Frederiksberg Garden Park

There is a nice, big park not far from my home, that gets totally packed on nice days. As the sun goes to shadow and moves across the meadows, people leave for home--until there is just one little corner of sun left warming the last few groups of people... In this shot you can see the rental boats going by--one of them holds a small string ensemble that played funny victorian court music.

Artificial Island Beach

On what was perhaps one of the last sunny days of summer, Amy and I spent a day at Amager Strandpark, south of Copenhagen's city center. This long strip of land with sandy beach is a new people-made island. Fill dirt and sand were brought in to fix an earlier (1930's) attempt at beach-making which was too close to the shore and thus eroded very quickly. Amager Strand is an amazing place when the weather is nice. There is a really smooth concrete boardwalk that travels the whole strip of land for skating, biking, walking or whatnot. The city also built 5 sweet concrete pavilions that have look-out balconies and stairs to the beach on top and changing rooms, bathrooms and showers underneath. There are also plenty of kiosks and little bar/cafes set up for living it up. Link to a good map of the island here.

Day Trip to Dyrehavn

Amy and I took a picturesque bicycle ride up the north coast above Copenhagen to take in a few sites. This is when I got to check out the Zaha Hadid museum that I already wrote about. We stopped at a little gas station designed by architect Arne Jacobsen in the 1950's. So perfect, that there was a tiny "Smart Car" filling up as we snapped some pictures of this gem. Look at that red clock on the white tile, sweet! Maybe one day there will be a sea change and whatever fancy new alternative energy we are using will require rethinking the design of our "re-charge" stations.



Dyrehavn (Deer Garden) is an old royal hunting grounds that is now a huge park and deer preserve. Riding along dirt roads we would pass herds of deer only a hundred feet away--there was always a king buck that carried a rack of antlers 2-3 feet tall. These guys were living so posh, they were practically domestic. Beautiful vistas and meadows.

Zaha Hadid and the Impressionists

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Ordrupgaard is a turn of the century residence and museum containing an extensive collection of French Impressionist painting from a Danish insurance guy. This place is now on the Architourist's map because of a new addition by Zaha Hadid. Also, there is a house next door that was the home of modern furniture designer/architect Finn Juhl. Link to Finn Juhl here. Zaha Hadid's extension houses a really really nice exhibition of Finn Juhl's drawings and furniture that works well in the quirky-shaped gallery spaces. The Monet's, Cézanne's and Renoir's however, hang in another area of Hadid's addition and the funky sharp angles of the spaces don't work very well. In some areas the tight corners were less than 90 degrees and the paintings were almost on display for each other rather than for me. Ironically the spaces that are really really nice in the Hadid museum are the ones that don't have any art in them. The top picture shows the beautiful cafe space and surrounding landscape. The bottom left image shows one of the picture galleries in the old residence, the one on the right shows the addition.

Thor's Breakfast

As many of you know, I'm big on food. You also might know that Scandinavian cuisine, including Copenhagen here, is not the most exciting... well I guess there are forty kinds of pickled herring, but really, I'm not kidding myself--I'm not in Italy, France, or Seattle even (which actually has great restaurants). On top of that, eating out here is really expensive. There are gems to be found of course, and we (Amy and I) found one for weekend brunch called Meyers. Thanks for treating me Ames! (and at the other places too!) Weekend brunch is a really big deal here--weekends in general are a really big deal. People know how to take it easy and enjoy life. Retail closes early on Saturday and on Sunday many places including grocery stores are not even open! So to get on to the food...

Brunch in Copenhagen I've found is similar at different cafes in the sense that one orders a brunch plate, and this plate has many different things on it. And when I say many different things, I don't just mean three or four, like bacon, eggs, toast and potatoes... no... I mean, a down right Cornucopia!! A norse god feast!

Now take a look at the picture above and keep in mind that we had two other plates that came with this one. Here is a list of all the items from one order of brunch:

• Mixed green salad with almonds
• Two big hunks of cheese, french blue + spanish "prima donna"
• Two grilled sausages with home-made tomato ketchup sauce
• Roasted potatoes with spinach and herbs
• Two slices of dry cured ham
• Two full slices of fruit-cantelope and melon
• Really good yogurt w/granola + strawberry on top
• Ramekin of baked eggs with cheese and leeks
• One croissant
• Two slices of bread with butter and jam
• One full size glass of apple juice
  
• Extra: One Cappuccino!
  

