Arkitekturens Dag / Architecture Day 2021

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Today, the 4th October, is Architecture Day - new connections to nature and Arkitektforeningen - the Danish Association of Architects - has a list of the events throughout the country.

The theme of the programme this year is nature and green architecture with a wide range of events from an exhibition in Herning about new buildings with connections to nature to a reading of her essay on Nature and the city by Ellen Braae and a lecture by Karsten Thorlund of the architecture firm SLA on the connection between city and nature in Aalborg.

There are conducted tours of housing in a rural setting in Norre Søby, Christiansfeld and Nær Heden west of Copenhagen and also lectures, ceremonies for the presentation of design awards and a number of discussion sessions including a debate about Copenhagen as a green city of the future.

Many of the projects are visually stunning and make a clear attempt to take on board the problems that climate change now forces us to tackle but there is a danger that, although innovative engineering has begun to tackle threats from storm cloud burst floods, there is a danger that some of the landscape settings become the latest fashion for municipal planting and perilously close to green washing where, in fact, any prevarication will mean that future solutions may well have to be much more dramatic, intrusive and expensive.

In some cases, attractive and more natural planting around new suburban developments and well-insulated homes from recycled materials may not "cut the mustard" and resettlements, severe containment of urban growth to halt the the spread into surrounding countryside and intensive cultivation for food rather than attractive ponds and tame re-wilding may be forced on countries and particularly where they are vulnerable to rising sea levels.

Arkitektforeningen / Association of Architects
Architecture Day - new connections to nature - programme

A project to re-establish the old Skærevej between Hammershus and Allinge .... Erik Brandt Dam with Realdania and the Danish Nature Agency

photograph: Bjørn Pierri

 
 

Nature in Domestic Architecture - A Danish Way
discussion to be streamed live

Hvalsø: Debat, udstilling og aktiviter
…. and a discussion with the architect Jan Albrechtsen from Vandkunsten to be streamed live

Hedehusene: Nærheden - fremtidens grønne og bæredygtige forstad
a city walk to look at large-scale green open space in the district

the Arne Awards

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L1176290.JPG

Arkitektforeningen - the Danish Association of Architects - has just announced the winners of the Arne prizes for 2021.

The Store Arne was awarded to TREDJE NATUR for their work on the climate mitigation scheme and remodelling and restoration of Enghaveparken.

The Lille Arne or small Arne was awarded to Byrummonitor - Urban Space Monitor - an online magazine on architecture and planning that was launched in 2018 by the Politiken newspaper group and aimed at municipal administrations, architects, consultants, contractors, investors, planners, politicians and researchers.

It is one of five sites in the Monitor format with the others covering the specific themes of climate, culture, schools and health.

the projects shortlisted for the Store Arne
Enghave Parken


Arkitektforeningen … the awards
TREDJE NATUR
Byrummonitor

 

Sankt Kjelds Plads and Bryggervangen climate-change scheme - winner of the Arne Prize 2020

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On Friday, it was announced that the climate-change scheme for Sankt Kjelds Plads and Bryggervangen by SLA architects and the engineering company NIRAS has been awarded the Arne Prize for 2020 …. the major annual award from the Danish Association of Architects.

The selection of a climate-change project for the Arne Prize has, if anything, more significance because this year there was a short list of six projects that included very strong contenders for the prize with the extensive work on Karen Blixens Plads - a huge project by the architects COBE that is at the centre of the south campus of the university - and the stunning stations of the new line of the Metro that opened in September.

Sankt Kjelds Plads is at the centre of a densely-built residential area immediately north of Fælledparken so it is about 4 kilometres north of the centre of the city. Most of the apartment buildings here date from the first half of the last century with most buildings of five storeys around attractive but enclosed courtyards and with wide but slightly bare and bleak streets.

Storms with sudden and increasingly severe rain have meant severe threats from flooding both as drains block and streets flood but also as rain-water floods down from the roofs.

This extensive and essential scheme to control storm water in the area was designed in 2015 with construction work and then planting undertaken between 2016 and 2019 and had to include extensive and disruptive engineering works for new drains and for sunken holding areas for water so sewers are not overwhelmed with cloud bursts.

A crucial part of the scheme was to rationalise on-street parking for cars and to reduce and slow down through traffic so large areas of what had been tarmac could be replaced with pedestrian areas with seating and with dense planting more like urban woodland than simply shrubbery around newly excavated hollows that act as temporary water-holding tanks but are otherwise planted with vegetation that can withstand occasional flooding.

Shale has been used around water pipes to slow the water that cascades from down pipes in a storm and there are large domed sumps with wide vertical drops to deal quickly with water from street gulleys.

What is already clear is that there has been major social gain from the work with new cafes and new businesses attracted to the square and to the nearby and related climate-change scheme for Tåsinge Plads just 80 metres to the east of Sankt Kjelds Plads.

initial assessment posted to Danish Design Review in April 2019
Tåsinge Plads

 
 
 
 
 

note:

Each year, alongside the main Arne Prize, there is a second award - the Lille Arne or Little Arne Prize - that recognises excellence across a broader range of work associated with architecture. This year the Lille Arne was awarded to Sydhavnens Folkmøde that provides a platform for local residents to have a democratic involvement in the on-going development of the south harbour.

Sydhavnens Folkemøde

 

the Arne Prize 2020

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Six buildings or architectural projects in Copenhagen have been nominated by Arkitektforeningen - the Architects Association - for their Arne Prize for 2020 and the winner will be announced  on 22 January 2020.

