Larsen, Henning( 1925 )
Sketch featuring many of the studio’s most important buildings, Various projects,
21 29. 7 cm, Fountain pen on paperHenning Larsen has built remarkable architecture in Denmark and around the world. Particularly
adept with steel, glass, and stone, his structures exhibit clean lines and a sensitive balance between
solidity and transparency. Born in Jutland, Denmark, he attended architecture school at the Royal
Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, the Architectural Association in London, and Massachusetts
Institute of Technology in Boston. In 1952,he began apprenticeships in the United States and
Denmark. In 1959 , he founded his architectural practice Henning Larsen Tegnestue A/S.
A dedicated educator, Larsen has taught as a visiting professor at Yale and Princeton Universities in
the United States and the School of Architecture, Aarhus, Denmark. Long associated with the Royal
Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen, he was a Professor of Architecture ( 1968 – 1995 ). His architecture
has been recognized with such honors as the C.F. Hansen Award ( 1985 ); the Aga Khan Architectural
Award ( 1989 ); the Kasper Salin Award ( 1997 ); the Margot and Thorvald Dreyer Foundation’s architec-
tural award ( 1999 ); the Stockholm Award ( 2001 ); and the Rostocker Architekturpreis ( 2004 ), in add-
ition to being the founder of the periodical SKALA.^18
This sketch by Larsen (Figure 8. 15 ) conveys a thought process that relies on the analysis of past pro-
jects to influence the design of a building complex. Rendered with similar line weight and crowded on
the page, the images consist of plans, perspectives, and diagrams. On the upper portion of this page are
several plans and axonometric-like studies exploring a series of connected buildings. These buildings
are zigzagged around a central open space and surrounded with a border of foliage. Larsen appears to be
visually testing alternatives for this complex, some within a circular boundary, others in a square. In his
description of this project, Larsen indicated that the sketch includes images of numerous of his extant
structures. Although not all-inclusive, the projects illustrated are as follows: Gentofte Central Library
( 1970 – 1979 ); Copenhagen Business School ( 1980 – 1989 ); Churchill College ( 1980 – 1989 ); Engh¿j
Church of Randers ( 1991 ); Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek ( 1991 ); BT-House ( 1992 ); Concert Hall at
Copenhagen Harbor Waterfront ( 1993 ); H¿rsholm Parish Community Centre ( 1993 ); and Opera in
Copenhagen ( 2000 ). An interesting archive of his former projects, Larsen may have been sifting through
the organization of each of these buildings as precedent. The small diagrams act as a ‘visual diction-
ary’ of possible (and successful) organizational solutions. They may also represent for Larsen the
relationship between the project and its parti.
Larsen depends on his sketches for design inspiration. On the website arcspace he is quoted describ-
ing his relationship with sketches. ‘I can be inspired by a sudden image. My mind works like mad. The
light strikes off some curbstones, it looks lovely. It’s a detail. One never stops discovering new facets of
something: contrasts, dimensions. It’s all processed by the mind, you can’t set it out like a column of fig-
ures, but still it falls into place. You can worry and worry over a problem without finding an answer,
then in the morning when you wake up, there it is. Suddenly it’s all so obvious. That’s how to do it.
That’s how it will look. There are all sorts of problems I can’t sort out. When that happens I sketch it all
out on a piece of paper, solely in order to remind myself of the essentials.’H5719-Ch08.qxd 7/15/05 3:52 PM Page 239