TOPAZ

Alfred Hitchcock, 1969

DEN PERMANENTE BUILDING

OLE FALKENTORP AND POVL BAUMANN

1931

Vesterport on Vesterbrogade in Copenhagen, close to the central railway station, was designed by Ole Falkentorp and Povl Baumann and was completed in 1931. It is surely the first truly modern building in the city but if anyone notices it today then it is probably for the striking green colour of its copper cladding which, with patina, has turned a sharp but acid-pale tone. When new, before the copper changed colour, the building was known as the penny. 

It was the first steel-framed building in Copenhagen with reinforced concrete floors and was built as an office building. The principle tenant was an English insurance company but the open-floor construction meant that it could be subdivided with non-structural partition walls depending on the requirements of any tenants. It is not just the method of construction but the scale of the block with its flat roof line and the grid-like division of the facades with continuous lines of windows above panels of cladding that is distinctly modern.

Vesterport fills a complete city block - although there is a large service courtyard - and at street level there were shops so, again in a modern way, this was very much a commercial building and it was in what was then a new and growing commercial area of the city. 

The building has an important place in design history for another reason ... a significant and influential design gallery and furniture shop, Den Permanente, opened here in 1931 but closed in the 1980s

http://danishdesignreview.com/blog/2016/12/18/early-modern-vesterport-vesterbrogade-copenhagen

 EMBASSY OF THE UNITED STATES IN  COPENHAGEN

RALPH RAPSON AND JOHN VAN DER MEULEN

1954

Dag Hammarskjölds Allé 24 
København Ø, 2100

Designed by architects Ralph Rapson and John van der Meulen, the Embassy of the United States in Copenhagen was completed and opened in May 1954. Rapson, who was 37 when given the commission, had studied architecture during the 1930s at a time when the architectural ideals of the Bauhaus and Le Corbusier were potent. This influence can be seen in the embassy’s planar facades, glass and metal grid, and piloti. The most innovative piece of the Copenhagen embassy is in the way in which the architecture dealt with the separation of public and private spaces. Rapson was very careful to maintain a separation between private offices and public spaces without creating a stratified experience to visitors. This is executed by placing offices on the second and third floors as well as to the rear of the public spaces. Furthermore, the singular main entrance and human scale of the project help maintain a sense of accessibility.

http://www.docomomo-us.org/register/us-embassy-copenhagen-denmark

LA MADRIGUERA

Carlos Saura, 1969

[...]La casa de Carvajal reunia mis necesidades. Las colmaba incluso. Me sorprendió que en aquel paraje de edificaciones pretenciosamente lujosas, de nuevos ricos, hechas más para 'epatar' que para vivir, surgiera de la tierra una estructura tan peculiar a modo de un 'bunker' de la guerra europea. [...]

Pero la casa de Carvajal era -además de 'mi bunker'- inquietante, llena de ingeniosidades, casa hacia adentro, casa mediterránea y construcción de estadio de fútbol. Había elementos contradictorios y perfectamente ensamblados en ella. [...] De un hormigón infrecuente en aquella época en España, perfectamente terminado, bien ensamblado en sus capas sucesivas por un encofrado cuidadoso, que me recordaba otras construcciones similares que había visto en mis andanzas americanas, y especialmente en un viaje a USA en el que me acompañaron - o acompañé- el arquitecto Antonio Fernández Alba, el escultor Martín Chirino y el neurólogo Alberto Portera. Portera nos llevó a conocer a Louis Khahn; fantástico tipo que nos enseñó sus proyectos: un teatro total, la estructura casi mágica de una Iglesia que proyectaba para no sé donde... Eran los años 60 y los arquitectos eran dioses y pertenecían a nuestra cultura básica: Saarinen, Alvar Aalto, Nervi, Mies van der Rohe y el omnipresente Wright... [...]

Esta casa de Carvajal es la obra de un visionario, de un introvertido -seguramente tocado por la mística- a caballo entre las influencias nórdicas del protestantismo con las ansias luminosas de algunos arquitectos del norte, con las entreveladas oscuridades de los arquitectos del sur que tratan de ocultarse del sol del desierto y de las miradas ajenas.

Esta casa es a la vez técnica en su estado más puro y confort interior: casa refugio para aislarse de la humanidad vociferante, para escuchar música, para recogerse místicamente, casa galáctica de cuento de Allan Poe; castillo contra la peste roja...            1 de julio de 1990

LA MADRIGUERA Carlos Saura

J. CARVAJAL  Arquitecto.

Servicio de publicacìones del COAM -1991

pgs. 21-23

Al fondo, en la pared, una escultura de Amadeo Gabino.

En primer plano la famosa lámpara PH Artichoke Lamp by Poul Henningsen.

Danish architect Poul Henningsen, known commonly by his initials PH was obsessed with light.

PH Artichoke Lamp by Poul Henningsen

Designer: Poul Henningsen.
Manufactured under license in Denmark by Louis Poulsen
Dimensions (in): 18.4 h
18.9 dia.
200W max
The PH Artichoke Pendant is considered to be a classical masterpiece made by Poul Henningsen more than 40 years ago. The structure is made of twelve steel arches. On this structure PH placed 72 copper "leaves" in twelve circular rows with six blades in each row. Because each row is staggered from the previous, all 72 leaves are able to "cover for each other".
This design allows viewing the fixture from any angle without being able to see the light source located in the center of the PH Artichoke. The original PH Artichokes were developed for a restaurant in Copenhagen called the Langelinie Pavilion, and they are still hanging there today.

http://www.danishdesignstore.com/products/ph-artichoke-lamp-by-poul-henningsen-louis-poulsen



Javier Carvajal
Conocí a Javier muy pronto. Ya en los primeros tiempos fundacionales del Colegio Mayor Nebrija era un asiduo, pues en el se albergaban compañeros suyos de carrera como Fernández Alba o Luis Peña Ganchegui y una pléyade de esa soberbia generación de arquitectos. Allí coincidían con Chillida, Amadeo Gabino, los Molezún -Vázquez y Suérez Molezún- y otros jóvenes llenos de genialidad como demostraron en sus vidas.
Con nombre propio
Antonio Horcajo
http://www.eladelantado.com/opinionAmplia/6097/colaboracion