Rehabilitation and renewal
Sometimes one finds oneself in the paradoxical situation of reaching backwards to conservative values and experiences in order to make a progressive stand. It was this situation that the artist Bjørn Nørgaard and the architects Boldsen and Holm encountered when they began to develop a strategy that might pave the way for a new sense of quality and renewal that they felt was lacking in modern building construction. Their attempt to integrate architecture, art, technology, and especially individual craftsmanship into a dignified whole resulted in the project for Bispebjerg Bakke, a large apartment complex with 135 units in the north-western part of Copenhagen.
Rehabilitation and the art of craftsmanship
The project is a manifesto for the solid and rich tradition of Danish craftsmanship, and the knowledge and skills concerning materials and the art of building, that people have gathered over dozens of generations. The project can be seen as an attempt to rehabilitate the art of craftsmanship and to bring back the low technological building; a polemic against the potential monotony of our modern high-tech buildings formed by industrial construction practices.
Flexibility and long life span
Hand craftsmanship, in the building sector, gives a high degree of flexibility. In the short term, hand craftsmanship utilising traditional materials can seem to be an expensive solution. But seen in the perspective of the building's entire life cycle, the investment can pay off given the long life span of traditional materials. Seen in the increasingly important ecological context, low technological building practices tend to be less resource consumptive, and therefore can be a substantial part of the sustainable building process. Measured against these two parameters, hand craftsmanship and low technological building practices can be competitive. The philosophy behind Bispebjerg Bakke is not a nostalgic attempt at celebrating the past, but an attempt to formulate a rational and modern strategy for contemporary construction practices. And, just under the surface, lies the unspoken desire to raise the quality of experience of living in a big city housing project.
Deference and respect
The landscape around Bispebjerg Bakke is typical for Denmark with its

gently sloping hills. In the meeting between the landscape and the building, it is the building that yields, deferring to the natural conditions; not the reverse. The mature trees and plantings on the site are respected. It is their precise location which dictates the building's placement across the site. The building itself can never be copied and moved to another location, but the ideas and the approach can be adapted and fitted to another place.
Ethics and consequences
The application of these principles has consequences for the architectural forms of Bispeberg Bakke. One of those consequences is that the architecture is characterised by soft, round, and flowing lines that rise and fall in synch with the rhythm of the landscape. Therefore, almost no straight lines and rectangular forms can be found anywhere within the project. Inspiration for the constructive principles in Bispebjerg Bakke certainly can be traced back to the Spanish Architect, Antonio Gaudi (1852 - 1926), who introduced a parabolic form language into his hugely influential buildings. The parabola was the key to Gaudi's curving and seemingly amorphous forms. One advantage of this form of architecture is that it places the viewer in a vaguely recognisable environment, a stylised nature, which diminishes the sense of foreigness often associated with the hard geometric forms and strict rationality that modern buildings are often criticised for.
Artist, architect and craftsman
The artist Bjørn Nørgaard, the architects Boldsen and Holm, and a group of craftsmen will collaborate in the construction process. The process is envisioned as a shared dialogue among equal participants on a quest to realise the project's architectural and artistic intentions. During the process, the experiences, points of view, and decision making are share equally between the project's triumvirate.
Variation and experience
Because of its highly organic shape responding directly to the site, the building appears to grow out of the landscape; a half recognisable form or composition one might find out in nature itself. Constantly changing views and new perspectives on the building as you walk the site, are among the benefits derived from the building's organic forms which curve across the site. Variation in the visual experience of the building gives Bispebjerg Bakke another unique and extraordinary quality.
© Jan Andersen 2002