UMEÅ ART MUSEUM BY HENNING LARSEN ARCHITECTS

Umeå Art Museum is located at the 15,000 m2 new Arts Campus at Umeå University in northern Sweden. The new campus also comprises the Academy of Fine Arts, the Institute of Design and the School of Architecture.

The consolidation of artistic institutes and exhibition facilities is based on a close collaboration between various companies with a view to allow art, design and architecture to benefit from one another.

Umeå's position as a centre of art and education is strenghtened with a new silhouette by the Umeälven river. In its previous facilities, the museum has displayed international contemporary art and classic art-historical exhibitions side by side since 1981.

The new museum more than doubles the exhibition area and, with its protruding, visible location by the river, it will become a new landmark in the area.

The museum comprises three exhibition halls placed on top of each other. The large, square halls are free from load-bearing structures and are supported by four legs, with one leg placed on each side of the square rooms.

Around the exhibition halls, the legs create an outer, narrow gap towards the facades – a niche, which lets the cool sun and sky light pour into the space and merge with the warm artificial light.

In addition to the light effect, the niches allow for natural breaks from the artistic exploring, and the higher up you go, the more you are drawn towards the view of the river, city and landscape. 

The four legs not only support the building but also serve as wells for all vertical movement: elevators, stairs, pipes and ventilation ducts. The entrance and foyer span across the three lower levels and comprise a museum shop, a children’s workshop and an auditorium.

A partly triple-high room serves to connect the spaces. As the other buildings at the Arts Campus, the facade features vertical louvres in Siberian larch, which supports its verticality – only broken by the large windows and the glass floor in the middle.

Umeå Art Museum wishes to attract international artists. This imposes high requirements on museum safety and climate control. The museum connects to the local district heating system and features maintenance-free materials.

 

Location: Umeå, Sweden

Architect: Henning Larsen Architects

Project Team: White Arkitekter, Tyréns, WSP Group, TM-Konsult

Gross floor area: 3.500 m2

Year: 2009 - 2011

Client: Balticgruppen AB

KLAKSVÍK’S CITY CENTRE BY HENNING LARSEN

Klaksvik is the second largest town in the Faroe Islands. The town center has an amazing location by the sea. Through this urban design competition, Klaksvík. Municipality wants to make the town the ideal location for industry, retail trade, and cultural events – as well as residential. The main site of the competition is a landfill on the bay,—an underused area (see above).

Klaksvík’s new city centre will be established where the two inlets meet. The urban development plan incorporates and strengthens the existing qualities of the city. It creates an adventurous and vibrant city centre with a sheltered city square that will provide the framework for cultural activities and numerous other opportunities. The city square forms a natural connection to the sea and will be the heart of the city.

Klaksvík is the second-largest city in the Faroe Islands and is situated in the island of Borðoy, the largest of the northern islands. Klaksvík spans over two opposite mountain ridges, connected by a low-lying area where two inlets meet. The location of the city makes it particularly exposed to the wind. Thus, comfort and microclimate are important factors in the development of the city. 

Displaced building volumes break the dominant south-east and north-west winds in Klaksvík and contribute to providing new comfortable shelter zones in the city. The new urban space is based on a star-shaped structure where the centre of the star constitutes the new sheltered city square. The pointed shape ensures that the new urban space is rooted in the existing city. 

Conversely, it also brings the surrounding city space, green areas, canals and beach spaces into the new square.Klaksvík City Centre consists of a continuous system of paths that connects the three districts built around different themes: a green, recreational area; an urban development with a central, unifying city square and shops, cafes, a library, public offices, residences etc.; a maritime district with a cultural house, a maritime museum, cafes, shops, residences etc. along the new promenade.

The proposal for the new city centre in Klaksvík, the Faroe Islands, is based on simulations of local wind conditions. The project team has worked with broken, displaced volumes and streets to ensure a calm and comfortable microclimate.Wind comfort depends on a number of elements, the natural weather conditions of the area and the specific buildings and urban spaces. 

Data from accessible local measurements, local experience and knowledge have been incorporated in the project. Klaksvík is situated in an area where two inlets meet, only separated by a low-lying area that brings together the city. The city is situated on two opposite mountain ridges where the rainy, southern winds occur more often than the cold, northern winds. 

Due to the two mountain ridges situated opposite each other from the south-east towards the north-west, the centre of Klaksvík is particularly exposed to winds from these two directions.

The perception of comfort and wind environment is subjective and cannot be quantified unambiguously. The displaced building volumes break the dominant winds and create comfortable shelter zones in the city. With more detailed, local measurements, it is possible to adjust the volumes and thus climatically optimise the building stock. Desciption of Hanning Larsen architects.

