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When Arne Jacobsen died in the spring of 1971, the first stage of the Nationalbank building had just been completed. During his long career, Arne Jacobsen designed some of the finest buildings and industrial products of the 20th century, leaving a life’s work that ensured him a distinguished place in international architectural history and making him one of the few Danes known by a wide circle of people throughout the modern world.
As a recently trained, very young architect, he introduced himself to the public at a building exhibition in Copenhagen with a project entitled ’The House of the Future’, which featured motorboat access in the basement, a garage at ground level and a helicopter pad on the roof.
The House of the Future was international functionalism’s first appearance in Denmark, a futuristic proposal as to how the new technological tools could shape a new architecture. Based on simple geometric forms, the house, which was built in full scale for the exhibition, expressed the design idiom that would later become so characteristic of Jacobsen.
In his building designs, Jacobsen was originally influenced by Danish neoclassicism, but he quickly turned to European functionalism, just as he understood how to adopt various international architectural trends throughout the century and adapt them to his own personal style. It has been said that Jacobsen was international in a Danish way and Danish in an international way.
His production was prodigious, and there cannot be many areas that he did not turn his hand to. His works range from several waterfront housing complexes, theatres, sports halls for swimming, riding and tennis, schools and other institutions for children, hotels, central banks and town halls, administrative buildings, factories and laboratories, blocks of flats, row houses and single family houses. All designed with attention to detail and respect for a good solution, and often incorporating innovations that advanced the field of architecture.
Jacobsen is one of the Danish architects with numerous buildings abroad. For example, St. Catherine’s College in Oxford, England. In Hamburg, Germany, his works include the HEW administration buildings and headquarters and a school. Also in Germany are his holiday centre on the island of Fehmarn including accommodations and a swimming hall, the Town Hall in Mainz and the minimalist foyer addition to the theatre in the Baroque gardens in Herrenhausen in Hannover. These buildings helped promote Jacobsen’s international reputation.
Arne Jacobsen’s goal was totality. As an architect, he wanted to have total control of a project and nothing was to be left to chance. Thus he was obligated to deal with the details of his buildings. This led to the design of a series of products of such high quality that although they were developed in conjunction with specific building projects, they had such universal application that they could become part of standard production. Jacobsen’s designs comprise a wide assortment of items such as furniture, textiles, lighting fixtures, door handles, cutlery, stainless steel tableware, glassware, clocks, water taps and accessories. Many of these products have achieved the status of international classics and have certainly helped Jacobsen’s rise to dizzying heights on the international firmament.
Through his work, Arne Jacobsen left his mark on generations of architects and thus helped build a special Scandinavian architectural tradition that is characterized by exemplary thoroughness from the general to the very specific. Very few Danes have achieved the broad international fame of Arne Jacobsen, who today stands for some of the best works produced in the 20th century, with an inherent quality that has ensured their sustainability into the new millennium.
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