ABSTRACT
THE DANISH WINDOW
Danish architecture and design gained much attention in international architectural culture during the post-war period. ‘Danish modern’ became a standing notion, as well as an important point of reference and a source of inspiration for architects, interior designers and designers. This attention arose first and foremost from an interest in the alternative way that Danish architects and designers were approaching modern architecture –from chair to city— developing a very particular modus operandi within the wider spectrum of so-called ‘revisions of the modern’ that were occurring in the decades following the Second World War.
Characteristic for the Danish approach was that it fully embraced a number of central concerns of the early modern movement such as the pursuit of better living conditions for everybody and functionalism as an elementary point of departure for all architecture and design matters. Danish architects appropriated many of these pursuits and attuned them to native customs and regional, climatological specifics. A particular beloved principle was the architectural implementation of fresh air and sunlight. It became particular important in the Danish context, -not only because of its contribution to a healthier environment, but also because of its spatial influence on interiors. Being an environment dominated by short days in the winter, a maximum exploitation and benefit of daylight was (and still is) moreover a particular quest. This aspect in combination with a special attention for a physical and visual connection between inside and outside enhanced the development of a number of window features, that have become distinctive for ‘Danish modern’.
This paper wants to shed light on these window features by analyzing a number of postwar projects (Bo & Wohlert, Friis & Molkte, Halldor Gunløgsson, Arne Jacobsen, Erik Christian Sørensen, Hanne & Poul Kjærholm Eva & Niels Koppel, Bertel Udsen, Jørn Utzon) where the preoccupation of the window and its interrelations are significant. Through a reading of these projects The Danish Window will be examined for its properties and for its function as mediator between interior and exterior, as dissolution/immatrialisation of the wall, as frame of view, ‘place’, transition, material continuity, light source, affordance etc.
BIOGRAPHY:
Eva Storgaard graduated as an architect at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture, Copenhagen, Denmark. After her studies she worked as an architect in Brussels and Antwerp. Since 2005, she has been employed as a researcher and lecturer at the Department of Interior Architecture at the Faculty of Design Sciences, University of Antwerp. She is a member of the Erasmus+ project RMB (Reuse of Modernist Buildings), a project which develops a new European master program. Storgaard is co-author of Pieter De Bruyne 1931-1987. Pionier van het postmoderne (2012). Recently she started a research in collaboration with The Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp examining postwar interdisciplinary exchanges between interior architecture and art. Storgaard finishes a PhD on the theme of Danish Postwar Modernism.
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