter
9 June - 18 October 2023

 
 
 

Trends & Traditions 2023

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Trends & Traditions is a design trade fair that seems to be, after just a couple of years, a strongly-established and important event in the annual calendar for design in Copenhagen.

The venue is the old workshops in what was the railway yards and repair shops of DSB - the Danish state railway - and is out to the south west of the city centre. Most of the railway works have gone and this is now a major redevelopment area but curiously, although it is alongside the main railway as it runs out of the central station, for trains heading for Roskilde or for the airport at Kastrup and then on to the bridge over the Sound and then to Sweden, it is not the easiest site to reach by public transport although the event laid on shuttle buses. Because it was a warm and sunny day, the walk is pleasant and fascinating as a chance to look at the abandoned railway buildings.

There were just under 130 design companies listed on the event web site for this year and, although I did not take a check list to tick them off, all the big Danish design companies were here and a fair few from Sweden and elsewhere including Vitra.

Trends & Traditions is promoted as a furniture design “meet and greet” and certainly seems less competitive and more relaxed than the very big international shows. Generally, the area for each company is small and the stands themselves relatively simple with furniture set on the floor but usually with a few good information panels or display counters. It really is a good chance to meet designers and representatives from the companies.

The locomotive works has a good area outside and there were food and drink stalls there and a lot of coffee carts inside and many of the companies offered snacks and drinks so it feels like a fairly relaxed and very friendly set up.

There were also talks and discussions arranged through the day and this year speakers included Tom Dixon and Svend Brinkmann.

Several companies used the event to present newly-launched designs and there were some clear themes with several of the stands focusing on sustainability and reuse. The furniture consultancy and trade furniture supplier HolmrisB8 had a large area at the centre of the space to show reutilised office furniture and table tops and so on made from recycled wood or recycled textiles. Several companies showed solutions for sorting materials to be recycled from the home or in the office.

Trends & Traditions
Lokomotivværkstedet
Otto Busses Vej, Copenhagen
3 May 2023

including the FRAMA stand, an original option for a black and white version of the Panton Flower Pot lamp that has been reissued and details from the HOLMRIS8B stand

 

sorting waste to be recycled from Cube-Design

Danmarks næste Klassiker at Trends & Traditions

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There was a lot of interest in the stand at Trends & Traditions that showed some of the designs from Danmarks næste klassiker - the Danish television series that was broadcast in the Spring. At least four of the designers were around to answer questions.

What was not obvious, from watching the programme, was the high quality of finish of the prototypes.

The format of the show means that the designers are set a project task and then have just three weeks to complete the design, source materials, resolve problems and produce a prototype either themselves, in their own workshops, or, where special technology is needed, work with small workshops or small industrial independents.

Several of the designers worked with 3D printers and again the quality of the finish, seen up close, is impressive and clearly that technology is improving rapidly.

Danmarks næste klassiker / Denmark’s next classic 2023

Danmarks næste klassiker

 
 

Sustainability and reuse at Trends & Traditions 2023

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Sustainability is not just about which materials we use and how we use them but also about salvaging and reusing materials and about restoring or repurposing what we already have or, simply, making sure that what we buy has been made well so that it lasts.

Nearly ten years ago, for an early post, I wrote about Artek 2nd Cycle in Helsinki where the Finnish design company takes back it’s furniture for resale if it comes with it’s back story. I have just checked and I’m glad to say that 2nd Cycle is still going strong.

It was interesting at Trends & Traditions to see that Fritz Hansen, to its credit, is now offering a service to supply new shells for some of its chairs and also offers a service on it’s web site where you can buy spare parts for chairs including spacing blocks and new castors or wheel sets.

Too often, a small break or damage to one part of a chair or table has, in the past, meant that the whole thing has to be replaced …. it is inevitable that in day-to-day use parts like handles or hinges get broken but for too many large, international companies, keeping and selling spare parts has not been to their advantage …. why sell a small rubber block and tell a customer how to replace it if you can either sell a complete replacement piece of furniture or save yourself the hassle and cost of maintaining a stock of spare parts.