Location: Klaksvik, Faroe Islands

Architect: Henning Larsen architects

Area: :150,000 m2

Year: :2012

Client: :Municipality of Klaksvík

Type of assignment: :1st prize in open, international competition

EMMEN THEATRE AND ZOO BY HENNING LARSEN

“Emmen Theatre and Zoo is a unique cultural building that brings together culture and nature. The building will constitute the entrance to a large zoological park of 10 hectares and comprises two main stages with a capacity of 1,150 people in total, an additional stage, exhibition and conference facilities.

The building will be a large theatre in itself. Viewed from the city, it opens up as a magic window towards the natural wildlife in the zoo – while the city is staged as a large urban universe viewed from the zoo.

Emmen Theatre and Zoo incorporates the surrounding outdoor spaces in a unifying scenography: The large new urban square; the landscape, introducing the zoological park; the roof, providing visitors with the opportunity to take a break from the noise and activity of the city.

The building design as a large stage structure allows the theatre to stage many different activities. The walls can be moved, and it is possible to open up the small stages to create new outdoor stages.

The integration of daylight, geometry and flexibility in the building reduces the energy consumption without use of technology. The design is energy-efficient in itself and forms an important part of the sustainability concept of the building.

Sustainability has been an important design parameter in the development of the new theatre in Emmen.

The integration of daylight, geometry and flexibility in the building reduces the energy consumption without use of technology. The design is energy-efficient in itself and forms an important part of the sustainability concept of the building.

The design ensures a good indoor climate and a comfortable outdoor climate on the urban square under the roof. The large overhangs of the east and west facades protect the square from the sun and rain. Forming part of the frame structure, the remaining facades are solid and feature large windows to the north and small openings to the south. Plenty of overhead lights in the roof provide the various foyers and halls with ample daylight.

Emmen Theatre is a compact volume. The flexible design allows for the sizes of the various rooms to be adjusted as needed and reduces the energy consumption for heating or cooling. The large foyer and meeting space serves as a buffer for natural ventilation.

The roof landscape of the theatre plays an important role in terms of reducing energy costs. The collection of rainwater cools down the entire structure through the concrete. At the same time, the roof collects water for watering the roof garden and for filling up the small canals and lakes, which - as small water falls - fall from the roof into the fountain in front of the building.” Description of Henning Larsen architects.

Location: :Emmen, Holland

Architect: Henning Larsen architects

Collaborators: :Van den Berg Groep

Gross floor area: :16,000 m2

Client: :City of Emmen

Year of design: :2012 - 2015

Awards: :First prize in international competition

NORDEA BANK BY HENNING LARSEN

Nordea’s new office building in Ørestad North, Copenhagen, will house 1,800-2,200 employees and be ready for inauguration in 2016. To the south, the building is characterised by a sophisticated, sloping park landscape and to the north by an open ground floor and tile facades on the lower floors.

Nordea’s new building introduces a new medium scale in Ørestad – a street level connecting buildings and landscape. Stage one covering a total of 40,000 m2 consists of two light, sculptural buildings placed on a base. The architectural concept reflects the functionality of the buildings.

Thus, the effective office floors are all placed on top of the base, while the shared, outward functions are placed in the base. The building is organised as a city – offering quiet, more intimate places as well as squares and streets full of life and activity. The individual departments all offer both a quiet and active section.

This functional layout promotes collaboration, innovation and knowledge sharing across departments and professional fields. The interaction between effective open plan offices and meeting places allows the individual employee to find the optimal working situation.

The building interacts with the city, opens up and invites for activity at different levels. It will be a place in the city that offers activity inside as well as outside.

The new Nordea office building should achieve the highest score in the international certification system in green building, LEED. LEED evaluates the building as a whole - from programme through effective treatment of water, energy, materials, indoor climate to design process.

Henning Larsen Architects applies a unique, holistic design method, developed by the company itself. Focus is on minimiming the energy consumption of the building. This is achieved by reducing the energy consumption, then optimisingthe technical solutions and finally integrating solutions for energy production in the buildings.  

The energy consumption of the new building has continuously been simulated through studies of volumes, materials, room heights, light and shadow, noise, wind and feasibility of indoor and outdoor spaces. Subsequently, the energy consumption has been further reduced by intelligent selection and use of efficient technologies.

With the applied methodology, the building will achieve a LEED Platinum certification, while at the same time offering an energy consumption of 41 kWh/m2/year without use of energy-producing installations.

Adding the solar cell system required according to LEED, the total energy consumption will be minimised to 18.8 kWh/m2/year, which is far below the new 2020 energy requirements according to Danish building regulations. This makes Nordea's new building a sustainable role model. Description of Henning Larsen Architects.

Location: Copenhagen, Denmark

Architect: Henning Larsen Architects

Landscape architect: :SLA

Workspace design: :Signal Arkitekter

Gross floor area: :40,000 m2

Client: :Nordea Properties

Year of construction: :2013 - 2016

Awards: :First prize in invited competition