The prerequisites of modernism in Faaborg Museum, and from then on almost went nowhere near the Academy of Fine Arts, Denmark all competition projects were designed in a which he despised, but attracted many of its Liberation and the holistic approach classicistic style. The study of historic styles dissatisfi ed students. disappeared, and only classic proportions In 1911 he published 10 years of lectures: Lisbet Balslev stayed on the curriculum. Carl Petersen took “Bygmesterskolen” (“The Master Builder an interest in the East Asian craftsmanship, School”). Those were the 10 years, when mod- technique and material treatment of surfaces. ernism was formulated in music, art and the In the beginning was the word. If words and In order to reach the best results, he wanted perception of space. Young people knew Cé- expressions are found, recognition appears, to collect all the world’s fi nest knowledge. zanne, Gauguin and Picasso, and Stravinsky and the image is resurrected in a new form. Similar thoughts were expressed in L’histoire and Schönberg. We also have to remember The choice of the words that delivered new de Dannemarc, Copenhague 1755, which was that electricity, the radio, the airplane, photo shapes and a new conception of space was written on order from the king by Paul Henri technique, and movies came into being and already present for the attentive innovators. As Mallet (b. in Geneva 1730): “Si nous voulons brought new opportunities and a need for new young men, Kay Fisker, b. 1893, Aage Rafn, b. sérieusement de nouveaux résultats, faisons technological solutions. 1890, and Ejnar Dyggve, b. 1887, expressed des observations nouvelles (...) Il faut étudier “Let us study the object, the surface, and new ideas, when choosing an anonymous les langues, les livres, les hommes de chaque the fabric according to their nature and the Copenhagen citizen’s house from the 18th siecle, de chaque pays, puiser dans ses demands of the time, never engaging in the century as an object for restoration in 1910. vrayes sources la connoissance des nations. writing off of old styles, but practicing our per- The descriptive text, which accompanied Cette étude si belle, si interéssante est remplie sonal style through a thorough education and the restoration publication (1914), represents de mines aussi abondantes que négligées. acquisition of the consistent taste and dignifi ed concepts, which were essential to modernism. Les liens qui unissent les diverses parties de attitude to style of old times” (1901). The young students identify common traits, l’Europe se resserrent de jour en jour”. (p. “It is about developing fi xed norms for ordi- which create types, “(...) these apartments 28-29 Avant-Propos). These visions of the nary buildings. About creating types of houses clearly demonstrate how each element in Enlightenment, which were also expressed in relation to the old house shapes, which can the living rooms has been placed with an im- in the fi rst charter of the Academy (which the be used without large adjustments by practical mediate, often almost refi ned sense of good Danish School of Architecture is part of, ed.), master builders, who know the needs of our conditions (…) each room has its own unique are now used again to express the needs of time and do not strive for any kind of originality, 114 quality (...) using displacements and division a new era. but every kind of solidity. The art of repetition into squares, all craftsmanship has been done Peder Vilhelm Jensen-Klint, b. 1853, was a is just as valuable as the art of innovation - it considering each room...a rhythmical feeling mathematician and an engineer. In the Gothic belongs to the craftsman and cannot be car- (...) Rarely is anything besides the necessary style, he found a path to simplifi cation and ried out satisfactorily by others. Innovation allowed for...each element gets its value from innovation. It was not a question of imitation, belongs to the artist, and can only be carried its technical source and by fulfi lling its purpose though. To him, nature was the teacher, and out properly by him. Repetition creates the as much as possible.” mathematics became the tool that revealed perfection in everyday life, innovation creates Based on these observations, they were nature’s principle of growth. This principle perfection over time” (1909). While modern- able to broaden their knowledge and in the was also meant to lead the manmade nature, ism developed and until his death in 1930, words of P.V. Jensen-Klint ‘fasten a new tradi- architecture. Kaare Klint, b. 1888, and Ivar Jensen-Klint worked on designing and building tion with the rediscovered common thread’. Bentsen, b. 1876, were his students, but his a monument for the Danish philosopher and In M.G. Bindesbøll’s Thorvaldsen’s Museum son Kaare also followed Carl Petersen in his founder of the Grundtvigian folk high schools, and C.F. Hansen’s buildings, Carl Petersen, b. work on Faaborg Museum. N.F.S. Grundtvig, Grundtvigskirken (The 1874, found a classicistic past, which he saw Even though it was never realized, Jensen- Grundtvig Church) in Copenhagen. better than any academy professor. Here, he Klint’s project from 1907, “En Krystal-knude af In 1901, the citizens of Copenhagen cel- found the simplifi cation tool that he needed. Danske Kirketårne, hver med sin Klokke alle ebrated the opening of their new city hall, With the exception of the castle church, C.F. sammenstemte” (“Crystals of Danish Church built by Martin Nyrop, with a large exhibition Hansen’s castle Christiansborg Slot was a Towers”), showed the way forward. The ar- of Danish art and architecture. Here, Carl burnt down ruin from 1884. Until the wrong chitectural creation of crystals is also found in Petersen saw for the fi rst time the drawings decision to replace Hansen’s classicism with Italian and Spanish mountain towns -a vision of C.F. Hansen and M.G. Bindesbøll (b. 1800) new baroque was made in 1907, this was a that continues to be a vital inspiration. In the alongside work by contemporary artists, and challenge and an inspiration for any up-and- 1950’s, Kay Fisker had his students built a he realized that they had all worked towards coming architect. And it doesn’t stop there. model of the project. In those years, many the same goal. Benevolent Copenhageners also wanted to students went to exactly these mountain But Carl Petersen did not think that the same add a spire to Hansen’s dome Frue Kirke, but towns to survey and study. Striving for abso- kind of harmony was present in his time, which Carl Petersen and his followers were able to lute shapes, Jensen-Klint wished to build a he felt was infl uenced by unrest and tension. prevent this, though. synthesis