Larsen, Henning (1925)

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Henning 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 architectural award (1999); the Stockholm Award (2001); and the Rostocker Architekturpreis (2004), in addition to being the founder of the periodical SKALA.

This sketch by Larsen conveys a thought process that relies on the analysis of past projects 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 dictionary’ 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 describing 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 figures, 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.’