[Music]
[Applause]
I’m sure some of you guys play music
that you play an instrument maybe in
your spare time you know just for fun
but even if you do play music you may
not play it from notes I know I don’t I
do play an instrument not very well and
definitely not from notes I just never
could get the hang of that but if you’re
a trained musician or a composer you
might simply look at the notes and then
hear the music inside of your head if
you think about building plans you might
actually say that they are the musical
score of architecture that too is an
instruction and if you follow the
instruction you’ll end up with will not
music of course with a building and the
carpenters and the bricklayers would be
equivalent to the musicians
whereas I on the other hand would be
equivalent to the composer because I’m
an architect so when I look at these
rather flat drawings I basically see the
three-dimensional spaces before my inner
eyes but I’ve also learned that a lot of
people outside of the building industry
do not fully read these drawings it
makes perfect sense it’s just like the
notes it takes training and practice and
I guess that’s why architects including
myself
do these photorealistic computer
renderings basically saying to people
that if you decide to build this
proposal it’s just a proposal at this
point you should be able to go to the
site and shoot a photograph looking
roughly like this when the building is
done and if you compare these computer
renderings with the actual finished
buildings that we do I think it’s fair
to say that the resemblance is pretty
good most of the time anyway so the
renderings definitely serve a purpose
they tell people what their building is
going to look like which is pretty nice
to know but they do not say anything
about why their building should look
certain ways I mean what is the idea
behind the design and to explain that I
have developed a drawing typology
inspired by comic books and cartoons
visual languages that people should
already be familiar with and the idea is
that if you cannot explain an
architectural
within a single sheet of a4 paper you’re
either saying too much or too
complicated things I’m sure in this case
you’ve already figured out that this
building facade is inspired by Francis
from trees makes a lot of sense the
building itself is an Information Center
where people can go and educate
themselves in a very special part of the
Danish nature before they actually go
and experience it by themselves and
obviously we couldn’t build architecture
in nature so we built nature into the
architecture another example might be an
office building that we did for a local
tech company friends of ours and since
they deal with data and software we
thought it would be really fun to take
the oldest building component in history
the brick and treat it like a digital
pixel creating this kind of Minecraft
inspired architecture now these
watercolours knife done lots of those
are in a way perfectly finished little
pieces of art I mean they’re not
spontaneous and there are definitely not
sketches they’re done after the
architectural concept has been conceived
in that sense they serve as what you
might call conceptual full stops so on a
daily basis during the actual design
phase I leave out color and I do
numerous faster sketches in my
sketchbooks either in the office or on
the go and then I scan them or simply
photograph them of the phone and sent
them off to builders and client staff I
mean whoever needs them and unlike the
watercolors these drawings can go a
number of different different ways
sometimes they’re just questions really
or answers to questions posed by for
instance officials from the municipality
who recently asked where people can sit
in this street that we’re designing and
instead of writing half a page of text I
simply did this sketch and send it off
and it totally does the trick then at
other times I’m just doodling away on my
own thinking out loud onto the paper
trying to figure out for instance how I
can reinterpret something like a
traditional roof or you know stuff like
that or I might stumble upon something
that I find inspiring like like a date
palm tree and to make sure that I don’t
forget about this great architectural
potential I simply draw
and add a few notes now these drawings
the watercolors and the black-and-whites
I think they’re pretty easy to read and
I guess most people should appreciate
them but the best way to explain an
architectural idea is to really talk and
draw at the same time it means that
people do not have to search for
information within a drawing they just
need to follow the pen and it forces me
to make drawings that are really simple
I mean almost primitive because I cannot
really allow myself to add little
details for funny faces or whatever I do
I just have to kind of stay focused
right but the best thing about this that
watching and drawing come to life seems
to be almost hypnotizing for people I
mean this for me I need to see where the
we thought that I should just
demonstrate for you how that might
actually work by telling you about a
housing scheme that we did for the
office harbor development roughly 10
years ago and the master-planned is
signed by another architect suggested a
perimeter block looking roughly like
this and it makes sense I mean the
perimeter block is a very successful
typology that’s been around well forever
really but we soon found out that we had
a water canal running along the north
side of the site and another canal
running along the south side and on top
of that our plot was facing the Aarhus
Bay so with water on no less than three
sites is pretty unusual right we knew
that we have to kind of open up this
rather introvert perimeter block so
somebody at the office came up with the
idea of parallel l-shaped wings sort of
spooning towards the corner of the site
like this and with that simply move we
managed to open up the plot and connect
with the water and the surroundings we
also eliminated draught problems and
with all of the corners pointing almost
straight to the north the wings seemed
to almost embrace the daylight as the