One of the clear selling points for Danish design is the quality of production - with the presumption therefore that the furniture will have a long life - but also Danish furniture companies have a strong sense of continuity …. Chair 7 has been in the Fritz Hansen catalogue continuously since 1955 so that is a lot of chairs that might simply need a new set of plastic caps for the legs. 

Sometimes, restoring or upgrading furniture needs specialists or the work requires equipment or specialist tools so there has to be work for a workshop in a city like Copenhagen where, for instance, the metal frames of chairs or tables could be professionally cleaned and then repainted to a high standard to be reunited with an original shell or high-quality top in ‘real’ wood or where a new colour or new upholstery can give furniture a new and equally long second life. 

Fritz Hansen SPARE PARTS

Copenhagen UNESCO-UIA World Capital of Architecture 2023

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UNESCO has chosen Copenhagen to be the World Capital of Architecture for 2023 and today, at City Hall, a year of special events was launched officially.

The annual UIA World Congress of Architects will be held in the city in July when there will be 10,000 architects in the city.

There will be 16 pavilions around the city that will show experimental projects that explore the 15 Sustainable Development Goals.

City Hall has a web site with a programme for the city through the year and there is an official site for the Congress.


Copenhagen Kommune announcement
World Congress of Architects programme
The 15 SDG Pavilions

Kulturnatten 2022

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This evening was Kulturnatten or Night of Culture in Copenhagen, when museums, galleries, churches, courthouse, government departments, libraries, theatres and the opera house and so much more, all open to show citizens what they do and how they work.

It's an amazing opportunity to get into major buildings that, normally, are not open to the public or at least not for people to just wander around and the evening is the chance to see behind the scenes of the major museums and galleries and theatres. Most of these organisations and institutions set up special exhibitions and they have guided tours and demonstrations with staff on hand to explain and answer questions.

Many of the events continue through to midnight and there are stalls where visitors can buy street food and drinks.

A culture pass - available from major museums and galleries - cost DKK 110 (just over £13) for adults. It gives access to everything and, with the pass. all public transport in the city is free which is useful because the venues are spread across much of the city.

Children enter free so it is an important family event and it is always scheduled for the Friday evening of the first weekend of the winter school break so it’s a real excuse for staying up late. It really is incredible to see thousands and thousands of families exploring their city at night.

Most years, I end up dashing around from one event to another - it's that fear of missing out thing - so this years I planned a tighter and slower route around the city. Somehow, since moving to the city, I have never got around to seeing the collection of plaster casts of ancient sculptures in a warehouse on the harbour so that was the start point and I wanted to see the Museum of Medicine in Bredgade, just two blocks away, so it also made sense to call in at Designmuseum Danmark nearby.

The route was not completely rational as I headed out to Nordhavn - because I wanted to see the offices of the architects Vilhelm Lauritzen - but then came back into the city and just followed my nose .... as much as anything to watch and to enjoy the broil of people having fun and learning more about their city in the process.

Kulturnatten

The Royal Cast Collection, Vestindisk Pakhus, Todbodgade 40, 1253 København
Medicinsk Museion, Bredgade 62, 1260 København K

The Royal Cast Collection in the West Indian Warehouse

Forecourt of Designmuseum Danmark … I liked the chair by Kaare Klint in one of the original display cabinets he designed for the design museum in the 1920s but set inside one of the modern cases designed for the forecourt by the architects COBE

The Museum of Medicine is in what was the Royal Danish Academy of Surgery. The building dates from 1787 and this was the original lecture theatre.
Through the evening of Kulturnatten they had a series of lectures here.

 

Golden Days 2022

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Golden Days is an annual festival that explores science, nature and our common culture and history “from a number of different perspectives, professional disciplines and aesthetic starting points.”

This year, the theme is Queens and to mark the jubilee of Queen Margrethe II - who ascended the throne of Denmark in 1972 - Kongens Nytorv - the large public space between the old city and the royal palace - has been renamed Dronningens Nytorv - the Queen’s New Square for the period of the festival.

The garden and the equestrian statue of Christian V have been enclosed by an oval of stark white plinths of graded heights with the tallest on the north side of the oval and the lowest on the south side towards the Royal Theatre.

Forty-nine plinths have plaques with the names of prominent women, selected by a jury, but the tallest plinth has a mirrored surface and is anonymous but will be marked with the name of a prominent or influential woman selected by the public.

