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Ground floor; Less is bore

The ground floor was designed to be a welcoming aspect of the building. It´s filled with beautiful pieces of art, and it´s all about the experience of walking through the different rooms. From views on the fjord, the art pieces, to reflections of the fjord. It´s a unique experience just to walk around there.

Base shape; Circles

Just like any other piece of art from Olafur Eliasson, the base shape is circles. The artist works a lot with circles, they inspire him, he believes them to be; eternal.

Danish bricks; With a purpose

This is a beautiful example of; form follows fantasy where artist Olafur Eliasson pushed the boundries of what´s possible within design. You will notice that one does not find a single straight line on this building. Even the bricks are specially designed.

Headquarters; Kirk Capital

This postmodern building is actually the headquarters of Kirk Capital, an investment company. And the interior is designed with the same style as the rest of the building. With the use of the basic shape; circles

Fynslund Magazine

A video to remember

The final assignment within Grundforløb 2 for the Design class was a build upon the previous one. After we learned about different style periods, it was time to put our knowledge to the test. Everyone in class had to pick a building that they could research, and then make a video about that building showing your knowledge of style history through that video.

I picked Fjordenhus as my subject, a building I didn´t know anything about to begin with. Sure, I´ve seen it in the harbor of Vejle, who hasn´t? But I actually didn´t know anything about the style of the building and It´s history. So It was time for some research and time to start making a video.

Time to do some research

My classmate Karina and I took a little roadtrip to Vejle harbor. Where the beautiful building Fjordenhus is situated. We parked at the new parking lot building and started exploring the area. Fjordenhus lies in the Vejle harbor and has a frontal view of the Fjord. While looking at Fjordenhus you will see It´s situated very close to another iconic building; Bølgen.

Now the ground floor in Fjordenhus is open to the public, and lucky for us there was no one around at that time a day. So we started having a good look at the building, and the first thing you notice when you get closer are the iconic Danish bricks. The building portrays a calm minimalistic look from the outside. But upon getting closer, you´ll see that there is more then meets the eye. 

A postmodern castle

What style is this building? It is hard to define, because it´s actually built as a piece of art. There is not a specific style to it, but It can be classified as ´´postmodern´´ One of the trademarks from ´´postmodernism´´ was the believe of ´´form follows fantasy´´ And this building created by Olafur Eliasson is built 100% according to his fantasy. In his own words; he was not hired to become friends with the people building the structure, he was hired to design a piece of art.

This building is such an example of Postmodernism because It rebels against any other style. It´s so special, it will not be placed in a category. Form follows fantasy, all the way, from the bricks to the art. You will not find a straight line on this building, which means that even the bricks are custom made. The brilliance of this building lies in that it looks quite like a regular castle from afar, but when you get closer, you´ll notice the incredible eye for detail that went into this building.

It´s meant as an office building, but one that blends in with nature, it reflects the Fjord it stands in, and became an iconic part of Vejle.

Art within a piece of art

When you inspect the building from up close, you will find it quite an experience to walk through. The ground floor was designed to be a welcoming entrance to everyone, with art in every room there could not be a better sign of ´´Less is Bore´´. Each room on the ground floor is an experience, from amazing views on the Fjord, to reflectors where the water surface reflects upon the ceiling of one of the rooms.

And did I mention there are several pieces of art to be found? All designed by Olafur Eliasson, and a general design goes through each room. Remember the circles? Yes, also within the art the circles come back again.

A postmodern office

Now you would almost forget that this originally actually is designed to be an office building. Namely the headquarters of Kirk Capital investments. Within the offices the same style continues. The base shape the Circle can be found within the offices as well. Now, the artist created a cylinder shaped building, which within the offices created one problem. The round shapes of the building, although beautiful, also created an echo due to its form. 

In order to make it function as an office, special bricks where designed to reduce the echo,´´noise cancelling bricks´´. Now If that is not ´´Form follows fantasy´´, I don´t know what is.

Danish bricks

Now remember those Danish bricks we where talking about? Again a classic example of Postmodernism where form follows fantasy. The bricks had to be special made according to strict rules from the artist, just so his building could be realized just the way he intended it.

But at the same time, the artist tried to create a piece of art that doesn´t disturb. The Fjordenhus was built in the Fjord, and has become a part of it. Always reflecting it. Classic Danish Brick is the predominant material of the building’s inner and outer walls. From afar, the building’s surface seems orderly, but upon closer inspection, the different shapes and slightly irregular staggering of the bricks’ depth reveals a lively, organic surface. The brickwork incorporates fifteen different tones of unglazed brick; additional colors of glazed bricks are integrated into the carved-out sections to produce color fades – green from the bottom and blue from the top – that reflect the water and sky. Every corner, niche, and arc required an individual brick-laying solution. Each brick was specially fit into the complex curvature of the concrete walls.

´´Sketching´´ a video

After all the research was done, it was time to tell this story in a movie. In order to do so, I made a storyboard, where I could get an overview of the things that I wanted in the video, where and when.

The storyboard made it possible for me to have a lay-out of my video, and guide my editing. All the previously mentioned research is featured in the video. I´ve tried to edit it in such a way that it tells a story, with a beginning and an end.

Now without further ado The Movie

What I learned

During this assignment I learned to have an annalistic look at a design. To look at a whole design, and see the thoughts behind it. The style, the methods, the beliefs. It was very interesting to learn about the different styles, and at the same time learn something about a building I didn´t know anything about before.