Sun moves from the east
to the west it still didn’t do the trick
though I mean we didn’t create enough
views for the future residents so we
began pulling up points and pushing down
others transforming these wings into six
sagging lines or chains of gable houses
if you may as you can see it’s pretty
systematic it’s just going up and down
like a roller coaster and there you go
let me just finish here with the canals
now the master plan allowed us to build
a maximum of six floors so we dive down
to one back up to twelve and down to one
again ending on an average of six yeah
that’s clever too
to this day I still can’t believe that
the municipality actually fell for that
[Music]
but anyway I mean the reason why it
works so well is that from each of these
Peaks the residents overlook the bay
between other peaks because the peaks
are constantly shifting it’s so funny
because going through these steps I mean
pretty irrational steps focusing on
views and daylight we ended up with this
funky volume just kind of shooting out
of the water and it was really
surprising and mostly it was surprising
because it kind of looked like something
we’d seen before we thought it looked
like an iceberg yeah we never intended
to actually design an iceberg it just
kind of happened it was never the
inspiration but once we gave it that
name it became really easy to also
decide on colors and materials obviously
it had to be white and then we started
adding ice blue balconies to just stay
loyal to that metaphor and to connected
with the water in the sky but what I
wanted to say today is that the people
who hire architects are usually not
architects themselves I mean they can be
they can be and sometimes there are but
mostly they’re not but they do
Commission the work and they do pay for
the music so to speak so it’s only fair
and understandable that they want to
know what they’re billing is going to
look like but more importantly they need
to know I mean they must understand why
it’s a great idea to build an iceberg
instead of the good old trusted
perimeter block and that is why I draw
to make sure that everybody is on the
same page and because I’ve learned that
the best way to share an abstract
architectural idea is with simple hand
drawings I often suggest my staff or
students to carry a pen with them at all
times and to use it whenever they get a
chance I know you might be thinking well
yeah fine I’m not an architect I’m not
even going to hire one why would I care
but just think about it because the idea
of supporting the spoken word it’s
simple I mean primitive hand drawings is
something that can be applied to any
professional field or situation so if
you’re a lawyer or a doctor or maybe a
schoolteacher you should give drawing a
chance and you might find that people
would understand you just a little
better
now this whole talk my entire talk here
today can be boiled down into one simple
sentence going roughly like this if you
have something to share that your
fingers do the talking thank you
[Music] [Applause]
[Applause]
I’m sure some of you guys play music
that you play an instrument maybe in
your spare time you know just for fun
but even if you do play music you may
not play it from notes I know I don’t I
do play an instrument not very well and
definitely not from notes I just never
could get the hang of that but if you’re
a trained musician or a composer you
might simply look at the notes and then
hear the music inside of your head if
you think about building plans you might
actually say that they are the musical
score of architecture that too is an
instruction and if you follow the
instruction you’ll end up with will not
music of course with a building and the
carpenters and the bricklayers would be
equivalent to the musicians
whereas I on the other hand would be
equivalent to the composer because I’m
an architect so when I look at these
rather flat drawings I basically see the
three-dimensional spaces before my inner
eyes but I’ve also learned that a lot of
people outside of the building industry
do not fully read these drawings it
makes perfect sense it’s just like the
notes it takes training and practice and
I guess that’s why architects including
myself
do these photorealistic computer
renderings basically saying to people
that if you decide to build this
proposal it’s just a proposal at this
point you should be able to go to the
site and shoot a photograph looking
roughly like this when the building is
done and if you compare these computer
renderings with the actual finished
buildings that we do I think it’s fair
to say that the resemblance is pretty
good most of the time anyway so the
renderings definitely serve a purpose
they tell people what their building is
going to look like which is pretty nice
to know but they do not say anything
about why their building should look
certain ways I mean what is the idea
behind the design and to explain that I
have developed a drawing typology
inspired by comic books and cartoons
visual languages that people should
already be familiar with and the idea is
that if you cannot explain an
architectural
within a single sheet of a4 paper you’re
either saying too much or too
complicated things I’m sure in this case
you’ve already figured out that this
building facade is inspired by Francis
from trees makes a lot of sense the
building itself is an Information Center
where people can go and educate
themselves in a very special part of the
Danish nature before they actually go
and experience it by themselves and
obviously we couldn’t build architecture
in nature so we built nature into the
architecture another example might be an
office building that we did for a local
tech company friends of ours and since
they deal with data and software we
thought it would be really fun to take
the oldest building component in history
the brick and treat it like a digital
pixel creating this kind of Minecraft
inspired architecture now these
watercolours knife done lots of those
are in a way perfectly finished little
pieces of art I mean they’re not
spontaneous and there are definitely not
sketches they’re done after the
