#492 - COPENHAGEN ARCHITECTURE: OMA, Jørn Utzon, BIG, and more
SUMMARY
This week, David and Marina of FAME Architecture & Design review the architecture of Copenhagen. They discussed local apartment developments, modern and old neighborhoods, infrastructure & civic design, facade design, building details, Blox building by OMA, the Bagsværd Church by Jørn Utzon, BIG’s 8 House, The Mountain, and VM Houses, the Black Diamond building, the Grundtvig Church, and more. Enjoy!
TIMESTAMPS
(01:41) Copenhagen apartment design.
“The area where most architects fail is the outdoor space. It drives me nuts because arguably the most important part about creating a community is that negative space, the public space to share experience. I think it points to when you have 3 or 4 different developers on a giant lot with each doing their own building, who is the person and the trade that ties it all together? Everyone wants to buy a piece of land and build their thing, but no one wants to spend the time or money to hire a coordinator to make sure that the whole neighborhood actually works together.” (07:00)
(07:49) Modern vs old neighbourhood design.
“The reason why a lot of people dislike modern architecture is, I think, partly valid, and it's the lack of decoration. More specifically, it's a lack of depth, texture, and soul to the building. When you have a building that's mostly flat with just punched openings, it's minimal, and it's hard to feel comfortable at all. Most historical buildings in historical districts have this layer of decoration or ornamentation, and it just helps everyone feel like they're more connected to the environment.” (12:15)
“A lot of contemporary work focuses too much on the form of things and how it looks as a decorative sculpture rather than thinking about the experience that the structure is creating for people. I don't mean experience as in experiencing the structural gymnastics of the building. I mean the experience that the architecture is framing or outlining to take place. It goes back to the idea of architecture as a stage or a platform of sorts. I feel like a lot of contemporary work needs to think more about that.” (21:54)
(23:09) Subway station wayfinding.
(25:38) Infrastructure & civic design.
“This is the type of thing where someone's at a lecture hall [giving a super cool presentation of the project’s concept & diagram], but when you go there, there's nothing amazing about the aesthetics, which is the majority of how we experience things. There is this weird thing in contemporary architecture where we all get super jazzed up about the concept of something, and diagrams with lines that don't exist in real life. Meanwhile, the actual thing in real life is almost nothing because it doesn't present anything of aesthetic or experiential, spatial value.” (28:44)
(36:18) Random patterns on buildings.
(40:53) Modern & historic buildings juxtaposition.
(46:15) Markets & Amusement Park.
“It's almost like when we design cities, we don't dream enough. All of the stuff you would want in a city was in this amusement park, but in some parts of the city, you couldn't even get to that level. I think it goes back to the conversation about zoning regulations and codes, etc. We collectively just follow the rules too much and forget about the fun.” (48:33)
(50:13) Execution of building details.
(55:31) Blox building OMA.
(01:01:10) Churches in Copenhagen.
“An aspect of what makes some architecture so amazing is the abandonment of being so conservative and stingy with space. How much of the built environment has to be efficient with space? I know that sounds crazy, like why would you not be efficient with space? That's because you should use space for quality. You shouldn't use space just for dollar signs.” (01:04:30)
(01:13:00) BIG Projects.
(01:24:04) Black Diamond Building.
(01:26:54) Grundtvig Church.
