From Wednesday 18th through to Saturday 21st of May a group of benefactors from the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) will be visiting Copenhagen. The group of ten people – all with a special interest in the built environment – is part of RIBA’s programme Patrons of Architecture. The schedule for the trip includes many of Copenhagen’s greatest attractions in modern architecture such as Schmidt Hammer Lassen’s Black Diamond, BIG’s Power Plant and 3XN’s Bella Sky hotel but also visits to architectural gems that are not normally accessible to the public; accompanied by Tobias Jacobsen, designer and grandson of Arne Jacobsen, the group will have the opportunity of getting close to the more and lesser known buildings by the architect as well as the stories and the man behind them.
In Gentofte, Søren Varming, graphic designer and grandson of Steensen Varming’s founder, Jørgen Varming, will be giving a tour of his grandfather’s old house, built in 1952 in close collaboration with the architects Niels and Eva Koppel. The heritage listed house was bought by Realdania in 2013 and underwent an extensive renovation by Steensen Varming in collaboration with architect Kent Pedersen where care was taken to preserve the original systems that make the house so special and an example of exceptional engineering, including a six metre-wide glass façade that can be raised all the way up, a hot air heating system via an underfloor duct system and Denmark’s first extractor hood. The British guests will experience a unique house, marking the modernist development for Danish family homes, as well as the life that played out in these spaces.
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