Wednesday, July 18, 2012 / By Julie Nørgård Christensen

In the current issue of the international architecture magazine A10, there is a special instalment about Danish architecture. The Danish Architecture Centre has been guest editor

In a new Eurovision series, A10 examines the state of affairs in different countries with regard to the architectural climate, guest edited by a leading national organization in the selected European country. As the first edition of the new Eurovision series, Danish architecture is presented, and the Danish Architecture Centre has guest edited the instalment.
Within a range of eight pre-selected themes each country strives to give deeper insight into the current state of architectural affairs. The 12 pages on Danish architecture stretch over four subjects: The social, global, urban and future Denmark through interviews with architect firms as CEBRA, Henning Larsen Architects, 3XN, Gehl Architects and COBE.

Young Danish architect firms
The Eurovision series has special emphasis on the position of young architects in the European countries, and - after an introduction to the Danish Architecture Centre and the national architecture policy in Denmark - the young architects, who stormed the stage in the first decade of the 21st century, are also the subject of the first interview with Kristoffer Lindhardt Weiss (author etc.) and Mathilde Serup, head of Business and Network of the DAC. Both describe the generation of the 21st century as non-theoretical with a pragmatic approach, which is expressed by new concepts, new images and especially a new impetus.

Because of the crisis, the young architects are teaming up with other companies across borders, which means that they actually are getting bigger assignments. To the question about, what young architects bring today, Mathilde Serup's answer is: "A whole new agenda, it's not about art anymore, the icon is done with, it's about the place of architecture in society."

Social Denmark
Under the theme Social Denmark, it is the rethinking of institutional architecture that is in focus, and both Bakkegårdsskolen, Gentofte, and VUC-centre in Odense by CEBRA are presented as people-friendly architecture.

"We want the school to adjust the pupil. So we create diverse spaces, which ultimately support different teaching methods and learning preferences. I guess that the idea - partly a political one - that the children should be taught in a differentiated manner has lead to a number of groundbreaking new schools," says Mikkel Frost, CEBRA.

Global Denmark
HARPA in Reykjavik and Siemens future headquarters, Munich, by Henning Larsen Architects and 3XN's culture centre in Molde, Norway, Green School in Stockholm and the museum of Liverpool are presented on the page about the global Denmark. In an interview with Kim Herforth Nielsen from  3XN and Louis Becker, Henning Larsen Architects, they explain why Danish architects are successful abroad:

"The Danish tradition surrounding form and function, daylight and democratic values, elements; foreign customers often see great value in these," says Kim Herfort Nielsen. "Also the size of Copenhagen is a great advantage to Danish architects," Louis Becker says. "Denmark is sort of like an urban lab. It's very easy to test new ideas here and later scale it to larger cities and countries - like we did with the bicycle trend."

Urban Denmark
Jan Gehl, Gehl Architects, presents Copenhagen as a central figure in a new holistic understanding of city planning, which focuses on exploring how people use space and how behaviour is influenced by the physical environment.

"We generally describe our expertise as addressing 'the human dimensions in architecture and planning'," says Jan Gehl. Also COBE's library in Nordvest, Copenhagen, and the new Nørreport Train Station are presented as meeting points and gathering spaces in the urban landscape

Who should you keep an eye on in the future?
As last chapter under the headline Future Denmark, The Danish Architecture Centre puts the spotlight on eleven of the 'shooting stars' in the architectural scene.

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