Art Into Architecture: Olafur Eliasson’s 'Fjordenhus'
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There’s a sci-fi element to Olafur Eliasson’s first architectural project, Fjordenhus. A building rising from the calm waters of Vejle Fjord in Denmark, it recalls the grandeur of a historical church with its double-height arched windows, which, taken togArt Into Architecture: Olafur Eliasson’s 'Fjordenhus'
There’s a sci-fi element to Olafur Eliasson’s first architectural project, Fjordenhus. A building rising from the calm waters of Vejle Fjord in Denmark, it recalls the grandeur of a historical church with its double-height arched windows, which, taken together, form undulating lines that surge around the structure, echoed in the subtle waves below. It feels futuristic, composed of four intersecting cylinders, compact pistons of energy. At 28 meters in height, it appears as a towering monolith or an unusual iceberg emerging from the sea. In other words, it’s both recognizable and otherworldly.The artist’s first building, it carries with it his signature investigation of how the body interacts with space and what we sense in the process. Discussing his interest in embodied experience, Eliasson said in an interview: “Many of my works are spatial in their language, but the content is about human perception, the body, and psychology. When I was offered the opportunity to work within architecture, I took the same content — the form was just modified.” He underlined that “a lot of the architectural solutions were solved in the same way as when I make art.”Commissioned by the investment company Kirk Kapital as its new headquarters, Eliasson worked on the building’s design with the architect Sebastian Behmann, with whom he founded the Berlin-based Studio Other Spaces (SOS) in 2014. “For the client it was very important that it had a strong artistic element,” said Eliasson, which led to this being at once an example of architecture, art, and design (even the building’s furniture and lights have been conceptualized by SOS).Behmann described how before collaborating with Eliasson he “felt limited within the profession of architecture to do what I wanted to do. The dialogue between art and architecture allows for a greater vocabulary.”Indeed, for Eliasson, art and architecture are “overlapping” and “can amplify each other,” so that ultimately, “there is an opportunity to give the user the authority to co-produce the narrative of what they experience.”Although a private company, Kirk Kapital agreed that the building’s design should also grant public access to the ground floor. After the viewer crosses over a footbridge, the entrance envelops him or her within a shelter from which to experience the surrounding waters and the rippling light that reflects off its surface. Discussing the challenge of mediating public and private space amid overarching political agendas, Eliasson said: “We live in a time where there’s a lot of interest in promoting fear, populism and polarization. It terrorizes public space into being a more fear-driven space where you’re more likely to reject than include a stranger.”He believes that “art and architecture needs to [apply] the agenda of, if not dismantling those defenses, then exposing the fact that we are tense, stressed, rejecting and defensive. One way of doing that is to use, for instance, organic materials, porous materials that are highly tactile and talk to your sensual skin.”As such, rather than employing hard, cold “rejective” matter such as polished granite, he chose forms that would change with the weather and temperature, where the color would shift when it rains, for example.It was precisely this concept of hybridizing private and public space that influenced the way in which Fjordenhus developed to include an “aesthetic or a non-functional area” on the ground floor, where you’re simply allowed to experience the atmospheric conditions. “For me it was very important that Kirk Capital wanted to give something back to the city,” said Eliasson, continuing, “this public commitment was about their relationship to a sense of belonging; that was inspiring to me.” Initially, it was planned as a destination point at the end of the jetty (which was designed by Gunther Vogt).Discussing the importance of free access, Behmann emphasized: “There are certain types of buildings that ask to be public — town halls or civic buildings — Fjordenhus has some of that shape and meaning. People can spend time there; they don’t have to spend money. They can bring their own drinks and swim.”This issue of public vs. private space is ever intensifying, as property markets continue to boom in major capital cities while public access and human rights diminish. How does this physical reality impact our psychological sense of belonging, our sense of community and inclusivity? Eliasson is interested in “the fact that it’s a struggle to simply claim our sense of belonging to public space. We cannot mistakenly think that public space is just what’s left in between all the different types of private and functionalized space. We forget that you and I own the public space together, we also pay for it through our tax; we shouldn’t deprive public space from its great agency. That agency is the democratic values upon which our society is built.”Behmann, who is interested in architecture from the 1960s and 1970s, has studied how certain civic societies produce specific kinds of public spaces. Citing The Centro Cultural São Paulo as an example (conceived in the 1970s, built in 1982), which was commissioned by the Municipal Cultural Department and placed atop an old railway, conceived to combine offices with a public library, hotels, exhibition spaces, music venues and a shopping center. “Public space is not just empty space and it’s not enough to simply provide space; it must be connected to the society who will use it.”Is a building more valuable if presented as an artwork? Might the property market become conflated with the art market, and if this strengthens the privatization of housing, how will this affect average people and their right to move and exist freely within the urban environment? For Behmann, “Fjordenhus can hopefully make a difference in the perception of what is quality in architecture and in space [in terms of] what it actually means for civic society, the community — for the whole area, and the region. I hope Fjordenhus can be an example of how to create value with its content.” This article appears in the September issue of Modern Painters. http://www.blouinartinfo.com/ Founder: Louise Blouin Read more