biking big

on a cloudy and incredibly windy evening, my housemates went on a bike ride following the metro line from nørreport station near our apartment, to ørestad, a developing city area that is being developed using the new town concept with the metro as the primary public transport grid, connecting it with the rest of metropolitan copenhagen. the ride took us past some of the biggest names in danish (and international, for that matter) architecture, focusing primarily on big (bjarke ingels group) and some designs of note and of use by this incredibly young and innovative group. (all photos are courtesy of http://www.dac.dk/)

the first building we rode past was not a 'big' design, but a notable one nonetheless. three silos, all once a part of the soya bean cake factory, have now been converted into 'the gemini residence'. the old seed silo consisted of two raw, naked concrete cylinders. the apartments have been positioned on the outside of the two cylinders, whose glass walls and wide balconies offer panoramic vistas of the harbor and city. the silo cores have been converted into a lobby space throughout the height of the building. while we wanted to get closer and have a look around, the building and its immediate vicinity is strictly off-limits to non-residents and loitering near the harbor area (even though it is a perfectly nice and open spot with great views of the harbor and the city) is not allowed. taking something very proletarian and making it exclusive and elite. how danish.

gemini residence takes its name from the astrological sign gemini,
the latin name of the zodiac sign 'the twins'.

farther away, well outside copenhagen, we arrived at 'the mountain dwellings', a modern ten-level 'housing mountain' used for housing and parking. the 80 penthouse residence was designed by big architects who wanted the relaxed atmosphere typical of suburbs united with the social intensity experienced in an urban setting of dense buildings and city life. the mountain pops out of the ground like a suburb full of courtyard gardens spreading across the tall building: suburbanity and urbanity melting into one. while it's a visually intriguing building, no doubt, there are aspects of it that look quite 'gimicky'. and walking up the stairs to see the view from the top allowed us to look into each apartment - their shades wide open - and into the lives and details of every resident. while copenhagen might pack in a lot of people, this certainly seems excessive and a little out of place.

the northern and western facades of the parking garage depict a
photorealistic mural of himalayan peaks

the southern side of the building showcases each apartment's roof garden, edged by elevated flowerbeds in the shape of planter railings, designed to block the view to neighboring, lower-level apartments

seen in the parking lot, the underside of each level of apartments features a distinctive color scheme of psychedelic hues which, as a tribute to danish 1960s and 70 furniture designer, verneer panton, are all exact matches of the colors he used in his designs. a swiss-manufactured ski lift-style inclined elevator moves along the wall of the garage for access to the apartments

right next to the mountain dwellings lie the vm houses, inspired by le corbusier's unité d'habitation concept. shaped like the letters v and m, the apartment is designed with an emphasis on daylight, privacy and views. however, i still don't understand how an entire apartment made out of glass, and the design of the balconies, especially when occupied, make any part of this building seem private.

farther down the road is ørestad's high school, the first school in denmark with an architectural design intended to correspond to new visions on content, subject matter, organization, and learning systems. flexibility and openness are key words for the building and traditional spaces such as classrooms and lounges no longer exist in the high school of the future. instead, the building is divided into four "study zones." each has its own floor, which are linked by a wide, spiral staircase leading toward the roof terrace. however, we all wondered, if concentration and creativity are emphasized in this design, are not also short attention spans and distractions?

at the very tip of ørestad south, is a large figure-eight shaped building called 8tallet - formerly known as big house and our final stop. by this point we had biked from our apartment in central copenhagen to basically the airport. 8tallet is the largest residential building in denmark, with a 1.5 km-long path running around the entire perimeter of the building. what interested us more, was the cafe, located below the apartments, where we were about to devour a what might've been the largest burger i've seen in denmark. the shape of the house is turned and twisted so that it looks like a large infinity sign from above. we walked to the top of the building and saw copenhagen in the distance from one side, and the edge of the world from the other. an endless meadow, kalvebod fælled, seems poised and ready for a flood of young architects and handfuls of apartments and other buildings that are bigger, better, more innovative and make a louder statement than the last. regarding the future of danish architecture, i think it imperative to keep asking of designers and architects alike to keep in mind what has actually put denmark on the map in terms of danish design and architecture: the functionalist tradition - setting aside ego, and designing a product/building that can actually be used to improve people's lives. 

with the rain beginning to pour and the wind never seeming to die down, we began the long trek home, looking longingly at the metro speeding by us toward the city, the one place in all of denmark that doesn't seem to allow bicycles. but we made it home, soaked and exhausted, still full from dinner and stuffed with danish architecture.

a ballet fit for a queen

my history of european ballet class took its final trip to the royal danish theatre to see the royal danish ballet's premiere production of la ventana/ the kermesse in bruges. the former was a short, lighthearted and spanish-inspired bournonville piece; the latter was a comic ballet also choreographed by bournonville, following the story of three brothers who receive magic gifts from an alchemist with a stage and backdrop that looked like a massive brueghel painting.

