arkiquirky copenhagen, size extra large

 

this is as close as I came to Copenhill (Amager Resource Center), the waste to energy plant designed to showcase its dual purpose of a major power facility with a hilly roof surface for expending human energy on its artificial ski slope, hiking trails and climbing walls... 

an extra-large project by who else, but BIG

arkiquirky copenhagen, size large

 on our first day in Copenhagen we headed straight for the new home of the Dansk Arkitektur Center in the long awaited completion of BLOX in 2018, the glass-blocks stacked structure designed by OMA

the glass boxes straddle an existing roadway and stagger down towards the waterfront... other occupants of this hyper-glazed edifice include the Dansk Design Center, BLOX EATS cafe and restaurant, a fitness center, work spaces and residences

*****

a cluster of 5 cylindrical towers across from the Tivoli Gardens loom over the bustling streets... designed by Lundgaard & Tranberg Arkitekter and completed in 2017, the curvilinear spaces of the photogenic AXEL Towers house offices, shops and restaurants

arkiquirky copenhagen, size medium

 Copenhagen central only yielded a few pseudo-quirky detached (single purpose or unused) medium-sized structures for me to record, but then again I have not walked along every street and entered into every courtyard to find more... yet!

a traditional half-timbered house sitting all out of sorts and sadly neglected in a laneway beside the Design Museum Denmark

a seemingly abandoned brick building on Vesterfaelledvej 56 bordering the Carlsberg city district development site (with the Carlsberg Tower in the background)

a 19th century Russian Orthodox church on Bredgade 53, Saint Alexander Nevsky Church with its three golden onion domes glowing in the setting sun was built by a Danish princess who married Czar Alexander III

not quite a bona fide quirky building but the well-executed trompe l'oeil of a triumphal arch is effectively eye-drawing and painted on a blank wall just outside the meatpacking district

perhaps the most well-known and most photographed elephants in a city where the elephant is the symbol of the kingdom of Denmark, the Elephant Gate/Tower to the Carlsberg brewery compound is a much visited site

the latest addition to the Copenhagen Zoo is the Panda House by the most famous of contemporary Danish architects Bjarke Ingels and his firm BIG, with its circular yin and yang divided enclosure that ensures each pampered giant panda will have his and her own exclusive privacy... until their arranged conjugal visits in a specially merged boudoir🙈

arkiquirky copenhagen, size extra small

 

the smallest and quirkiest architectural edifices that I came across in Copenhagen are rendered in clay and sit on shelves at the Designer Zoo gallery...

these precious maquette-like sculpture of imaginary buildings are created by VIBEKE RYTTER, an architect, painter, designer and ceramic artist from Roskilde

arkiquirky copenhagen, size small

on our walks around Copenhagen away from the tourist sites, along quiet canals and behind buildings and in tranquil courtyards, the odd small sized structure stands alone unengaged with its surroundings but serving a purpose of sorts...

elegantly ornamented but solid metal barricades for the private relief of bodily functions...

a caravan-style cabana serving as a sauna for heated debates... or other steamier encounters, wink, wink...

(by the Johan Borups Hojskole, a high school for the arts, on the Frederiksholms Kanal)

a mysterious enclosed structure with a small water trough attached in the garden of the Design Museum Denmark

tubular tentacles for intrepid children - and larger humans - to climb and burrow in, are solidly propped on a playground in a Norrebro neighbourhood

this spherical "COSMIC ROOM" installation on the quay beside the Nordatlantens Brygge (North Atlantic House) presenting a cosmic experiential space within its mirror-paneled interior is the creation of Trondur Patursson, a painter, glass artist and sculptor from the Faroe islands

a cubist folly of brick laying skills as a spatial enigma of stolid compunction squats in a courtyard of the architecture school at the Royal Danish Academy