One permanent statue to one of the women will be erected.

The installation was designed by BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group.

Golden Days - Queens
2 - 18 September 2022
programme of events

 
 

Frue Plads Marked 2022

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Today was the first of the three days of the craft and design market on Frue Plads in Copenhagen …. the square on the north side of the cathedral.

It is an annual event of K&D … Danske Kunsthåndværkere & Designere … the association of art crafts makers and designers. This year there are 110 artists and designers showing their work. All are members of the association.

Dansk Kunsthåndværkere & Designere Markerd 2022
exhibitors for 2022 with background information and links
Thursday 11 August, 12 - 19
Friday 12 August, 10 - 19
Saturday 13 August, 10 - 16

 

Welcome back ….. Designmuseum Danmark is open

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Designmuseum Danmark has been closed to the public for a major restoration of the building but reopened today.

When the pandemic struck, the design museum - like all public buildings in the city - had to close.

It has been said that around 90% of the income for the museum came from visitors to the city and that sudden stop to those tourists, and, as a consequence, to the revenue stream, had an immediate and dramatic impact.

For some time, it had been obvious, even to visitors, that the buildings needed some major work and a carefully-phased programme had already been prepared that meant shutting different galleries in a sequence of repair work that would have extended over many years. However, with the new situation, and with no certainly about when and how Coronavirus restrictions would end, a proposal was made to close the whole museum so that all the repairs and restoration work could be completed in a single campaign.

It seemed dramatic but, as things turned out, proved to be exactly the right call.

Perhaps the most obvious and most talked about work was to take up the distinct but distinctly uneven stone floor through all the ground-floor rooms to install a new under-floor heating system before laying a new floor. Every visitor must remember avoiding the cracks or looking round furtively as, shifting to look at something from a different angle, you made the display move or a case to rattle ..... or was that just me?

The new and highly-polished stone looks far too clean and shiny but I'm sure it will quickly wear in to a more subtle, matt finish.

For much of the last two years, looking through the railings, the whole building has been hidden under scaffold and major work has been completed on restoring decorative stone work, including the great pediment over the entrance, and the timber frames of windows and doors and the dormers have been repaired or replaced and repainted so the exterior, now free of the scaffolding, looks superb.

Inside, I was sorry to see that the timber blocks in the passageway through the east range have been replaced but I am sure that these too will settle in and gain some much-needed dust and wear.

In the galleries, walls have been patched or re-plastered and repainted but it is good to see that patina has been kept or recreated .... Danish house painters do amazingly perfect paintwork, even on old walls, but here the slightly uneven surface and the obvious build up and making good of paint layers does give a much softer and much more sympathetic background to the displays.

Some improvements are less obvious but again were crucial ... so large windows along the south side of the building have had secondary glazing added on the inside, and this appears to have special glass to take down the impact of UV so more natural light can be let into the galleries where, in the past, nearly all the windows were shuttered or covered.

In the great green courtyard, a large, temporary pavilion, built by Fritz Hansen for 3daysofdesign, is still at the centre but the lime trees have survived being at the centre of a building site and the grass is back and the lines marking the joins in the new turf are quickly growing over.

And the restaurant with seats and tables in the sun outside is back so all's right with the World.

Frederiks’ Hospital / Design Museum Danmark - the building

 

3daysofdesign 2022

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This year,  3daysofdesign - a major design event in Copenhagen - has shifted times and days.

In previous years, studios, design stores and venues opened on the Thursday, around lunchtime, with opening parties or launches for new products on the Thursday evening. Friday was a packed day and then Saturday was slower with a relatively relaxed winding down ending mid afternoon.

This year, it seems more focused because events start on Wednesday morning and run through three complete working days .... so Wednesday 15th June, Thursday the 16th and through to Friday 17 June.

In the past, 3daysofdesign was part serious design event - an open house for visiting buyers and professionals - and part a local celebration for people in the city, who work in the design industry, to show off proudly what they have done recently or reveal what is in the pipe line but it was also a chance to see friends and colleagues. People could meet and socialise and I hope that survives.

The official web site for 3daysofdesign is fantastic and it’s absolutely essential if you want to see as much as possible.