architectural concept has been conceived
in that sense they serve as what you
might call conceptual full stops so on a
daily basis during the actual design
phase I leave out color and I do
numerous faster sketches in my
sketchbooks either in the office or on
the go and then I scan them or simply
photograph them of the phone and sent
them off to builders and client staff I
mean whoever needs them and unlike the
watercolors these drawings can go a
number of different different ways
sometimes they’re just questions really
or answers to questions posed by for
instance officials from the municipality
who recently asked where people can sit
in this street that we’re designing and
instead of writing half a page of text I
simply did this sketch and send it off
and it totally does the trick then at
other times I’m just doodling away on my
own thinking out loud onto the paper
trying to figure out for instance how I
can reinterpret something like a
traditional roof or you know stuff like
that or I might stumble upon something
that I find inspiring like like a date
palm tree and to make sure that I don’t
forget about this great architectural
potential I simply draw
and add a few notes now these drawings
the watercolors and the black-and-whites
I think they’re pretty easy to read and
I guess most people should appreciate
them but the best way to explain an
architectural idea is to really talk and
draw at the same time it means that
people do not have to search for
information within a drawing they just
need to follow the pen and it forces me
to make drawings that are really simple
I mean almost primitive because I cannot
really allow myself to add little
details for funny faces or whatever I do
I just have to kind of stay focused
right but the best thing about this that
watching and drawing come to life seems
to be almost hypnotizing for people I
mean this for me I need to see where the
we thought that I should just
demonstrate for you how that might
actually work by telling you about a
housing scheme that we did for the
office harbor development roughly 10
years ago and the master-planned is
signed by another architect suggested a
perimeter block looking roughly like
this and it makes sense I mean the
perimeter block is a very successful
typology that’s been around well forever
really but we soon found out that we had
a water canal running along the north
side of the site and another canal
running along the south side and on top
of that our plot was facing the Aarhus
Bay so with water on no less than three
sites is pretty unusual right we knew
that we have to kind of open up this
rather introvert perimeter block so
somebody at the office came up with the
idea of parallel l-shaped wings sort of
spooning towards the corner of the site
like this and with that simply move we
managed to open up the plot and connect
with the water and the surroundings we
also eliminated draught problems and
with all of the corners pointing almost
straight to the north the wings seemed
to almost embrace the daylight as the
Sun moves from the east
to the west it still didn’t do the trick
though I mean we didn’t create enough
views for the future residents so we
began pulling up points and pushing down
others transforming these wings into six
sagging lines or chains of gable houses
if you may as you can see it’s pretty
systematic it’s just going up and down
like a roller coaster and there you go
let me just finish here with the canals
now the master plan allowed us to build
a maximum of six floors so we dive down
to one back up to twelve and down to one
again ending on an average of six yeah
that’s clever too
to this day I still can’t believe that
the municipality actually fell for that
[Music]
but anyway I mean the reason why it
works so well is that from each of these
Peaks the residents overlook the bay
between other peaks because the peaks
are constantly shifting it’s so funny
because going through these steps I mean
pretty irrational steps focusing on
views and daylight we ended up with this
funky volume just kind of shooting out
of the water and it was really
surprising and mostly it was surprising
because it kind of looked like something
we’d seen before we thought it looked
like an iceberg yeah we never intended
to actually design an iceberg it just
kind of happened it was never the
inspiration but once we gave it that
name it became really easy to also
decide on colors and materials obviously
it had to be white and then we started
adding ice blue balconies to just stay
loyal to that metaphor and to connected
with the water in the sky but what I
wanted to say today is that the people
who hire architects are usually not
architects themselves I mean they can be
they can be and sometimes there are but
mostly they’re not but they do
Commission the work and they do pay for
the music so to speak so it’s only fair
and understandable that they want to
know what they’re billing is going to
look like but more importantly they need
to know I mean they must understand why
it’s a great idea to build an iceberg
instead of the good old trusted
perimeter block and that is why I draw
to make sure that everybody is on the
same page and because I’ve learned that
the best way to share an abstract
architectural idea is with simple hand
drawings I often suggest my staff or
students to carry a pen with them at all
times and to use it whenever they get a
chance I know you might be thinking well
yeah fine I’m not an architect I’m not
even going to hire one why would I care
but just think about it because the idea
of supporting the spoken word it’s
simple I mean primitive hand drawings is
something that can be applied to any
professional field or situation so if
you’re a lawyer or a doctor or maybe a
schoolteacher you should give drawing a
chance and you might find that people
would understand you just a little
better
now this whole talk my entire talk here
today can be boiled down into one simple
sentence going roughly like this if you
have something to share that your
fingers do the talking thank you
[Music] [Applause]
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