Copenhagen:: Western Denmark Study Tour

Starting Thursday morning, bright and early at 7, we departed on a three day long study tour to Western Denmark. It was such a cool trip, and the whole time on the bus I was fighting my eyelids to stay awake so I could see everything! Although I don't think I ended up seeing everything, I saw so many amazing buildings and the artwork inside, and was able to see the Denmark that most don't get the chance to. On the bus, the coolest thing I saw was a mound of grass in the middle of a field. This had been explained earlier to me that although it looks like a pile of dirt with trees on top, it's in fact an old burial mound housing ancient tombs and artifacts! The farmers are not allowed to disturb it which is why they simply farm around it allowing it to stick out so much.

Our first destination was Middlefart (yes, I'm serious), where we stopped to look at a bank designed in a way that lets in so much natural sunlight and allows for an incredibly comfortable working space. It was nice to see, but our tour guide was in HR and didn't know any of the architectural aspects we were asking of him.

Notice how the windows are shaped to filter in sunlight.

Aarhus was the next city we went to, visiting the ARoS Museum and Aarhus Radhus, the city hall. The museum was really incredible, it's the famous one we had seen in all the brochures with the rainbow walkway on the top of it. It is the largest museum in the Nordic countries with 8 floors, bottom to top that are inspired by Dante's Inferno. This was shown with the artwork as well with the bottom floors being dark rooms with sight altering effects (hell) and the top being the rainbow walkway (paradise). There were so many great artists in this museum, including my favorite, Kaspar Bonnen, who used the whole room as his installation by breaking down and painting the walls. He also somehow made people that look extremely real, real enough that I stared at the one man for a good five minutes (luckily they were fake or that would have been rude) and threw them into the middle of the room to pose. I wish we had had more time at this museum, although I did have more time than everyone else. I took my time walking through the exhibits and eventually was by myself, only to realize I was actually really by myself, without my group, in the museum. I was left behind. I kept a sort of level of calmness while I asked people if they knew where a group of Americans my age had just gone and was eventually pointed to the city hall, a five minute walk down the street. This would really only happen to me, apparently I didn't hear the right meeting up time (I beg to differ).

The city hall had an incredible view from the billionth floor that we had to climb up to, and old bells that chimed the time. We were so lucky as to be up there when they went off, not so quiet those bells, and I jumped about half a foot. We got back on the bus and spent the night in Horsens, a town literally consisting of a convient store and our hostel.

Waking up and visiting a graveyard and 800 year old church (called Vaer Kirke) super early in the morning isn't something I ever want to do and still being somewhere between the dream world and real world, it scared the crap out of me. I won't go into details, it was all really beautiful, I just didn't like it.

From this church we went to a modern church, one that had been designed by the winner of a competition Paul Niepoort in 1970. This is a common theme among Danish buildings, they were all a contest for some reason. The church, Sonderbro Kirke, was influenced by the architect Alvar Aalto. This building also used natural lighting really well, allotting to a surreal feeling, fitting for a place of this purpose. I also found a secret staircase and ended up in the ceiling of the church which was interesting to see!

The next museum was also won in a competition (told ya it's a thing) by Steven Holl and was completed in 2009. It's called the Heart Museum and was designed with the history of textiles in mind and has textured walls meant to look like fabric. Our program actually messed up a little on this one and didn't know that all the exhibits were closed at the time we were there, so we laid outside on the grass for an hour and waited for lunch in the attached cafe, such great relaxation. Nearby was Utzon's experimental house, testing energy efficient practices, looking like something out of the future. That afternoon we went to the Birk Landscape and Sculpture Park where we walked around looking at sculptures, found a hedge maze similar to that of the Shining, except for a one year old, wandered inside and taking shelter from the wind, laid down in the sun once again!

Experimental House

Lunch!

Saturday was our last day of the tour, the night before spent in a town called Kolding. We wanted to try to go out thinking it was a Friday and there had to be something to do! We were on our own for dinner and found a Mongolian Buffet! There was all you can eat sushi and ice cream at the buffet, and because sushi is so expensive in Copenhagen we were so excited! Off to a great start, we looked around for a fun bar, only to end up in a pirate themed bar where they were dressed up and dancing to the Dropkick Murphy's (Irish pirates?) The night before sitting around drinking wine with the group had been really fun though so we weren't too disappointed at a failed second night.

On the last day we went to Koldinghus, a 700 year old fortress and the last royal castle. This was so up my alley, I love picturing what it was like to live in places like this in their prime years. There had been a fire in 1808 and instead of trying to restore it or knock it down, a new layer that can easily be distinguished was built on top of the original stone. I really liked this because it was more like the history of the building was being accepted and shown rather than covered up or changed.

We ate lunch at a fabulous Italian restaurant Nicolai Biograf & Cafe and checked out the Nicolai Bornehuset, basically the European version of Chuckie Cheese without tokens, beeping noises or screaming kids. It was separated into rooms for playing, dressing up and doing crafts. It was cool to see how the architecture differed based on its function.

The afternoon led us to the Trapholt Kunstmuseum showing a collection of famous furniture and modern art, including Arne Jacobson's summer house out back. There was a collection of really famous chairs such as the Egg and the Swan by Jacobson, as well as innovative benches and noteworthy couches, none of which we were allowed to sit on.