In the Perspective of an Architecture Office

The landscape offers tacit knowledge

Landscape architecture is a key competence in Vandkunsten, who ever since the start have incorporated landscape architects as part of their practice. Reading the landscape is the base for all projects. This key element provides an important analysis whether the site is a flat urban lot or a complex biosphere. Everything you can read out from the landscape informs the design process and contributes to a building process resulting in architecture that supports the place and create good experiences. The latter goal may seem a bit light-weight and not easy to measure, but the architects are simply looking for that feeling that makes you comfortable as you pass by the building, something in harmony with the senses.

There is a sense of recognition in places where this happens. Sören Nielsen talks about “tunet” – a particular sized “square” that can be found in farmhouse yards all over the Nordic landscape. This enclosed place, sheltered from the wind between the surrounding buildings, maybe paved with local stones, is a regional feature. The typology of” tunet” is a part of a cultural “pool” of archetypes found all over the Nordic countries, and there are a lot more examples; the fishing village, the mills, the churches. As an architect, we need to be attentive to this typology and” literate” in our reading of the landscape and its local features. This knowledge is something we share across the Nordic countries, because it is embedded in our response to climate, culture and history. The import of international features, such as the Renaissance square, that goes back a mere 500 years, Sören Nielsen reminds us. The landscape offers us tacit knowledge, a readable continuity.

Repurposing architecture

Vandkunsten now is in a stage of reinventing the vernacular, by re-use of material, timber constructions, craft and biogenic materials, they embrace the vision of an art of building that is readable from the perspective of place. For inspiration you do not need to go further than the local open air national museum to study structures where every material could be reorganized in endless re-use for generations, Nielsen points out. A very clear statement from Vandkunsten is that the more sustainable an architecture, the more it will express the local identity, and vice versa. The identity is created by a subtle use of architectural references and inspirations, details and local traditions. The local is in turn connected to a living knowledge. Another take-away from Vandkunsten is the focus on re-use (genbruk), and the importance of reconnecting to the tradition of either reusing components in a new place but with the same function, or repurposing, where building components can serve in a new role as material, and finally, as often as it is possible – try to upcycle material in that they will have a more permanent function in their new use than they had before they were recycled. Repurposing puts the architect in an interesting exercise of playing with time and narrative. You pick something up that has a history, and place it in a new context, and in this process, you need to find a “sweet spot” between the familiar and the innovative: to communicate both the history and the future at the same time.