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hans christian hansen, architect: gasværksvejens skole / school, copenhagen...

Thu, 23 Apr 2015 14:58:39 GMT

link to full size image (4057 x 4558px).

gasværksvejens skole / school, vesterbro, copenhagen 1969-1971.
architect: hans christian hansen, 1901-1978, working for the copenhagen municipal architects department.

schoolyard facade in reflected light.

this is a tough building, and a far cry from hansen's previous school in leafy suburban copenhagen. whether you can be too tough for an old working class neighbourhood is a valid question; the woman who runs the school called it robust when I met her, indicating that was a good thing.

a small discovery: the basic massing and organisation in plan is identical to erik gunnar asplund's carl johanskolan in gothenburg, sweden (1915-1924). and not by accident, I am sure.

there is a 19th century main building across the yard, you can catch the reflection of its red brick walls in the windows. hansen's addition is a four storey concrete box with classrooms and a smaller one for the gym. the classrooms are on double-loaded corridors that provide a deep plan good for a tight budget, but also a dark interior, questionable at best as social spaces.

but hansen had made an art of working on a budget, and his teaching spaces are generous and bright, high ceilings everywhere.

artful too is the draping of the two buildings in a pagoda-like roofscape of cheap corrugated roofing sheets, recalling local industrial architecture like the drying sheds of old Danish tile works. the corrugated sheets were a stable of hansen's vocabulary, but he was not alone in celebrating this most humble of materials.

it is in fact one of the things uniting an otherwise scattered group of architects on the left, a group I hope to show with the next building that hansen was a part of, and a group we are going to be exploring over the coming weeks.

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the comments I have added to some of my hans chr. hansen photos can be read together as a kind of mangled, yet surprisingly brief essay on hansen. repetitious and opinionated, it reflects the writer above his subject, but until someone does some serious research on hansen, a complete lack of competition makes me immune to criticism. enjoy :)

01. introduction, amager 1966.
02. the engineer as ideal, hansen's pre-war architecture, sundholm 1939.
03. the church he didn't build. war and the return to tradition, 1942-1944.
04. following fisker. wartime housing, hulgårds plads 1943.
05. the architect finding himself in a kindergarten, skydebanen 1948.
06. developing the restless section. hanssted school 1954.
07. early industrial. nyborggade transformer 1958.
08. the brutalist, bellahøj 1961.
09. perfect self-confidence, ringbo nursing home 1961.
10. perfect idiosyncrasy. ringbo bell tower 1961.
11. the masterpiece, bremerholm 1962.
12. on the fine art of knowing when to be a backdrop. svanemølle 1966.
13. industrialised construction, a first response. svanemølle 1966.
14. concrete charm, bellahøj gas regulator 1967.
15. late irreverence. gasværksvejen school 1969.

the hans chr. hansen set.

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c.f.hansen, apse, copenhagen cathedral, 1811-1829

Thu, 23 Apr 2015 14:57:31 GMT

vor frue kirke, copenhagen cathedral, 1811-1829.
architect: c.f.hansen, 1756-1845.

Thumbnail by seier+seier

c.f.hansen, christiansborg palace church, copenhagen, 1810-1826

Thu, 23 Apr 2015 14:55:55 GMT

christiansborg palace church, copenhagen, 1810-1826.
architect: c.f. hansen, 1756-1845.

this one is for you, wen, should you stop by. it is one of my all-time favourite buildings in copenhagen and shows c.f. hansen at his most radical.

the royal palace had burnt down in 1794 and hansen was commisioned to rebuild, reusing foundations, bricks and sometimes entire walls of the palace ruins.

apparently the kind of architect who thrives on limitations, he designed what appears to have been a masterpiece of pure geometry, large unbroken surfaces of grey walls and delicate, classical moldings.

I say "appears to have been" because that palace was lost to fire as well, in 1884. it could have been reconstructed, but hansen's architecture was so unpopular at the time that the idea was soon abandoned. in the end, a heavyhanded neo-baroque bad dream in turd coloured granite replaced it and only the palace church survives to tell us of the splendors that were lost.

...except that the church burnt too, of course, and as late as 1992 when the roof and dome were ignited by fireworks from a passing carnival procession...fires are a copenhagen tradition.

Thumbnail by seier+seier

c.f.hansen, copenhagen city hall and courts, 1803-1816

Thu, 23 Apr 2015 14:55:30 GMT

copenhagen city hall and courts, 1803-1816.
architect: c.f. hansen, 1756-1845.

entrance to the building which today houses the city court.

Thumbnail by seier+seier

c.f.hansen, christiansborg palace church, copenhagen, 1810-1826

Thu, 23 Apr 2015 14:53:05 GMT

christiansborg palace church, copenhagen, 1810-1826.
architect: c.f. hansen, 1756-1845.

final c.f.hansen interior for now.

the palace church gives a rather moving idea of just how much was lost when hansen's christiansborg palace burnt down.

as in the photos below, daylight is filtered through a layered construction, ultimately hiding the source of light from the visitor. a single oculus in the dome tells of the time of day.

this photo was uploaded with a CC license and may be used free of charge and in any way you see fit.
if possible, please name photographer "SEIER+SEIER". if not, don't.

Thumbnail by seier+seier