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Steensen Varming wishes everyone a Happy New Year. 2013 was a very exciting year which saw us into the 80th year since our foundation in Copenhagen as well as the 40th year since our establishment in Australia following our work on the design of Sydney Opera House with Jørn Utzon. We were very proud to participate in the anniversary celebrations of the iconic building, including the Danish Design at the House exhibition and sponsoring MADE, the Multidisciplinary Australian Danish Exchange programme which will run over the next ten years. In addition, our many successful projects picked up the following awards –

Art Gallery of NSW Forecourt Upgrade

National Architecture Awards, Small Project

Auckland Art Gallery

World Architecture Festival, World Building of the Year

Brisbane Supreme Court

IES Australia and New Zealand Award of Excellence

Australian Institute of Architects Public Architecture, National Award

The Eucalyptus woodland free-air CO2 enrichment (EucFACE) facility

Engineers Australia Sydney Division, Excellence Award, Environment & Heritage

Australian Engineering Excellence Awards, Finalist

Kings Avenue Overpass

Illumni Silver Infinity Award

IES North America Lighting Design Award of Excellence

IES The Paul Waterbury Award for Outdoor Lighting Design, Award of Excellence

IES North America Illumination Awards, International Section

‘Magic Mushroom’ LED Landscape Luminaire (Art Gallery of New South Wales cafe courtyard)

IES NSW Award of Commendation

Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery

Museums Australia Magna National Winner

City of Hobart Heritage Award

Great Hall, University of Technology Sydney

IES North America Illumination Awards, Award of Merit

IES North America Illumination Awards, International Section

Waterloo Youth Family Community Centre

NSW Architecture Awards, Sulman Medal for Public Architecture

IAMFA Diplomat Award

Presented to Steensen Varming for exceptional contributions to the state of design, construction, operation and maintenance of cultural facilities around the globe.

We look forward to seeing you in 2014 and what this year will bring.

Orange was the new white and the latest shade of light cast on the Opera House by Steensen Varming’s lighting team, this time marking the last performance of the Dutch Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra on December 1 2013. The concert ended the symphony orchestra’s biggest world tour ever through Europe, North and South America, Asia, Africa and finally Australia, celebrating its 125 years as one of the best orchestras in the world.

The Sydney Opera House has launched the campaign Own Our House, allowing people to show their support for the Opera House by buying virtual tiles on its tallest sail and becoming Housemates.

Steensen Varming supports this great cause that will help fund renewal of the building and ensure the iconic masterpiece that brought us to Australia will continue to inspire artists, audiences and visitors for many generations to come.

From an online virtual model of the Opera House you can select the tile you wish to buy and even discover the view from it. Tiles can also be bought as gifts – a great idea for this year’s Christmas presents.

Read more about Own Our House and buy a virtual tile here

On Friday 22 November the Illuminating Engineering Society, NSW Chapter presented the NSW Lighting Awards at the Sydney Convention Centre in Darling Harbour. Steensen Varming proudly picked up an Award of Commendation for the Magic Mushroom LED Landscape Luminaire, recently designed for the Art Gallery of New South Wales cafe courtyard.

Read more on the NSW IES Lighting Awards

On Thursday 21 November we celebrated our 80th anniversary in Copenhagen at Danish Architecture Centre in the pleasant company of friends, clients and colleagues from our global studios.

Guests were greeted by Bach’s solo suites for cello played by Estera Rajnicka and had the opportunity to view the centre’s autumn exhibition Greenland – Head for the centre of the world as well as Steensen Varming’s own contribution in the Danish Design at the House exhibition which formed part of the Sydney Opera House 40th anniversary celebrations in October 2013.

Speeches capturing a reflection of the past, future and present of Steensen Varming were held by CEO Dan Mackenzie, designer and grandson of founder Jørgen Varming, Søren Varming and senior mechanical engineer, Tommi Haferbier Nielsen.

After eight decades of supporting an exceptional cast of internationally influential architects and buildings, Steensen Varming will continue to integrate global expertise with local knowledge and support projects in research, education and art with Danish design as an important basis of our history and way of thinking.

See more photos from the event

November 14th is World Diabetes Day. What better way to raise the awareness of the condition than to adorn one of the world’s most iconic buildings in a wash of blue, the international colour for diabetes awareness? Steensen Varming is, once again, proud to have contributed to a good cause by casting light.

Friday night the Opera House launched the Danish Design at the House exhibition as part of its 40th Anniversary celebrations, transforming the Western Foyer into a series of installations inspired by the sparse, elegant modernism of Danish design. We were very honoured to meet Denmark’s Crown Prince Couple, HRH Crown Prince Frederik and HRH Crown Princess Mary and explain the approach and way of thinking behind the building design enabling this iconic building.

Above: CEO Dan Mackenzie and Søren Varming, designer of Steensen Varming’s exhibition display and grandson of co-founder, Jørgen Varming, with HRH Crown Princess Mary.

More photos from Danish Design at the House

Steensen Varming are very honoured to have been awarded the IES North America Lighting Design Award of Excellence 2013 for our work on Kings Avenue Overpass as the only Australian project from a selection of around 400 projects around the world.

Kings Avenue Overpass is a significant piece of urban and traffic infrastructure in Canberra with an indirect underpass lighting system and programmable led façade lighting. It has significantly improved safety for motorists and pedestrians

Read more about the Kings Avenue Overpass project

Steensen Varming are participating in Danish Design at the House, a conceptual exhibition to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Sydney Opera House and the role Danish Design has had in enabling this iconic building. We show how this happens ‘behind the scenes’ through intelligent, valuable and elegant building design solutions that seamlessly merges into the whole. The original air-conditioning system was developed using water from the harbour, saving wasted energy and avoiding the visual impact of cooling towers which was a truly innovative solution, even by today’s standards. The knowledge of the complex engineering systems and an understanding of the inter-relations enable the adaption of the building for future needs consistent with Utzon’s vision. We also describe how the principles of Danish Design are deeply embedded in our approach and task as engineers, from enabling the perception of materials to the feelings of joy and pleasure influenced by the built environment.

Danish Design at the House is open to the public, free of charge, from 25 October – 11 November 2013.

Read more about the exhibition here

Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki has been announced World Building of the Year at the World Architecture Festival 2013 in Singapore. We are very pleased to have been part of this project in collaboration with Frances-Jones Morehen Thorp
and Archimedia, having created the specialist lighting design for all public areas and galleries as well as the landscape lighting design.

Read more about the Auckland Art Gallery and our work here.