Wow. That's eleven different things, plus a coffee. Food coma! Delicious.
Price: 135 danish kroner... that is about $26.00, plus the coffee. Keep in mind that an average restaurant sells a burger plate with fries or salad for 100 dkk or $20.00 Tax and tip are included in the prices.

Following Peter Cohan Remix

Amy and I found ourselves, once again, following Peter Cohan around looking at architecture projects. (Amy went on Peter and Jen Dee's Architecture in Scandinavia Program when she was in school, and I went last summer.) Peter had whipped up a good itinerary for some students in the Copenhagen Classroom summer program. Amy and I had already seen most of these projects, but we did join them for a day's touring of a few we hadn't.

Diagonal Elevator


One highlight this day was a tour of B.I.G's new "Mountain" housing project in a new area of Copenhagen called Ørestad. B.I.G's architecture is a bit wacky, but certainly entertaining, and this project had among other novelites, a diagonal elevator. That's right, a diagonal elevator. This was a fix to the challenges created by a cascading cluster of residencies (nicely stepped to accept sunshine and provide private balconies) on one side of the project and a giant parking garage on the other. The connections needed between the two, as well as juggling all the various levels becomes quite difficult... so, someone must have said "hey, rather than multiple elevator cores, lets just do a diagonal elevator." I'm sure the clients and engineers had a heart-attack when they heard that one. But BIG made it happen--they worked with OTIS elevator and built a crazy custom thing straight out of Willy Wonka's World.
See the Mountain and other anomalies at BIG.dk

Louisiana Redux

Amy came along on my second visit to the Louisiana Museum, just north of Copenhagen. On the first trip I was a bit distracted by the art (which is a good thing), so this time I really focused on the design of the museum itself. The Louisiana is a fantastic place for many reasons but one of the things that works so well are the long, narrow passages that lead from gallery to gallery--open on one or both sides to the landscape. The plan is to take a photo of this same view on my next two trips to the museum--different seasons, time of day, weather, etc.



The underground wing of the museum is currently staging a very appropriate exhibition: Art Museum Architecture. Sound familiar? The exhibition is a very nice overview of the breadth of museums out there as well as the incredible range of architectural solutions realized and in process. There is of course a SANAA room, which happens to also be the brightest and most white of all the rooms in the underground exhibition area--no accident. I participated in a great seminar on the Japanese architects last quarter and this post is in tribute to Ken and the rest of the class. I will say that the University of Washington Henry Art Gallery SANAA exhibition guest curated by Ken Oshima was better! We had more models and objects, while the Lousiana has more photographs. There is a really nice model of the 21st Century Museum though...

Architourists

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With Amy in town for a few weeks, I was able to be architourist with a willing accomplice. We picked up the Copenhagen X New Architecture guide and went about visiting almost every project/development in the book! It was great to have insights from a trained landscape architect to keep me from focusing on building details all day. Thanks Ames!

The map shown above has a few landmarks that I added, as well as a ton of little dots that represent all the new architecture in the most central part of copenhagen.



One of my favorite new building projects is a community recreation center is Amager. The interior is just fantastic--green rubbery floor, white steel and natural wood structure, diffused natural light coming through a translucent cladding that covers the entire building. The relationship to the neighboring building as an addition is also really nice. The grounds around the building aren't really designed at all though, and the entry is just a door in the wall... both a bit weak, but man, how I'd love to have a day long sports medley in this place!
Link to good pictures on the Copenhagen X website here.



Another great project, which is really a series of new public plazas, is located near my place in Frederiksberg. It's fantastic to ride through this area on several off-street bike paths that weave through the plazas. This photo shows one of the plazas at night that has a pattern of bottom-lit spray nozzles that create mini-clouds of glowing water. In the background you can just make out the blue l.e.d. lights behind an artificial waterfall. This area includes some really nice buildings as well. Residences, a high school, business school, movie theater, grocery store, fitness center, cafes and bars are all either in new buildings or adapted reused ones. I will make a post on one of these buildings later on, once I can sneak inside to get better pictures.
Link to the Landscape Architects who designed the plazas here.

