August 10, Tuesday

We ended the trip with another busy day. It wasn’t quite as jammed packed as the day before, but close. We began the day at the National Playhouse, another building by Lundgaard and Tranberg and my other presentation. We also received a tour of this building, which was amazing! The main stage was designed to feel like a grotto. It forms a circle and is very intimate, it’s a pretty cool space. My favorite part of the building was the third floor where all of the administration, etc. is. You are actually in the giant truss roof structure as you walk around. I had to be sneaky to take pictures, so I did my best.

We then set off on our walk through town. We took the water taxi across the canal, past the opera, to the Architecture School. There was an exchange student this past year from Copenhagen, and he met up with us to show us his school.  We then went to eat lunch in the Free State of Christiania. This story is pretty crazy…Christiania was an area of old military housing, and in the 70s a group of squatters moved in. They basically fought enough that the government gave up and let them stay. To this day it’s a free state with their own government and a well known place to get pot. It’s a different world.


After lunch we had an office tour at Lundgaard and Tranberg. We met Lene Tranberg, who is about one of the coolest women in the business. It was great to hear them talk about their processes with some of their projects. They have a pretty sweet office right in down town. 

We ended the day in a beautiful setting at the Louisiana Museum. This museum (named after the guy’s three wives named Louise) is a private collection that he collected over many years. He donated it to the city after his passing with requirements that it stays very accessible. There were kids playing everywhere and you could go right up to the artwork. We sat in groups and looked over each other’s sketchbooks. Everyone was in a good mood, and the group of girls all stayed together and finished out the night. 

I can’t believe I’m on my way home, it seems so unreal. I don’t think I’ve been this excited for something in a long time (except for our wedding of course).




I love you all, thank you for reading and sharing my experience!

August 9, Monday

Wow, what a day!!

It's pretty late right now, but I had such a great day I had to share it with you all. We started the day at Bagsvaerd Church, a Jorn Utzon building. We haven't seen any of his other work, but he is most known for the Sydney Opera House. I wasn't too excited to go to another church because frankly I'm churched-out, but this turned out to be one of my favorite churches we've seen on the trip.

Next, we high-tailed it across the city to the Tietgen Dormitories. This project is one that was on the top of my list for buildings to see while in Scandinavia, and it didn’t let me down. As part of our assignments for the trip we were each given a few buildings to research and report on, and then present when we visited them. This was one of my buildings (my other one is tomorrow). I think that added to my affection for this building. I loved it, and it was definitely one of the best projects we’ve seen in looks, use and likeability. A student gave us a tour and discussed the building with us. A few highlights were the kitchens, which were stocked with supplies, but then left for the students to add things as they moved in, the living rooms, which were left unfurnished, but a sum of money was given to the students to figure out how to furnish them (they chose to have themes to each living room and to make them all different), and the general layout of the building (being in your personal space on the outside ring versus the public spaces at the center where everyone can see you). It’s a very community oriented space, and it has worked tremendously well. I could say so much more, but we went to four more places today so I will move on!

exterior of Tietgen

interior courtyard

close up on the room side of buliding

a basketball court for Greg

We then walked through the neighborhood down to Prags Boulevard which connects two buildings by Dorte Mandrup, Holmbladsgade Community Center and the Sports and Activity Center. Dorte is an architect who I researched a lot this last year, and she spoke at UW in the spring about some of her projects! It was very cool to see her stuff in person. I loved the interiors of her spaces.

Holmbladsgade Community Center addition

new upgrade inside the old building

Sport and Activity Center

green everywhere!

there was lots of playing today

We continued walking towards the water after leaving Dorte behind, in search of the Maritime Youth Center. It’s a great public park landscape type place, and really fun to play on! I’m not sure how many miles we had already walked at this point, but we continued along the water walking on the beach down to the Kastrup Bathing Pavilion, where we finally ended our day with some swimming! It was a great end to the day. The water was pretty cold, but you got used to it, and the weather had been a little nicer to us today. It’s a great hang out area with a few high dives, docks, and it’s just fun to play on. The guys were happy about the lack of rules (no running, no jumping, no diving…not a problem in Denmark).

Maritime Youth Center

from the highest point

a sweet driftwood model of the Center

bathroom hut and lookout along Amalgarstrand beach

the group strolling down the beach

swimming hole

inside the swimming area

my first jump into the water...off the high board

my back flip off the not as high board

post dive

even those without bathing suits participated

what a nice way to end the day

August 7-8, Saturday-Sunday

Saturday, August 7

We began our day by heading to the Malmo Eastern Cemetery. Maybe it was me just feeling sentimental about this being our last stop in Sweden, but I really liked this cemetery. The planning and buildings were done by Sigurd Lewerentz, the same guy who did part of the Woodland Cemetary in Stockholm. The feeling was very different though, this being a clearing. The most famous building in this cemetery is the Flower Kiosk (literally where they sell flowers). I spent most of my time there drawing it, and I’m glad I did because I was a little under whelmed when I first saw it. Drawing it let me get into the details and look at it more closely.

We took our bus across the giant bridge to Denmark! They made an island in the middle of the ocean there, so the bridge can go underground half way through the crossing. It’s pretty cool, and I’ve seen it from the air which is even more mind blowing (it looks like it just disappears).

Once we got to our hostel we took an orientation walk through Copenhagen! It’s such a great city. I’ve been totally charmed. We are seeing some of the most modern stuff of the trip, yet the city has that old flavor. It’s amazing how proud people are of design around here. There is so much support for experimenting and expanding in city planning and architecture, and the effort to do it well. It’s very interesting to see. 

Copenhagen City Hall

Vor Frue Church

cool square

The Round Tower

view from the Round Tower

King's Gardens

Amalienborg (Royal Palace)

Sunday, August 8

Our schedule is jammed packed for Copenhagen. We have very few days here to see everything we want to, and it doesn’t help that is raining…hard. It started raining when we got to the Bellahoj Amphitheater this morning and hasn’t stopped. I really embraced the rain today, no time for being miserable. The Amphitheater was pretty cool, but the building I really like we happened upon by accident to try and get dry. It was the Bellahoj Pool, recently updated. I really wanted to jump in.

We then went a different direction outside the city to Orestad. Orestad is a community that is being developed as we speak. It is a completely planned and structured area with a lot of new architecture (not all of it good). One building of note is the Mountain, a parking garage with apartments on top of it.

housing

housing

we found a place to play

the parking garage of the Mountain...pretty cool

the Mountain

We ended the day, wet, back in the center city at the Ny Carlsberg (like the beer) Glyptotek. It’s an old museum with a new addition plopped right into one of the courtyards. I was really intrigued by this addition, and I thought it had a great feel to it. The collection of art was also amazing.

addition to the Glyptotek

I ended my day with a smile and wet feet. Hopefully the weather will be better tomorrow!