however, while my intention was to lose myself as an audience member one last time to the incredible talent and beauty onstage, my eyes were wandering far too often. for to my right sat nikolaj hübbe, artistic director of the royal danish ballet and a legendary (and super handsome) bournonville dancer himself. he sat, intently watching his dancers, in a perfectly fitted tuxedo, a silver fox. and 20 feet to my left sat another danish icon. as the doors to the theaters closed just before the start of the performance and everyone began to settle into their seats, some sort of commotion caused everyone to hurriedly get up again. i looked around unsure of what was going on to find that not far from me, an older woman, all smiles wearing a pink ball gown and tiny bows in her hair, had walked into the royal box. she looked over the audience and proceeded to seat the entire theatre as she sat down on a plush red velvet chair on top of which was perched a small crown. and so, i watched my final royal danish ballet, at the royal danish theatre, on a pleasant may evening, in copenhagen, with margrethe II, queen of denmark.

the st. kjeld climate district

my danish design class took its second and last field trip to the outer østerbro neighborhood to the st. kjeld district. the area's wide streets, big brick buildings and antique shop signs refer back to an age when this was a real working-class neighborhood. however, this area is currently undergoing a major makeover by becoming copenhagen's very first "climate district". the goal is to give this old neighborhood a new identity with green streets, gardens with flowers, rich wildlife and water channels.

on the website, klimakvarter.dk, acting both as an information portal and a platform for involving citizens, residents can sign up for events, where they can learn about urban farming, green roofs for bicycle sheds and other climate-friendly initiatives. in this way, the residents are becoming personally responsible for the neighborhood's new green identity, giving the area also a social lift. residents working together on the various green initiatives will improve the environment, not only on a climate level, but also on a social level.

museum day

as a break from studying for finals, some of my housemates and i took a field trip to a number of exhibits at various museums around the city. our first stop was at the statens museum for kunst (the national art museum) for an exhibit called "flowers and world views". the exhibition explores a period when individuals were poised between a symbolic and a rather more scientific approach in viewing the world and sheds light on how this was evident in the art of flower painting. it shows how 17^th and 18^th century artists portrayed flowers, which is contingent on history and on how artists view the world.

we also saw the exhibition named “we the people”, which displays a full-scale replica of the statue of liberty has been built at a metal workshop in shanghai. however, the statue has not been welded together to reach its full height, but has rather, been split into approximately 400 fragments that have been scattered across the entire world. fragments including her crown spikes and feet have made it to copenhagen. her feet and toes were smaller than i had expected...

we then visited the danish architecture center, where there is a new exhibition entitled “your harbor at the dac”. this exhibition casts a spotlight on the rapid development of copenhagen’s inner harbor, which has been developing as an increasingly attractive, fascinating and open recreational area, providing the people of copenhagen with a wonderful range of activities and experiences.

from 2013, a total of four new bicycle and pedestrian bridges between nyhavn and christianshavn will make life easier for the many residents and students who cross the harbor entrance on a daily basis. the largest of the bridges is called inderhavnsbroen (the inner harbor bridge), which is being constructed as two retractable cantilever platforms whose decks can be retracted by a sliding mechanism when ships need to pass.

we ended the night with a cup of hot chocolate at a nearby cafe before getting a little more fresh air on the bike home, re-energized for a night of studying.

grød and graves

on a beautiful wednesday morning, my roommate, melissa and i decided to take advantage of the sun and bits of warmth that by chance was visiting the city. we rode our bikes to grød (in nørrebro), a very quaint little cafe tucked in the middle of street, where you can find nothing but endless varieties of porridge on the menu. we opted for the breakfast-like options that included spelt porridge with chestnut puree, apples, raisins, bananas, and toasted almonds. 

seeing that they also offered a variety of lunch and dinner options that included risotto and other seemingly appetizing options, we vowed to return again before the end of the semester. unfortunately, we never made it back.

kirkegaard's grave

h.c. andersen's grave

we continued our day of exploring the areas of the city that we had not seen yet. so we stopped to pick up lunch at the glass market (or torvehallerne), an indoor marketplace with over 80 different shops selling anything from coffee to bread to flowers, fish, cheese, wine, etc. i went with one food option in mind, a duck sandwich that a number of housemates had been raving about. i ordered what is essentially a pulled pork sandwich, but instead of pork, bbc sauce and a flat, doughy bun, my version was made with duck, mustard, and a fresh baguette. with our food items safely tucked into our bicycle baskets, we biked to kirkegaard's cemetery for a picnic. 

this enormous cemetery is the burial site of  countless danish notables as well as an important greenspace in the district. we munched on our food (the duck sandwich was quite tasty) and enjoyed the afternoon in the sun. while it felt slightly odd sitting in what is really a cemetery, but felt just like any public park, many other danes were likewise strolling the well-kept grounds, enjoying lunch or a few beers, taking a stroll, and enjoying the nice day.