Museum Medley

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Left to right, from the top:

Thorvaldsen's Musem
Danish Sculptor, lived and worked in Rome for 40 years. The museum opened in Copenhagen in 1848 and this wing on the top floor is exactly the same as it was on opening day. There are a series of rooms containing beautiful wood and glass cabinets that display Thorvaldsen's personal collection of Egyptian, Greek, and Roman antiquities. Each wing is designed to have a long enfilade of 8-10 rooms. (shown in the picture)

Nicolaj
This is housed in a 13th century church, and shows mainly contemporary art. While I enjoyed the painting show (Link here: Paul Gadegaard) the conversion of the church into an art venue seemed a bit, well, unconverted. Perhaps they just have a lack of funding, but for example, instead of just whiting out the whole space, they painted a white stripe across the bottom fifteen feet or so, level with the temporary partition walls. The general effect is one that implies the museum is only temporarliy squatting in the church, rather than fully altering the use. While this might seem more poetic, I think the place would be more powerful if it "colonized" the old building a little more.

Cisternerne
Ok, this museum gets the strangest use of an old space award. Modern glass art is shown in the raw, underground spaces of an old water reservoir beneath a green lawn at Frederiksberg Park. There is a small pavilion above ground that acts as ticket booth and entrance while the extensive concrete spaces below are left practically unchanged. The floors are wet with seeping water and there was a big squeegy mop by the main hall implying that the floors must require a certain amount of maintenance every day. I guess they figured glass art would hold up best under these conditions and could be successfully lit with electric light down in this very dark cavern, but the end result is a bit weak. Maybe its my architectural prejudices, but I would have been just as happy if there hadn't been any art on display in this place! Well, there was one really nice room that held full size human figure stone sculptures circa 1700s, that really activated the column-filled space to the effect of "tomb." The acoustics were incredible down there (garbling and looping any distant visitors speech into an ambiance on par with old Cocteau Twins records) and the wet, drippy floors intense and creepy (in a good way). I couldn't get a good picture of the huge rooms that seemed to keep on going, and going... because of the low light levels. My new camera doesn't have the handy 5-10 second exposure option my good old canon had. Link to Cisternerne's site here.

Gammel Strand
This small museum located in the city center is in an old house designed by danish architect Philip de Lange. The building is easy to miss, as it is simply part of a continuous urban block of buildings, rather than a stand alone feature. This humble quality is fantastic for showing young contemporary artists (their focus) because of the often great contrast between the very "homey" interiors and the often challenging imagery and content of 21st century art. This photo shows a beautiful brass, steel and wood stair that may be original...

Fancy Pants Pølser

There’s a funny little hole-in-the wall gourmet hot dog shop attached to (and run by) the Nimb restaurant at the Tivoli amusement park. They fix-up quite the upscale version of the classic Danish hot dog which normally includes ketchup, sweet mustard, both crispy dried and raw onions, and pickled cucumber slices. The fancy pants version comes with three flavored sauces, carmalized onions, french cornichons and is topped with micro-greens--not to mention the little wooden veneer boat that it rides in... Wash that down with an Wild Elderflower soda and that is the high life.

For those interested in more nuances of Danish Pølser,
see Susies hot dog posts here.

Bikes!

One of the city’s infrastructures that has such a defining role on everyday life are bicycle lanes. Valle scholars from UW have come to Copenhagen just to study bicycle planning and now I can understand why. There are so many subtle aspects to the way bicycles are considered and integrated into the city as well as in the etiquette of riding. The most fundamental of these, are the purpose-built bike lanes. The streets usually lay out in this very important order: Sidewalk - Curb - Bike Lane - Curb - Street. Having a small curb that separates pedestrians from bikes and bikes from cars makes a huge difference! Riding in the city is much safer, easier, and as Susie put it, “civilized.” (...doesn't hurt that it's flat too.) The Danes grow up on bikes (the little ones learn on tiny two wheel bikes with no pedals), and it’s easy to tell when you see them ride -- as a common example -- a woman swiftly riding a bike while wearing a skirt and high-heels AND talking on a mobile phone, while in the speedy left lane passing a slower rider.

