New life for Denmark’s oldest school

Denmark’s oldest school, the listed Sølvgade School built in 1847, close to King Christian IV’s famous historic naval barracks, Nyboder, in Copenhagen, has for many years been lacking space and modern facilities. C. F. Moller has carefully renovated the school and done an extension which in its form and colors is true to the surroundings, but also adds a modernistic twist to the school.

Image courtesy C. F. Moller Architects

The idea has been to create a building that speaks the language of the children – colorful and musical. At the same time the building should correspond to and integrate with the historic surroundings.

architect and partner Lone Wiggers

Sølvgade School is surrounded by historic buildings and parks like Nyboder, the Castle of Rosenborg and its surrounding gardens, called Kongens Have. Nearby is the significant, modernistic residential complex, Dronningegården (1943-58) by architects C. F. Møller and Kay Fisker.

Image courtesy C. F. Moller Architects

A lively, modernistic twist

The new six-storey building with its striking glass façade gives Sølvgade School a lively, modernistic twist, but with its slanted shapes and color scheme relating to Nyboder’s pastel shades, it also corresponds with the historic surroundings.

Inside, the floorplan layout twists and angles, walls are sloping, and the coloristic color scheme continues, linking inside and outside and creating an inspiring and dynamic learning environment.

Image courtesy C. F. Moller Architects

Minimal use of energy and optimal indoor climate

By using the time honored methods of passive solar gain and the chimney effect, the Sølvgade School in Copenhagen, Denmark bolsters new, efficient technology. Avoiding the pollution of the street, fresh air is pulled and preheated from the rear of the building. The double glazed façade completes the circulation, exhausting air to the street with a natural chimney effect. In addition to the ventilation, creating the optimal indoor climate crucial to a learning environment, this double glazing serves triple duty as it dampens street noise and serves as a solar screen. Using these and other methods, the building uses an impressively low 68 kwh/m2/year.

Image courtesy C. F. Moller Architects

A good neighbour

All in all the school is a good neighbour. Considering not only its own natural lighting needs, the building preserves the light for surrounding buildings. This thoughtfulness continues through the rest of its form. While maintaining its modern sensibilities, the building borrows colors, proportions and references from the historic surroundings. The structure respects existing patterns by changing rooflines to connect a historic side street building to façades on the other side of the block.

+ Project credits / data

Project: Sølvgade School
Address: Sølvgade 16, 1307 København K
Size: 4500 m2 (renovation 2100 m2, new build 2400 m2)
Client: The City of Copenhagen and Københavns Ejendomme
Architect: C. F. Møller Architects
Landscape: C. F. Møller Architects
Engineers: Esbensen Rådgivende Ingeniører and Sloth Møller
Prizes: 1. Prize in competition, 2005
Built: 2009-2011
Type: Refurbishment/extension

Belgian designer Peter Donders has recently created The D-Desk. It consists of of cast aluminum feet and solid wood or MDF center piece. Cast feet is possible in different colors, and the center piece is possible in different woods and painted MDF.

+ Dimensions: L 2000 mm x D 874 mm x H 776 mm
+ Weight: +/- 46 kg
+ Designer: Peter Donders | http://peterdonders.com/

The D-Desk, image courtesy Peter Donders

+ All images courtesy Peter Donders

Frank Lloyd Wright, an early pioneer of organic architecture and the Prairie School architecture movement, is probably best known for his Falling Water house, a mountainside retreat built over a waterfall for the Kaufmann family in 1936.

The house impressed architects and the general public alike, because it didn’t seem to stand on solid ground, but rather float over a 30-foot waterfall. It was the first time the concept of designing and building structures that promoted harmony between the natural world and human habitats, emerged. Wright’s innovative ideas continue to intrigue architects and designers alike and have inspired them to replicate his famous structures in a variety of media.

Below is designer Andrew van der Westhuyzen’s replica of a 1950′s-era Falling Water party-house which he created for an ad campaign…

Even the bloggers of today are inspired by Lloyd. Melodie from Garden Melodies took on the challenge of creating a gingerbread version of the house for a 2010 Gingerbread Festival in Orem, Utah.

Some quick facts:

•It took over 12 hours to design
•It took Brenton and [Melodie] around 40 hours to build and decorate
•There are around 164 different pieces of gingerbread
•It took roughly 12 square feet of gingerbread dough (that's four large batches) to make all the walls, floors and roof
•Over 8 bags of powdered sugar were used to make all the frosting
•It took over 40 sleeves of large Smarties which are used to simulate dry stack stone on the building exterior
•The river and water fall are made up of three batches of hard candy

Melodie graciously provides the recipe on her blog:

2 C light corn syrup
1 1/2 C packed brown sugar
1 1/4 C margarine
1 tsp salt
9 C flower

Melt together the corn syrup, brown sugar, and margarine. Mix till smooth then add in flour and salt.
Bake for 15 to 20 min at 350
*If the pieces get warped throw them in the microwave for 15 seconds and they will flatten out.

Do check out her blog if you are interested in the making and the subsequent destruction of this piece.

Construction toy maker LEGO has even included The Falling Water house in their lego architecture set for recreation at home.

You can buy the above model here.

The company has also released a set for FLW’s another famous creation: The Guggenheim Museum. It was one of those structures that stunned the public with modern, winding architecture never before seen on a building.

Guggenheim Museum model is also available on Amazon.

For more regular updates from Home Designing, join us on Facebook.

If you are reading this through e-mail, please consider forwarding this mail to a few of your friends who are into interior design. Come on, you know who they are!

Similar Posts:

• Live in Falling Water, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Masterpiece
• Fairy Tale Cottages
• Super Car Museums
• Twilight House – Cullen’s Home Decor
• Urban Forest: Sky Scraper With Gardens
• White House Interiors