- a fresh initiative based on a cooperation between artists / architects and a material producers exploring sustainabillity.
The first exhibition is now on display, called LINOLEUM DIAMONDS – a synergybased work of linoleum manufacturer Forbo, 036 and danish artist Malene Bach.
Durring the year alltogether 6 collaborations will be presented including events and after-work lectures and talks.
The Danish capital was endeavouring to be pronounced the world’s best city for cyclists in 2015. The bicycle is already considered to be the obvious means of transport by most Copenhageners because the city council has made a concerted effort to improve the infrastructure, safety and parking facilities for cyclists.
- every day 37% of everybody in Copenhagen arrives at work or education by bicycle.
- 25% of all families with two kids in the city own a cargo bike.
- the 519,000 inner city copenhageners own 560,000 bicycles!
Many people have written about the Green Wave bicycle lane in Copenhagen but few have actually documented it.
This is a long section of it, filmed from a bike. The film doesnt cover the way to the city centre but has instead a sequence of the morning bicycle rush hour. The ride started about 08:15 AM. 08:30-09:00 AM seems to be peak hours, although the flow never really stops.
Scaledenmark and Bjarke Ingels Group have signed an agreement of collaboration for the showing of VM Bjerget (known as VM Mountain). The guided tour includes a visit to the interior of one of the suburban homes located on 6th floor of the Mountain.
Opened in 2008, the VM Mountain was a breakthrough project for the young Danish star-architect Bjarke Ingels and his BIG team. The signature project challenges the traditional idea of the four-sided housing block as the only valid structure for housing and has set new standards in BIG’s home country Denmark as well as abroad – it has won many prizes including the prize for the world’s best housing project at last year’s World Architecture Festival in Barcelona.
The building houses 80 apartments, of which all except two are single-story flats. On average they measure 100 m2, and each includes a private terrace of about the same size. The homes are cleverly placed on top of a parking garage, or rather a parking cathedral with a ceiling height of 16 metres, sparkling with light and colours.
Scaledenmark has now included the VM Mountain in its standard visits. We will keep informing our guests of the activities of the VM Mountain via this blog.
ga-Paris and the Pavillon de l’Arsenal have signed an agreement of collaboration to discover the history of Paris, to analyse the contemporary city and to understand the metropolis of tomorrow.
Created in 1988, the Pavillon de l’Arsenal is a centre for information, documentation and exhibition of urbanism and today’s architecture of Paris, a unique place where the development of the city and the new architectural projects are presented to everyone. More than 300 architectural projects, 940 hectares of ongoing urban operations and six large territories in continuous mutation are introduced to explain the city of today and of tomorrow.
ga-Paris has included the Pavillon in its standard visits. We will also inform our guests of the activities of the Pavillon via our website as well as this blog.
Karriere is a new café/restaurant/bar situated in Flæsketorvet – the meat district of Copenhagen.
It is a new venue with huge ambitions – and the credentials to go with them: world class artists (Olafur Eliasson, just to name one) across a range of artistic disciplines have defined the functions and design of the place, making art part of a social space shared by a broad audience.
At Karriere, art wants to be a natural part of meeting, eating, drinking, relaxing and having fun, spurring communication, reflection and play.
Network-member a-tour from Hamburg offers two open excursions to Amsterdam and Hamburg in May and June.
The trip to the Netherlands takes place from 5 to 7 June and includes 1 full day and 2 half days of guided tours in Amsterdam, Utrecht and Rotterdam, organized by local network member architour. On the programme are the university campus of Utrecht, housing blocks by MVRDV in Amsterdam-West, the IJ-front of Amsterdam and the inner city of Rotterdam, including Museumpark and Kop van Zuid.
The excursion to Copenhagen will take place from 8 to 10 May and includes 1 full day and 1 half day of guided tours, organized by local network member Scaledenmark. Part of the programme are Amager beach, Holmsbladgade culture house by Dorthe Mandrup, student housing and housing blocks in Ørestad by a.o. Plot, BIG and MVRDV, the opera house and Amerikaplads masterplan by West 8.
Coach transfer from Hamburg is offered for both tours.
For more information about the tours, please contact a-tour: mail@a-tour.de
Photos: Office building Kraanspoor in Amsterdam by OTH Architects (top) and Prism House for Sports and Culture in Copenhagen by Dorthe Mandrup in Copenhagen (bottom).
