Day 46. Architecture, Part 4: Free rein.

I went with my coworkers to Ørestad, a neighborhood in Vestamager that has seen a recent boom in ambitious and wildly designed buildings. Up-and-coming designers like Bjarke Ingels (<<website is awesome) have been given relatively free rein to dream up and construct living spaces and office buildings that Europe often shies away from, a result of strict zoning that prevents bold new architecture from mingling with quaint old architecture.

With tons of open land and license to experiment, architects have bent glass and steel into crazy apartment blocks like 8TALLET and the Tietgen Students' Residence. Honestly, the trip to Ørestad felt a bit like a trip into Orbit City - all that was missing was a Spacely Sprockets factory.

Inside 8TALLET

Ørestad Plejecenter: the coolest nursing home on the planet?

Day 45. Architecture, Part 3: Cultural buildings.

This is part three of four. My architectural knowledge is sorely lacking, and you're probably over it with the buildings.

Like any good European city, Copenhagen has its fair share of public cultural spaces, including art museums, libraries and concert halls. The most grand is the Operaen, the Opera House, financed by the family behind Mærsk, Denmark's most powerful corporation. Built at a cost of over $500 million, the Operahuset København is imposing and flashy in its place along the main harbor. It's just one of the many striking cultural spaces scattered around the capital. The Royal Library's new extension, nicknamed Den Sorte Diamant (the Black Diamond), is another.

Operahuset København
(thanks, Jefferson, for these pics)

Det Kongeliget Bibliotek (The Royal Library), a.k.a. Den Sorte Diamant (The Black Diamond)

Day 44. Architecture, Part 2: Churches.

The grand cathedrals of Europe often marked the dawning or even the apex of a particular architectural era. Notre Dame de Paris is a temple to the gothic, Rome's Church of the Gesù to the Baroque, Imperial Russia's Smolny Cathedral to the Rococo. Churches are simply the best indicators of architectural standards before, say, World War I, because money and talent flowed to these projects.

The same can be said for the churches of Denmark. I've already included a few churches, including one from Amager, a traditional stave church and Grundtvigs Kirke, all of which have unique character. Even when conforming to period-specific architectural forms, the Danes made their churches distinctly Danish.

The corkscrew spire of Vor Frelsers Kirke, Copenhagen, Baroque

St. Albans Kirke, Odense, Neogothic

Day 43. Architecture, Part 1: Row houses.

Modern apartment blocks dominate much of "new" Copenhagen, especially the district of Vestamager and along the main harbor. Glass and steel are the materials of choice for Denmark's current batch of architects, and the buildings they design are incredibly imaginative. I'll write about these soon.

Conversely, most of "old" Copenhagen (especially Indre By, where I live), is a charming mishmash of row houses that crowd the streets and sidewalks below. They're filled with character, slanting and spilling toward each other, and yet they're very often expensive to purchase or rent. Never do two adjacent match in color and rarely do they match in size or detail.

This is the Copenhagen tourists love.

Day 38. Crow-steps.

Across Europe - but particularly in Scandinavia and the Netherlands - crow-step gables are a popular architectural detail. The design is most commonly found on churches, from the small one from Amager pictured below to the big ones like Grundtvigs Kirke and Roskilde Cathedral. It's a subtle quirk that adds a lot of character to these otherwise stark buildings, and I love spotting them throughout the city.

Day 36. Chairs.

Denmark's talent for design: admirable. Denmark's love for funky chairs: a veritable smorgasbord of hazard.

Exhibit 1: Physics says no.

Exhibit 2: Ooooh, my coccyx.

Day 18. The candlestick store.

Copenhagen prides itself on the accomplishments of homegrown industrial designers and architects. Such pride is well-deserved; the city gave the world Jørn Utzon, after all. 

Of course, hip communities often run the risk of becoming caricatures of themselves. Like Spatula City or the Knot and Doily stores from Portlandia, there are a fair share of establishments in Copenhagen that literally sell one product, presumably on the basis of their superior design. The thing is, these stores aren't selling wristwatches or Ferraris or anything particularly complicated and expensive. For example, I recently passed a store that only sold white t-shirts with a quote: "Be yourself - everybody else is taken." That's it.

My favorite, though, is my neighborhood's designer candlestick store. Copper or silver? Your choice.