In recent years Danish architecture has aligned itself increasingly with the Neo-Modernism currently prevailing at the international level.

The most immediately obvious common characteristic is the often sophisticated use of the materials of Modernism, steel and glass, typically with an almost minimalist effect.

This is particularly true of large, often prestigious buildings such as the Danish Embassy in Berlin, designed by 3XNielsen, and the Royal Library extension in Copenhagen, the Black Diamond, designed by Schmidt, Hammer & Lassen (both 1999).

However, the same treatment of form is also seen on a smaller scale, for instance, the main entrance to the Zoo by the firm of architects Entasis (1998) and the area in front of Realkredit Danmark by Brandt, Hell, Hansted & Holscher (1997), both in Copenhagen.

The building forms and room sequences can either be stringent and calm or strongly dynamic; an example of the latter is Vilhelm Lauritzen’s Terminal 3 at Copenhagen Airport, Kastrup (1998).

At the same time, a considerable part of Danish architecture is regionally anchored, particularly housing, which is developing the dense, low concept of the 1970s into a contemporary style. The national building material, brick, remains very popular, and in recent years wooden facades have become widely used, for instance, on the Greenland Culture Centre in Nuuk by Schmidt, Hammer & Lassen (1997).

The ecological dimension has also become a central issue in many Danish buildings, for instance, by Boje Lundgaard and Lene Tranberg.During these last years, the Copenhagen harbour has undergone considerable change as the former harbour functions have been replaced by, especially, commercial and residential buildings. The Royal Theatre's new opera house, designed by Henning Larsens Tegnestue, is also located on the Copenhagen harbour.

The earliest traces of Danish architecture have been found through excavations of the Viking Age military encampments of Trelleborg, Aggersborg and Fyrkat from around 1000 AD. Within large circular earthen ramparts these fortresses were laid out on the basis of a cruciform, symmetrical grid of streets, whose main axes divided up the complex into smaller units.

The conversion of Denmark to Christianity around 960 introduced a new building culture, church building. The first churches were wooden, but quite soon these were superseded by Romanesque stone churches. In the early 12th century ambitious cathedral building projects were started in Lund, Viborg and Ribe. The village churches were usually single-aisled with a choir, like Hover Church in Jutland, and possibly an apse. Regional characteristics might appear, for instance, the Bornholm round churches.

Roskilde Cathedral was started in the 1170s as one of Denmark’s first brick buildings. It is an early Danish example of the Gothic style, while St Knud’s Church in Odense, completed at the end of the 15th century, represents the High Gothic style. In the rural parishes the Gothic style mainly manifested itself in alterations and extensions of the Romanesque churches, for instance, the characteristic stepped gables.

During the Renaissance, Danish architecture was dominated by the building of manor houses such as the 16th century Hesselagergaard and Egeskov, both on Funen. Among the royal buildings of the period, Kronborg Castle was completed by Antonis van Opbergen (1543-1611) in 1585 as a four-winged complex, while Frederiksborg Castle from 1602-1620, by the Netherlander Hans van Steenwinckel the Elder (c.1550-1601), was three-winged with a fourth lower terrace wing. In both castles the actual architectural expression, the decorative finish, was in the preferred Dutch Renaissance style, with lavish sandstone ornamentation on a red brick background.

King Christian IV’s extensive building programme included many different projects, from the Stock Exchange (1619-1640) through the Round Tower (1637-1642), both in Copenhagen, to the construction of new towns and districts like Kristianstad, now in Sweden (1614), Christianshavn (1618) and Nyboder (started 1631), both in Copenhagen.

The Baroque influenced Danish architecture from humble town houses to royal buildings, from city palaces such as Charlottenborg on Kongens Nytorv in Copenhagen (started 1672), to manor houses such as Ledreborg by Lauritz de Thurah (1706-1759) from the 1740s.