Once Amy and I procurred our own wheels from an immigrant-run bike shop called "Babylon Cykler" we made much quicker work of discovering the city. My bike is a good example of the most common mens bike. I've only seen a few road or mountain style bikes. (pictured at top)



There are some really really great bicycles and bicycle-makers in Copenhagen. This is one of my fayvo’s by Danish bikemaker Sögreni. Notice the brass details: fenders, pedals and bell.

Some websites for those interested:
Check out the first one for sure.

http://www.pedersen-bike.dk/
http://www.mybikes.dk/
http://www.christianiabikes.com/english/uk_main.htm
http://www.sogreni.dk/index.php
http://www.velorbis.com/

Pølser!

Hot Dog stands are on every other block in the city and I've heard that the owners make a good deal of money. (Seattle coffee carts?) In order to own one, the city requires that the owner be someone who is unable to hold a "regular" job for reasons relating to injuries, learning disabilities, etc, etc, etc.

Now you may look at this image of a hot dog stand menu (and there’s more too, this is just the top half of the menu) and think to yourself, well sure these look like regular old hot dogs. You might think, oh, maybe they just took photos of some of the sausages outside of the buns in order to better view the subtle differences between the meats. Well, I’m here to tell you no and nope. At least half of the varieties offered come as a grilled hot dog and a toasted or grilled bun as two separate items on a little paper plate. The bun doesn’t even have a slice in it, so there’s no puttin’ the dog in the bun after-the-fact. I’ve watched people eat these, and usually they hold the bun in one hand and the sausage in the other. They squeeze several different condiments on the plate and proceed to dip and bite, dip and bite. This is incredibly strange to me, because I thought the whole point of the hot-dog, is that the dog is HOT. Too hot to hold for that matter, which is why the bun was invented--as a thermal buffer between the hand and the sausage. Not to mention, the bun also functions as a convenient and very efficient vehicle for various toppings and sauces. I just don’t understand the idea of separating these two things that work so well together. So, consider this a call-to-opinions on the matter - and I’d especially like to hear from Susie here, since she took to the Danish hotdog culture like a natural.

Rådhuspladsen

Copenhagen’s City Hall is just fantastic and provides a generous public plaza that seems to continually hop with action. There are always at least two hot dog stands operating at full-tilt... which leads me to my “pølser” (hotdog) post in tribute to my pal susie. She was in CPH this past spring on a Valle Scholarship. Link: Susies Valle Blog

Louisiana Museum

The Louisiana is an unassuming yet powerful place--and it shows up or is mentioned, in almost every book on art museum architecture that I have picked up. This is, in part, because of its open relationship to the landscape that surrounds it--they way one can wander through the galleries, go through an "unlocked" door to one of the sculpture gardens and back inside through some other passage. On occasion I felt like I was just visiting a wealthy uncle who gave me free reign to wander around his summer villa. I know you are just dying to know, everyone does--why is it called "Louisiana?" Well, the original white villa was owned by a guy who had three subsequent wives, each with the name Louise. In 1958, the owner at the time, commissioned the first part of the museum, and named it after the legacy of Louise(s).

Photos from the top, left to right:
(click image to enlarge)
A. View towards the original villa with newer wing on left
B. The famous Giacometti room, with view out to the lake
C. One of the many multi-layered views through glass
D. Note the sweet gold plate endcap on those beams!
E. Sigmar Polke, incredible painting on translucent material
D. Tourists on the cafe lawn

Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek

The Glyptotek is a really beautiful museum. The entrance leads to an expansive space containing a winter garden, which I imagine is a comforting place during the dark and cold scandinavian winter. The rooms containing stone sculpture are especially striking because of the large amount of natural light from above. I visited this museum last summer but didn't really have time to soak it in. Now I'm thinking I'll be a regular visitor on free Sundays to just hang out... It's the kind of place I could just sit and read a book and enjoy the atmosphere... and there's something about all the statues that seems like having "company."

The bottom photo is a shot of a gallery ceiling that curves down to form three walls without creating any angles. The light comes in from a single large window on the opposite wall. There are several galleries like this, each with a different relief pattern. Very nice.

Tour Boat Tourniquet

The first couple weeks I played the role of everyday-tourist and had the pleasure of visiting some of the main sites with my mother when she passed through for a few days.