Every three years, the city of Hamburg hosts the architecture event Hamburger Architektur Sommer. In 2006, young architects Torsten Stern, Marco Pawlik, Stephen Perry, Stefan Schrick and Ulrich Hahnefeld contributed the Architekturbox (see image on the left), an information and communication centre for the event. Located next to the Binnenalster, opposite Jungfernstieg and nearby the Kunsthalle and main station, thus in the heart of the city, the Architekturbox, which was based on a private intiative of the architects, turned out to be the main contact point for all visitors over the summer months.
Three years on, Hamburger Architektur Sommer will take place again – but it will be boxless. For 2009, the architects had designed a new information centre (see image below), based on their experiences from 2006.
This time, the Architekturbox was to be realised next to the city hall. Unfortunately, the city has recently withdrawn the assigned plot without suggesting any alternatives. It looks like the Architektur Sommer will have to make do without a central meeting point for visitors this year – and hope to succeed in realising an Architekturbox again for the 2012 edition.
The Ruhr area is famous for its series of landmarks, created by international artists on top of former mining dumps and in converted industrial buildings. One of the most important artworks is the Tetraeder (Bottrop/Ruhr area), realised by Wolfgang Christ and Jürgen LIT Fischer in the 1990s, during the period of “Strukturwandel” in the Ruhr area. Now the Tetraeder is the focus of attention again, due to an artwork that triggered a huge public discussion in the Ruhr area. The question is: who is allowed to define the public space?
Tetraeder in Bottrop by Wolfgang Christ and Fred F.’s aliens at the foot of the sculpture.
52-year-old Fred F. from Bottrop has created some images of aliens on the platform on top of the mining dump which serves as the base of the Tetraeder. He made them from old stones, which he collected on top of the hill and sorted according to colour (light grey to dark grey). Then he re-decorated the hilltop.
When the Regionalverband Ruhr rebuilt the platform and brought it back to its original state, it caused a landslide of public indignation: Many people in the area are convinced that Fred F.’s aliens were artworks as well.
People jumping around recklessly on avantgarde architecture – what could be more fun? Have a look at the teaser for the upcoming documentary My Playground by Kaspar Astrup Schröder, a film about movement, tricking and parkour in Copenhagen urban spaces, featuring the VM houses by ex-office PLOT and Mountain Dwellings by Bjarke Ingels Group as well as interviews with urban planners, local politicians, architects and philosophers.
More clips will be released during the winter. The film is scheduled to premiere in summer 2009.
Posted by: Scaledenmark
On January 17th 2009, the Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR) hosted the grand opening of a new concert centre - ‘Koncerthuset’. The new concert centre makes up the fourth and last segment of DR’s corporate domicile, DR Byen (literally ‘the DR city’).
The opening of Koncerthuset means a new national and international concert venue for Denmark and a new architectural landmark for the capital – and perhaps even for Northern Europe. Designed by Jean Nouvel, the building puts Copenhagen on par with other cities around the world which provide the best modern acoustics and visual settings for concert-goers.
In the long term, events at Koncerthuset will range widely in terms of size and genre: small-scale jazz concerts in the foyer, chamber music, choral, rock and pop concerts in the three smaller concert halls and symphony concerts, guest appearances and large-scale rhythmic concerts in the big concert hall. During the first season after the grand opening, it is expected that three major rhythmic concert events will be presented. After the first year or two following the opening, notable international and local artists within rock or pop music will find their way to the programme of Koncerthuset, as will a number of slightly more alternative or ‘street-related’ artists and/or DJs within the genres of e.g. electronica, trip hop etc.
Created in 1988, the Pavillon de l’Arsenal is a centre for information, documentation and exhibition of urbanism and today’s architecture of Paris, a unique place where the development of the city and the new architectural projects are presented to everyone. More than 300 architectural projects, 940 hectares of ongoing urban operations and six large territories in continuous mutation are introduced to explain the city of today and of tomorrow.
Network-member 
Every three years, the city of Hamburg hosts the architecture event 
On January 17th 2009, the Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR) hosted the grand opening of a new concert centre - ‘Koncerthuset’. The new concert centre makes up the fourth and last segment of DR’s corporate domicile, DR Byen (literally ‘the DR city’).
concerts in the three smaller concert halls and symphony concerts, guest appearances and large-scale rhythmic concerts in the big concert hall. During the first season after the grand opening, it is expected that three major rhythmic concert events will be presented. After the first year or two following the opening, notable international and local artists within rock or pop music will find their way to the programme of Koncerthuset, as will a number of slightly more alternative or ‘street-related’ artists and/or DJs within the genres of e.g. electronica, trip hop etc.