of the regional building tradition. As The art of the era had to fi nd its own expres- From 1912-1915 Carl Petersen built a lecturer Jensen-Klint had great impact. He sion. Denmark is not a revolutionary country. The absolute monarchy was abolished almost As a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts, Postscript: a glimpse to nordic by the king himself in 1849, and 1901’s change from 1915 he gave well-attended lectures in traditions in political systems was equally peaceful. In the history of art and architecture. Witnesses all areas there is a belief in evolution. People explain that it provided them with a holistic should accept the new. That was in the spirit vision. His book: The Aesthetic Perception of of Grundtvig. There was no tabula rasa in Dan- Art (1906) was read by everyone. Wanscher Antonio Millán-Gómez ish architecture, but on the contrary a will to especially accentuated Italian baroque, and his innovate, which resembles several European infl uence can be sensed already in Faaborg Few things are so scarce in Architecture as models such as C.F.A. Voysey’s speech on Museum, but also in Fisker’s Hornbækhus proper acts, coherent with the essence of styles at “the Design Club” in 1911, Le Cor- (Hornbæk House) 1922, in the inner yards of things. And few as needed as the enthused busier’s writings, and the Design-development Politigården (The Police Headquarters) 1924, glance to their authentic contexts, which in and social commitment of the Bauhaus School. in relation to which Aage Rafn play a crucial Nordic Architecture are dialogues, inseparable Everything was to be digested and in the part, and in the ny Scene (new Stage) at The from a way of life caring for nature and an ele- words of Jensen-Klint: “…since the beauty of Royal Theatre 1929 by Holger Jacobsen gance based on lightness. In such exchanges all previous times is visible for us today, the (b.1876), who had also influenced one is moved from vernacular traditions to a architect must acquire it, so that it becomes Politigården. transposition of classical models, questioned his property, incorporated in him, and in his Ivar Bentsen’s experiments with rising and and reinvented over and over again, where education, making him not imitate the old, but falling number series in the Opera and Philhar- care with scale does not neglect the material resurrect it in giving himself” (1901). In 1915, monic project in 1917-18 was a further devel- qualities of daily experience. Sober, varied, Kay Fisker and Aage Rafn, who were still stu- opment of Jensen-Klint and Kaare’s theories. heterotopical Architecture, which was a dialo- dents, won the competition for Gudhjembanen The entire façade could be drawn into a net gue between authors, as well, opening in such (the Gudhjem line) stations in Bornholm. The of squares. There were no marked corners or process a frame for collective coexistence completed buildings were published in the monumental portals. The only decoration was and a method to establish the domain of our architecture journal Architekten in 1916. There a baroque banister, which crowned the building discipline. is a signifi cant difference between the project parts. This rational kilometre architecture was A debate such as this concerning us might and the fi nal result. to fi ll the entire country, divided by roads and have not gone beyond mere entelechy, but, The Art Noveau lines have disappeared, park areas, a democratic architecture, where once proposals were planned, the ensuing and the buildings are tighter and simpler. The there was no hierarchy, and personality wasn’t pragmatism went up to its fi nal construction: 115 smallest station, Christianshøj, built in wood expressed in the facades, but something city planning for welfare society, where a new and a tarred black, is classicism freed from you had yourself. Criticism was deadly: the landscape of Modernity was set up, whilst “style”, and the plant’s shape is eliminated in windows were “the blind eyes of blind men”, housing standards were improved. The refl ec- favour of a consideration of functions and the “the whole regiment stands at attention in the tions included in this monograph allow more surroundings. All blend in naturally with the socialist state”, was the verdict of Martin Ny- than one reading, letting us see that Nordic landscape. One could say that they did not al- rop. Wanscher was disappointed. He missed Architectures still maintain their actuality, and low for anything unnecessary. Fisker and Rafn the invigorating dynamism of the baroque. go on gaining added layers of meaning. And do however have Baillie Scott for “Houses The project had great impact, however, on they suggest some questions: why is it so? Let and Gardens” and the local building culture all the large yards that were built in the new us sketch some themes. of Bornholm to thank for their progress. The residential areas outside Copenhagen in the Firstly, craft and grace: craft which endows stations are without any kind of nostalgic ret- years to follow. works with propriety, in its material value and in rospection. When they fi nally had time to meet the contingency which projects them towards up with their friends in Copenhagen again, they a future. Lisbet Balslev Jörgensen expressed were still sitting around happy about an old it clearly by quoting Jensen Klint: “Let us study project with a hideous Doric column. Have we the object, the surface and the fabric according not come further! (letter in Fisker’s archives). It to their nature and the demands of the time, turned out to be diffi cult to abolish the styles; never engaging in the writing off of old styles, that is to say the superfl uous, this unneces- but practicing our personal style through a sary theatrical costume, which confused pure thorough education and acquisition of the aesthetics and the functionality. consistent taste and dignifi ed attitude to style When Adolf Loos gave his lecture Ornament of old times”. Grace that Morton Shand applied und Verbrechen in Copenhagen in 1916, they in 1930 (Swedish grace) to the Stockholm In- might well have thought he was right, but too Lisbet Baslev (1928-2002) Swedish writer ternational Exhibition, but which also concerns extreme. There had to be some degree of ac- and historian, was Ass. curator, Thordvaldsens the realizations of the previous decade: as centuation after all. Museum (1964-69). Ass. curator, Architectural Vilhelm Wanscher was an art historian with premonition in the making from Paris 1925 Drawings Collection at the Royal Academy of ambitions both as an artist and as an architect. International Exhibition, understandable today Fine Arts Copenhagen (1969-1996) with words written by I. Calvino. “Something