How I Spent My Wednesday

Let me just say, the architecture program here is excellent, if only for the reason that they drag you out of bed at ungodly hours in order to take you on site visits. Just such a thing was done yesterday when my 20th and 21st Century Danish Architecture class headed off to check out the buildings of Seeland. 


Typically, it was a whirlwind adventure, visiting five sites in eight hours: Gundtvigs Kirke, Bagsværd Kirke, Egebakken, the L.O. School and the Kingohusene. 


Rather than writing about all of these places, here are some pictures. I'll comment as necessary.

Grundtvigs Kirke. It looks very imposing outside...

But the inside is beautiful.

Inside Bagsværd Kirke. This was designed by Jorn Utzon, the same architect who designed the Sydney Opera House.

Egebakken, a community of elderly people designed by the Vandkunsten Group. The cool thing about this place is how involved the residents were in the design process. The initial concept for starting this housing project was initially thought up at a meeting of their dining club.

The stairs leading into the main entrance of the L.O. School. This is actually a large conference center, built and used by Denmark's largest union.

Inside the School.

The outside of a Kingo house. These were designed around the concept of privacy (as you can probably tell), also by Utzon. But while the outside might look like a prison, the interior courtyards are really quite nice and open looking.

The public spaces on this site are very wild. There are trees everywhere. In fact, there are so many that the residents set aside three days per year to go out and cut down trees. This is followed by a festive picnic.