The main Danish Baroque buildings include Our Saviour’s Church (Vor Frelsers Kirke) in Copenhagen from 1682-1696 by Lambert van Haven (1630-1695), Fredensborg Palace from 1722 by Johan Cornelius Krieger (1683-1755) and the later Christiansborg Palace, started in 1733 by the German architect Elias David Häusser (1687-1745). It was, however, the leading architects of the following generation, Lauritz de Thurah and Nicolai Eigtved (1701-1754), who made their mark on the interiors of the latter palace.

Nicolai Eigtved became the main advocate of the Rococo in Denmark. His principal achievement was the laying-out of the Frederiksstad in 1749. This quarter was organised around the octagonal square with the four Amalienborg palaces. For the town houses, he produced type designs in his characteristic discreet pilaster strip and recessed style with delicate relief effects.

After Eigtved’s death in 1754, another architect had to continue the work on the main monument of the Frederiksstad, the Frederik Church (Frederikskirken) – better known as the Marble Church (Marmorkirken). This was the French architect Nicolas-Henri Jardin (1720-1799), who introduced the latest architectural style, Neo-Classicism, into Denmark.

However, he did not manage to complete the Frederik Church either. Before leaving the country he also built, for instance, the Bernstorff Palace (1759-1768) and the town house 18 Amaliegade, the Yellow Palace (Det Gule Palæ) (1764-1767).

Among Jardin’s pupils was Caspar Frederik Harsdorff (1735-1799), the country’s leading architect in the late 18th century, whose projects included Frederik V’s chapel in Roskilde Cathedral (1778) and the colonnade by Amalienborg (1794). In 1779-1780, he built the town house 3-5 Kongens Nytorv, which became the new model for the Copenhagen town houses of the time.

Harsdorff’s successor, as the trend-setting Neo-Classicist, was Christian Frederik Hansen (1756-1845). His ideal was a stricter classical style dominated by pure, simple forms and large unbroken expanses. From 1800 he was in charge of all major building projects in Copenhagen, including the City Hall and Courthouse on Nytorv (1816), the rebuilt Church of Our Lady (Vor Frue Kirke) (1826) and the new Christiansborg Palace (1828).

Already before C.F. Hansen’s death, the Antique ideal had begun to give way to Late Classicism’s more liberal view of historical styles, represented, for instance, by the Synagogue in Copenhagen from 1833 by Gustav Friedrich Hetsch (1788-1864) and the polychrome Thorvaldsen’s Museum from 1848 by Michael Gottlieb Bindesbøll (1800-1856), both in Copenhagen.

The second half of the 19th century was the age of Historicism. Two main trends can be distinguished. The main representative of the national trend was Johan Daniel Herholdt (1818-1902), whose principal work was the University Library in Copenhagen (1861). It placed a high value on good workmanship and genuine, honest materials. This line was later continued by Martin Nyrop (1849-1921) and National Romanticism, for instance, in Copenhagen City Hall (1905).

The second trend was more international and worked with a far broader spectrum of historical inspiration. Ferdinand Meldahl (1827-1908) was its leading representative and, incidentally, the architect who finally completed the Frederik Church in 1894 after almost 250 years.

A change took place in the first decades of the 20th century, when the decorative and historical motifs, seen, for instance, in the Neo-Baroque and even the Art Nouveau style, gradually gave way to a new functionality, which around 1920 merged into a Classicist trend.

Earlier in the century the Council for Design Assistance had been established by the Society of Academic Architects in 1907 and the Better Architectural Design Association in 1915. The aim was to provide guidance to the population, so that good and healthy family houses, in keeping with the Danish architectural tradition, would be built throughout the country.

20th century Neo-Classicism was inaugurated by Faaborg Museum from 1915 by Carl Petersen (1874-1923). This trend put ideals such as symmetry, regularity and rhythmical repetition on the agenda. Neo-Classicism influenced, for instance, the building of flats in Copenhagen, such as the block Hornbækhus from 1922 by Kay Fisker (1893-1965).

