Architecture of Denmark

Under the influence of Frederick II and Christian IV, both of whom had been inspired by the castles of France, Dutch and Flemish designers were brought to Denmark to improve the country's fortifications.

This resulted in rebuilding or adopting older, Romanesque churches to the Gothic style: the flat ceilings were replaced by high cross vaults, windows were enlarged with pointed arches, chapels and towers were added, and the interiors were decorated with murals.

St. Canute's presents all the features of Gothic architecture: pointed arch, buttresses, ribbed vaulting, increased light and the spatial combination of nave and chancel.

Glimmingehus (1499–1506), a rectangular castle in Scania, was commissioned by the Danish nobleman Jens Holgersen Ulfstand who hired Adam van Düren, a North German master who also worked on Lund Cathedral.

The building contains many defensive features of the times, including parapets, false doors, dead-end corridors, murder-holes for pouring boiling pitch over the attackers, moats, drawbridges and various other death traps to protect the nobles against peasant uprisings.

The castle burnt down in 1629 but, under orders from Christian IV, was quickly rebuilt under the leadership of Hans van Steenwinckel the Younger, son of the famous Flemish artist.

Christian IV had most of Frederick II's original building pulled down to have van Steenwinckel complete a three-winged French-styled castle with a low terrace wing around a courtyard.

[22][23] Christian IV also initiated a number of projects in Norway that were largely based on Renaissance architecture[24][page needed] He established mining operations in Kongsberg and Røros, now a World Heritage Site.

Under the initial leadership of Hans van Steenwinckel who surprisingly adapted the design to Dutch Baroque, the Tower was completed in 1642 with a height of almost 40 m. The bricks, specially ordered from the Netherlands, were of a hard-burned, slender type, known as muffer or mopper.

[32] One of the foremost designers of the times was the Danish architect Lambert van Haven whose masterpiece was the Church of Our Saviour, Copenhagen (1682–96) which relies on the Greek cross for its basic layout.

[34] It was Henrik Ruse, a Dutch building engineer, who was charged by Frederick III to develop the area around Kongens Nytorv, especially in connection with the Nyhavn Canal which was designed to become Copenhagen's new harbour.

[38] Fredensborg Palace (1731), the royal residence on the shore of Sealand's Lake Esrum, with its exquisite Chancellery House, is the work of Johan Cornelius Krieger who was the court gardener at Rosenborg Castle.

Among the major proponents were Johan Conrad Ernst who built the Chancery Building[41] or Kancellibygningen (1721) on Slotsholmen and Lauritz de Thurah who designed the Eremitage Palace (1734) in Dyrehaven, just north of Copenhagen.

[44] Soon afterwards, he was given prestige assignments including the overall architectural design for the Frederiksstaden district of Copenhagen 1749, planned around the strictly octagonal square containing the four Amalienborg Palaces and considered to be one of Europe's most important Rococo complexes.

Adam Gottlob Moltke who, as Frederick V's overhofmarskal or lord chamberlain, was in charge of the project gave Eigtved a free hand, not only to design the principal buildings but also to provide the area with straight broad streets and the mansions which lined them.

[55] After Hardorff's death, the main proponent of Classicism was Christian Frederik Hansen who developed a more severe style with clean, simple forms and large, unbroken surfaces.

In 1822, as a young man, he had experienced Karl Friedrich Schinkel's classicism in Germany and France and had met the German-born architect and archaeologist Franz Gau who introduced him to the colourful architecture of antiquity.

His uncle, Jonas Collin, who was an active art and culture official under Frederick VI, awakened the King's interest in a museum for Bertel Thorvaldsen, the Danish-Icelandic sculptor, and asked Bindesbøll to make some sketches for the building.

[63] Ferdinand Meldahl, also a proponent of Historicism, completed the reconstruction of Frederiksborg Palace after the fire in 1859 and designed the Parliament Building in Reykjavík, Iceland, at that time a Danish colony.

The City Hall is certainly Copenhagen's most monumental and most original building from the last quarter of the 19th century with its impressive facade, the golden statue of Absalon just above the balcony and its tall, slim clock tower.

[68] Neoclassicism or increasingly Nordic Classicism continued to thrive at the beginning of the century until about 1930 as can be seen in Kay Fisker's Hornbækhus apartment buildings (1923) and Hack Kampmann's police headquarters (1924).

[69] While the movement had its greatest level of success in Sweden, there were a number of other important Danish proponents including Ivar Bentsen, Kaare Klint, Arne Jacobsen, Carl Petersen and Steen Eiler Rasmussen.

[77] Another project, noted for the synthesis it creates between architecture and landscape, was the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (1958) in Humlebæk, designed by Jørgen Bo and Vilhelm Wohlert.

Rødovre Town Hall, completed in 1956, shows how well Jacobsen combined the use of different materials: sandstone, two types of glass, painted metalwork and stainless steel.

Most notably, Jørn Utzon's iconic Sydney Opera House earned him the distinction of becoming only the second person to have his work recognized as a World Heritage Site while still alive.

[82] From the success of the Strøget's transformation into a pedestrian zone in Copenhagen in the 1960s and his influential book Life Between Buildings, Jan Gehl earned an international reputation in urban design.

Based on initial planning work in the 1980s, the area has already seen the appearance of several prestige buildings including the Black Diamond national library extension (1999), the Opera House (2000) and the Royal Danish Playhouse (2004).

Their international projects include the Harpa concert hall in Reykjavík (2011; 2013 European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture),[94] Der Spiegel Headquarters in Hamburg (2011),[95] and Quay Quarter Tower in Sydney (2021).

[111] Four young practices, CEBRA, Cobe, Transform and Effekt, contributed to the project CO-EVOLUTION: Danish/Chinese Collaboration on Sustainable Urban Development in China, which was awarded the Golden Lion in 2006 at the Venice Biennale of Architecture.

[118] Effekt has won the competition for a new building for the Estonian Art Academy in Tallinn,[119] Transform has a project on the City Hall Square in Copenhagen[120] Dorte Mandrup has designed the Wadden Sea Centre in Jutland.