Architects and engineers in Copenhagen (Part I.)
These trips are actually one of the most valuable company benefits we have at CASUA.
On Thursday after work, we flew to Copenhagen and stayed at the modest but very well-designed hostel Next House Copenhagen.
In the morning we went to the Maersk Tower to meet its designer, Mads Madrup Hansen, who took us through the campus from the ground floor through lecture halls and laboratories to the top floor, which is designed for relaxing and enjoying the view through the glass façade of downtown Copenhagen. In fact, places for rest and study were scattered throughout each floor, not only in the form of table seating, but also as an alcove in the wall or a huge staircase with cushions in the lobby. An interesting feature of the campus for us is the local garages, which have a slightly smaller door for a photo booth and you don't drive into them, but ride a bike. There are bicycles at every turn in Copenhagen. This particular building is where they park on handy deckers in two or three height levels and you can fit a lot of them in. Another thing that is generally worth mentioning in Denmark is the greenery. It's ubiquitous and pretty wild. Here we play with decorating the flower beds with small shrubs, berries and ornamental grasses. Here we have larger trees, usually birch or larch, around which grows wild tall grass that we would probably call lebeds or weeds at home. But here, amongst the modern architecture, it looks very natural.
After the tour, we walked to lunch at the architectural firm C.F. Moeller, where Maibritt Dammann showed us how local architects approach the creation of sustainable hospitals. We saw beautiful modern hospitals that were set into the landscape so that part of the building always blended in with the natural mass that loomed nearby. The office builds hospitals not only in Denmark, but also in Norway and Germany.
After lunch, we were transported to Copenhagen's new neighborhoods, which are being built on sand embankments in the sea. At the end of one such embankment, the Bjarke Ingels Group, the architectural firm that is proud to have delivered the winning design for the Vltava Philharmonic, has built its headquarters . At BIG we were accompanied by two Czech architects, Jan Magasanik and Jan Kyselý, who have been working for BIG for a long time. The interior of the building is dominated by a beamed staircase. In addition to the interior space and its organization for the architects' work, we could also admire the beautiful views of the sea. The building was built according to the LEAP principles that BIG promotes. It is a collaboration between landscape architect, planner, architects and product designers. From our point of view, this interconnection of professions is very functional. The architects here are now learning to pick up flies all over the place on buildings that are being built in really close proximity to the sea.
After this tour we went to process all the experiences and impressions in the former naval warehouse Refshalevej, where you can now find dozens of stalls with delicacies from all over the world, a branch of the Mikkeller Baghaven brewery or the Michelin restaurant Noma.