This prestigious prize was inaugurated in 2007 and, to be considered, work has to be in the metropolitan area and to have been completed within the past year.

nominees for the 2020 Arne Prize ……

Karen Blixens Plads - university square
Architect: COBE

Cityringens metro stations
Arup

Holbergskolens Næste Skur - shed built with recycled materials

Sankt Kjelds Plads - climate neighbourhood
Architect: SLA

Havebyen Mozart 74 - private house
Peter Kjær Arkitekter

Venligbolig Plus - affordable housing
ONV Arkitekter

Arkitektforeningen

Karen Blixen Plads, a new metro station on Cityringen and Sankt Kjelds Plads

Store Arne og Lille Arne / Big Arne and Little Arne 2019

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These annual awards from Arkitektforeningen or the Danish Association of Architects began in 2007. Winners receive an acrylic statuette that is printed with the face of Arne Jacobsen and hence the name of the awards.

Winners for works from 2018 were announced in a ceremony at BLOX on 18 January 2019.

Store Arne / Big Arne

winner:

Elefanthuset / Elephant House
architects: LETH & GORI

A brick chapel dating from the 1890s that has been restored and converted into an activity centre for patients with cancer. The building was part of the former hospital and old people's home of De Gamles By.

“The project shows an exemplary balance between humbleness and a personal and distinct architectural vision. Precise interventions all characterised by a refined materiality defines the project, that despite its small scale is able to bring new life to the building. By adding new functional layers the transformation opens up for a new era for the historic chapel building. The project is nominated for a vital transformation of a historic building that revitalises the house as an attentive and caring frame that embraces a vulnerable user group.”

Leth & Gori 

nominated for the award

Noma
architects: BIG + Studio David Thulstrup

Hotel Herman K
architects: Dansk Ejendoms Management A/S (inhouse)

Enfamiliehus på Kålagervej / Family house in Kålagervej
architects: Solveig Dara Draško Arkitektur

Tingbjerg Bibliotek og Kulturhus / Tingsbjerg Library and Culture Centre
architects: COBE

 

Lille Arne / Little Arne

winner:

KADKs kritiske forskning om Københavns udvikling / KADK Critical research on the development of Copenhagen

Atlas of the Copenhagens and Boliger Bebyggelser By / Homes Ensembles City by Peder Dueland Mortensen

- Bolig og velfærd i København / Housing and welfare in Copenhagen

“We are incredibly proud that peers at their own prize, acknowledge research as a key contribution to the architectural profession. We work every day to create the world's best architectural education, and we do so on our unique three-legged knowledge base: the practice of the subject; artistic development and, not least research. Therefore, it really means a great deal to us that with this prize research is appreciated on an equal footing with the other architectural disciplines.”

Katrine Lotz - Head of the Department of Architecture, City and Landscape at KADK - the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation.

KADK

nominated for the award:

Klimaflisen /Climate tiles
architects: Tredje Natur

Principper for cirkulært byggeri /Principles of circular construction
Fællestegnestuen GXN, Lendager and Vandkunsten

Resilient Aesthetics / Resilient Aesthetics
Forskningsindsats v. lektor Nicolai Bo Andersen, KADK

 

There are photographs and brief descriptions of the nominated buildings and work on the site of the Association of Architects.

Arkitektforeningen / the Danish Association of Architects

 
 

Fortællinger om et sted / Stories of a place

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Arkitektens fotokonkurrence 2018 / The Architect's Photo Contest 2018

Following a competition by the association of architects, this exhibition shows the five winning portfolios, each with five photographs of a building or a single architectural project.

In a World that seems to be dominated by superficial Instagram images this is an important exhibition because instead of a quick glance and a swipe right the photographs are presented for careful consideration.

It is difficult to capture, for the record, the qualities and the character of a building in a few images and one function of these photographs is to slow down the process of looking. These photographs are about trying to record what is essential about the style and the form and the materials and the setting of a building.

read more


the exhibition was open as part of the Day of Architecture on 1 October but continues through to the 26 October

Arkitektforeningen
Åbenrå 34
1124 Copenhagen K

Boliger til Folket / Housing for the people

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Immediately after the War there was clearly a shortage of housing but also cities realised that poorly-built housing - particularly the dark and tightly-packed housing that had been built in courtyards - had to be demolished and replaced with appropriate homes of a much higher standard

The exhibitions at Arkitektforeningen for the Day of Architecture is an opportunity to see here again the exhibition Boliger til Folket / Housing for the people about social housing in Denmark after the Second World War, so through the1940s and 1950s.

This was shown first in Copenhagen in the central library in March 2017 and was reviewed here. 

This is a second chance if you missed the exhibition the first time round but it is well worth a second look with profiles of several major housing schemes and includes comments by residents from interviews some remembering what the apartments were like when they were new. 

One aim of the exhibition was to re-establish the merits of these apartment blocks by focusing on the quality of the design and the high quality of the initial building work but it also emphasises the reasons for good and sympathetic restoration work to ensure that these buildings not only survive but that they have an ongoing role as good and desirable housing.

Arkitekturens Dag / Architecture Day 

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Architecture Day this year will be on Monday 1 October with events around Denmark. For the programme and information about times and venues see the site on Arkitekturens Dag by Arkitektforeningen - The Danish Association of Architects.

Arkitekturens Dag - Arkitektforeningen