A special monument of the time is the Copenhagen Police Headquarters from 1924 by Hack Kampmann (1856-1920), powerful, simple and inward-looking on the outside and monumental in its open courtyard inside.

The transition from Neo-Classicism to Functionalism took place around 1930. The new ideal was a rational and functional architecture, preferably with a social objective. The new materials, concrete, iron and glass, were to be combined in constructively ‘honest’ structures.

Major examples of international Functionalism in Denmark include the single-family houses at 5-11 Sølystvej by Mogens Lassen (1901-1987) from 1936 and 1938, and the white Bellavista block of flats by Arne Jacobsen (1902-1971) from 1934, all in Klampenborg.

At the same time, there was also a more traditional trend, which was certainly influenced by the ideals of the time, but primarily used native materials and a more traditional idiom, for instance, Aarhus University by Kay Fisker, C.F. Møller (1898-1988) and Povl Stegmann (1888-1944) started in 1932, and the balcony and bay window block of flats Vester Søhus in Copenhagen built by Fisker and Møller (1939).

The architecture of the 1940s showed signs of the difficult conditions during the Second World War. Typical of the time were small-scale projects such as the Atelierhuse (studio houses) in Utterslev by Viggo Møller-Jensen (b.1907) from 1943.

After the War there was particular interest in American Modernism. Typically, the houses were given irregular ground plans, flat roofs, open plan room sequences and large glass facades, such as the single-family house at Hellebæk by Jørn Utzon (b.1918) from 1952, and Louisiana Museum of Modern Art by Jørgen Bo (b.1919) and Wilhelm Wohlert (b.1920) from 1958.

In the post-war period, Arne Jacobsen was the country’s leading Modernist of international standing. In Rødovre Town Hall (1955) and the SAS Royal Hotel in Copenhagen (1961), he created cool classical Modernism with simple, strict forms and curtain wall facades.

In the early 1960s, the State began to invest in industrialising construction through precast and prefabricated building elements, for instance Høje Gladsaxe built in 1964 by Povl Ernst Hoff (1903-1992) and Bennet Windinge (1905-1986). The high-rise blocks quite soon encountered criticism and a low alternative arose with Fællestegnestuen’s estate in Albertslund Syd (1963-1968).

Within housing the decisive break with Modernism came with the low, dense estate Tinggården in Herfølge by the firm of architects Tegnestuen Vandkunsten (1978). Tinggården was the first realisation of the idea of a new and alternative housing environment in the form of small, intimate residential enclaves in touch with nature. The idiom was varied and informal. Tinggården set the tone for residential building in the following decades.

Tinggården’s idiom anticipated Post-Modernism in Denmark. The main advocates of the theory were the firm of architects 3XNielsen with projects such as Villa Atzen in Horsens (1986).

Apart from Post-Modernism, Danish architecture in 1970-1990 was characterised by several other architectural trends. Late Modernism’s refinement of Modern forms was seen, for instance, in Dissing+ Weitling’s Art Gallery of Nordrhein-Westfalen in Düsseldorf (1986), the National Museum in Bahrain (1988) by the architects KHR AS, and La Grande Arche in the suburb La Défense in Paris (1989) by Johan Otto von Spreckelsen (1929-1987).

Neo-Rationalism came to the fore with the competition proposal for the centre of Høje Taastrup (1978) by Jacob Blegvad Architects and Claus Bonderup (b. 1943). The Classical element was featured by both Poul Ingemann (b.1952), for instance, in Blangstedgård from 1988, and Henning Larsen (b.1925) in the Copenhagen Business School in Frederiksberg from 1989. Deconstructivism has had a few advocates in Denmark but very few buildings, most notably the Museum of Modern Art, ARKEN, by Søren Robert Lund (b.1962) from 1996 and Holstebro Courthouse by 3XNielsen (1992).

Source: denmark.dk (Vibeke Andersson Møller, Gyldendal Leksikon)