We took the city canal tour in a long flat boat which magically fit through the very small bridge openings. Did they measure before building these boats or just get lucky?



Copenhagen has two very new houses-of-culture on the harbor. On the right is the National Opera building by Schmidt Hammer Lassen. To the left is the National Playhouse by Lundgaard+Tranberg which, by the way has a very nice outdoor bar on the wrap-around wooden deck. Which also, by the way doesn't have any hand railings, but just a nice little ten inch bump-up on the edget that houses lighting and seconds as a bench. You can sit at the edge in a comfy chair and really feel right on the water.

Tangent: A common theme I’ve noticed on most waterfront areas in Copenhagen (even the brand new areas built on fill or post-industrial sites) is a thickened outer-most edge for people, bikes, cafes, etc. It seems like a no-brainer, but not really... In Seattle, the downtown waterfront (minus the new Olympic Sculpture Park) consists of a large sidewalk and then a strip of buildings, THEN the water. The buildings block any direct connection with the water. If we just had another edge on the water-side of these buildings there would be opportunities for oudoor cafes, bars, bike/jogging lanes, benches, trees and all the things that make for a useful public space. Maybe then locals would have a reason to go down there. This kind of artificial edge could be useful regardless of what happens to the decaying viaduct roadway.

København

When the Danes say "København" it sounds nothing like the english version "Copenhagen." But its great! It almost sounds like they are saying "Coop in Hound" with a soft d at the end. What would a "coop in hound" be?

This is a postcard-style shot of one Copenhagen's oldest (1670's) harbor canals called Nyhavn. It's the street that you will recognize if you've ever seen any images of the city, and is on every postcard rack around--but for good reason. It's a really great place. You will find tourists and locals both, filling the cafes all the way down the street. And for those on the cheap, you just grab a can of beer to-go and sit on the edge of the canal facing the cafes to watch the world go by. And go by it does, all day, every day, even in the rain you can see people here in the cafes with complimentary blankets over their laps, or tourists taking the long-boat canal tours.

Royalty get Freaky

Rosenborg Castle was first a royal summer house, then used as a royal residence on a few occasions, until finally opening up as a public museum. The Danish crown jewels are stored in the basement and attract the most attention. My mother and I overheard a guide explaining that should the Queen fancy a little skiing in Norway for instance, she would not be allowed to sport her favored giant emerald earings and matching necklace, because they are not allowed to leave the country of Denmark. What a shame.

Anyway, my favorite room in the castle is somewhat of a enigma. My theory is that when the wine (or something else?) was flowing, the Royalty would get royally freaky in the room-of-mirrors. That's right, a room covered in mirrors on the ceiling, all four walls (including the door which is practically invisible) and most of the floor. All trimmed in beautiful hardwoods of course, along with some swirly etching. Wow. [You can just make out the top of the door in this image which is a view of an upper corner.]

August Replay Starts Here

A big thank-you to my Danish friend Mark for every little thing: Providing a place to crash before I moved into my rented room. Navigating me through mobile phone simm card purchases and set-up. Showing me around his neighborhood Nørrebro, which is the Brooklyn of Copenhagen. And last and certainly not least, lending me money. Ok! I met Mark while he was studying at the University of Washington this past year... and lucky for me he returned to Copenhagen before I showed up.

A little on where I am staying: The rather large development is called Solbjerg Have. Its in the outskirts of Frederiksberg, which leaves me an easy 15 minute commute to the city center... and maybe 20-25 minutes to the Danish Academy architecture school. I have a room within a two-story apartment shared with the owner and her ten year old daughter. Apparently the housing project won some awards when it opened in the early 1980's. The programming got all the attention, not the architecture. The idea is that there is a community, which provides specialized care for children and the elderly but in the context of a typical neighborhood. The family housing is contained in perimeter buildings while lower 2 and 3 story buildings in a courtyard house a school and facilities for children and the elderly-- including apartments, dining, and hospital care. And yes, it is true, there does seem to be quite a few children and old people, running around or rolling around respectively. It seems like a great idea, and many people I talk to seem to have heard of the place. My personal apartment situation leaves quite a bit to be desired, but I won't get into that.