Fjordenhus Vejle

Olafur Eliasson and Sebastian Behmann with Studio Olafur Eliasson

Fluidity between art and architecture

Rising up from the Vejle fjord in Denmark, ac­ces­si­ble only by a pedes­trian bridge, stands the Fjor­den­hus, de­signed by Dan­ish-Ice­landic artist Olafur Elias­son, ar­chi­tect Se­bas­t­ian Behmann and Studio Olafur Elias­son. Its organic struc­ture of dif­fer­ently coloured bricks, in­ter­spersed with el­lip­ti­cal windows and re­cesses, seems to echo the flow of the sur­round­ing water.

The complex ar­chi­tec­ture of ver­ti­cal cylin­ders opens up towards both the water and the sky and with its el­lip­ti­cal windows also con­nects the in­te­rior with the ex­te­rior. Through the use of natural ma­te­ri­als and by way of an in­ter­play between water, light and air, the Fjor­den­hus de­liv­ers a deeper un­der­stand­ing of the re­la­tion­ships between hu­man­ity, space, and nature.

El­lip­ti­cal volumes have been cut out of the four in­ter­sect­ing cylin­ders, which stand 92 feet high, cre­at­ing window aper­tures several storeys high. The move­ment of the water is re­flected in the glass windows, just as, viewed the other way round, the Fjor­den­hus is mir­rored in the sur­round­ing fjord.

Architecture and Object

Se­bas­t­ian Behmann and Olafur Elias­son
Photo © Studio Olafur Elias­son

“Fjor­den­hus was an ex­cit­ing op­por­tu­nity for us to make com­bined use of years of re­search into a variety of fields such as urban plan­ning, light­ing con­di­tions, nature, body move­ments and the way we use our senses in a single project that truly unites artis­tic and ar­chi­tec­tural vision,” states Olafur Elias­son.

The fjord bisects a two-storey ground floor that is pub­licly ac­ces­si­ble. The three floors above house the Lyst restau­rant and office spaces of the in­vest­ment group Kirk Kapital, the owner of Fjor­den­hus. The blue­print ad­di­tion­ally fore­sees a ded­i­cated in­te­rior design for the spaces from which Kirk Kapital operate. The fur­nish­ings and timber fix­tures were built to suit con­fer­ence and office spaces in which right angles are notable by their absence.

In­stal­la­tions by Olafur Elias­son in- and outside Fjor­den­hus refer to natural el­e­ments and tidal waters, yet at the same time the ar­chi­tec­ture itself can be seen as a syn­the­sis of arts and ar­chi­tec­ture. The handles chosen for Fjor­den­hus are FSB 1045, a re­design by Jo­hannes Potente based on a design from the 1930s. In keeping with the in­te­rior spaces, which adopt and modify forms of the circle and ellipse through­out, the lever handle el­e­gantly chimes in with its own har­monic in­ter­play of the cir­cu­lar and the rec­tan­gu­lar.

This hard­ware’s design is as un­clut­tered as it is haptic – and in Bronze cer­tainly looks a stunner. The handle’s formal re­duc­tion yet warm tone of colour blends in seam­lessly with the chro­matic spec­trum of the brick­work. The outdoor handles boast par­tic­u­larly al­lur­ing, ever-chang­ing visuals – the salt water trig­ger­ing a process of ox­i­da­tion that covers the bronze in a vibrant patina.

Object Details

Fjor­den­hus, com­mis­sioned by KIRK KAPITAL, de­signed by Olafur Elias­son and Se­bas­t­ian Behmann with Studio Olafur Elias­son, 2009-2018, Photos © Philipp Jester

Products

09 1045
Door handle for framed doors

The FSB 1045 is based on the FSB 1015 model, which was con­ceived in the 1930s by a company called Wehag. Given the un­ceas­ing use of the FSB 1015 model in com­mer­cial build­ings, we have supple mented it with a variant fea­tur­ing a re­turn-to-door that con­forms to EN 179.

09 1045
Door handle for framed doors
06 1045
Door handle for framed doors

Location

Fjordenhus in Vejle

Havneøen 1
7100 Vejle
Dänemark

Di­rec­tions