This is a design event for and by designers so it should not be surprising that a lot of effort and thought has gone into the web page and the app but they have deceptively simple graphics for what is a very sophisticated guide that has good photographs and a lot of information .... not just addresses and times, but good pen portraits so anyone can track down new companies or just refresh their memory on the hardy perennials. There are also short Journal entries with some interesting interviews.

On the site, Programme is where you start if you want to organise your time around openings or talks or even - just possibly - to find when and where wine and food will be available.

A section headed Search the Exhibitions is the what-is-where section and, even if you think you know which company is where, remember that companies do splash out on some adventurous one-off venues and smaller companies - particularly if they do not have a base here in the city - will open a pop-up shop or will camp out in a design hotel or an embassy.

This year there are 214 sites ... so you can see that - to have any hope of getting around what you want to see - you have to plan your route or your route march with some care .... even if it is only to be in the right place for the right food or the right booze. Your excuse, in that case, is that good design and good food are close cousins that bring out the best in each other.

The entry in Exhibitions will open up a pen portrait of the designer or the design company along with photographs and links to company sites and Instagram pages and so on .... a great way to get the right background information before trying to chat to a designer or the CEO.

There is a useful section on the site where you can Explore the Districts.

Copenhagen may seem compact - if you compare the city with New York or London or Milan - but remember tourists have suddenly been let loose here so, at the very least, plan your route so you only cut across Strøget and not walk along it.

 
 
 


3daysofdesign
15 June to 17 June 2022

Exhibitions Map

 
 

the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen opened on 1 May 1897

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Today is the anniversary of the opening of the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek on 1 May 1897.

The gallery was built to house the art collection of Carl Jacobsen that included French and Danish paintings, sculpture and antique art.

Carl Christian Hillman Jacobsen, born in 1842, was the son of Jacob Christian Jacobsen who had founded the Carlsberg Brewery in 1847. Father and son seem to have had a less than easy relationship and in 1882 Carl Jacobsen opened his own brewery, the Ny Carlsberg brewery, on land adjacent to his fathers brewery.

Carl Jacbsen travelled widely - in part to look at brewing in other countries but also to buy art. His home was at the west end of his brewery, just outside the main gate. As the collection of art grew, he extended and remodelled the villa and in 1882 added a new Winter Garden and in that year opened his collection to the public for the first time.

By 1885 there were 19 galleries alongside the house with a separate and ornate entrance from the road. Fourteen of the galleries were designed by the architect Vilhelm Dahlerup and the last five galleries by the architect Hack Kampmann. Both architects designed major buildings for the brewery.

On 8 March 1888, Jacobsen donated his collection of art to the State and to the City of Copenhagen but with the condition that they provide a suitable building.

After the old gates of the city were dismantled in the 1850s, the defences, with bastions and outer water-filled ditches, had either been levelled or, on the north side of the city, they had formed the starting point for laying out new public parks with new galleries and new museums.

The last stages of the work were on the west side of the old city. The pleasure garden of Tivoli had been founded in 1843 and was then just beyond the defences. By the 1880s, plans were being drawn up to build a new city hall between Tivoli and the old hay market, that had been just inside the old west gate and, initially, Jacobsen hoped that the new gallery for his collection would be close to the new city hall but, in the end, he agreed that the gallery would be built on the site of a ravelin below Holcks Bastion and immediately south of Tivoli.

Visiting the Glyptotek now, with its prominent position on HC Andersens Boulevard, it is difficult to understand why Jacobsen had reservation but an early photograph of the building, taken in 1897 from the tower of a new fire station, shows the Glyptotek isolated and with a water-filled basin close by that was part of a timber yard extending out into the south harbour.

The first stage of the gallery was designed by Vilhelm Dahlerup with a grand entrance front and two wings to the back that framed an open courtyard. Jacobsen’s collection of Danish and French art from the 18th century was displayed in these new galleries.

Then, in January 1899, Jacobsen donated his collection of Antique art to the Glyptotek and the building was extended to the west with new galleries that were designed by Hack Kampmann and Vilhelm Dahlerup designed a Winter Garden in the courtyard that connected the two parts.

an introduction to the historic buildings of the Carlsberg Brewery April 2022

Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek