Bagsværd Church
Encyclopedia
Bagsværd Church is a Lutheran
church in Bagsværd
on the northern outskirts of Copenhagen
, Denmark. Designed in 1968 by Jørn Utzon
, it was completed in 1976. The building is considered to be a masterpiece of contemporary church architecture, especially its bright, naturally illuminated interior and its ceiling straddled with softly-rounded vaulting.
, was to be used as a seminary
for the new Lutheran Church
. Thereafter, the parishioners had to use the church in Gladsaxe
though there was increasing interest in building a new church in Bagsværd. It therefore came as no surprise that the congregational council took special interest in the church Utzon had included in a competition exhibit for the town centre in Farum
when it was displayed in Gladsaxe at an architectural exhibition in 1967. When he was asked whether he would like to submit a proposal for a church at Bagsværd, Utzon was elated: "There I stood, and was offered the finest task an architect can have — a magnificent time when it was the light from above that showed us the way." The proposal he submitted the following year included four sketches: the first one showed a group of people under the clouds on a beach, the last one depicted the same people as a congregation in a church where the clouds had become the sculptural roof. They were intended to illustrate Utzon's understanding of the overall concept.
There were a series of difficulties over the funding of the building which finally cost DKK 10 million after Utzon had reduced its size by 10 percent and the Gladsaxe municipality had contrbuted DKK 1 million. A building permit was granted in 1973 but, experiencing financial difficulties, the church ministry quickly attempted to halt construction. However, before their ruling came into force, the contractors Christiani & Nielsen
established a presence on the site allowing work to begin. The new church was consecrated on 15 August 1976.
The rectilinear, modular structure of the building and its integrated courtyards, as well as the connecting corridors, are said to be inspired by the design of Buddhist temples in China.
s, only 12 centimetres thick and spanning 17 metres. The curved cylindrical shells rest on flanges supported by rows of double columns which act as flying butresses.
. Contemplating a regular succession of cylindrical clouds, he concluded that they provided a perfect basis for modelling a church ceiling.
in Bayreuth, were also designed by Utzon.
The church's four bells were designed by Thubalka in Vejle
and cast at the Royal Eijsbouts bell foundry
at Asten in the Netherlands.
considers Bagsværd Church an outstanding example of critical regionalism
owing to the synthesis it achieves between universal and regional cultures. He believes the design of the highly configurated concrete shell vault, unique in Western religious architecture, was inspired by the Chinese pagoda roof cited by Utzon in his essay "Platforms and Plateaus" (1963). Furthermore, the plan arrangement of the church's interior is reminiscent of Chinese Buddhist monasteries as described in a book by Johannes Prip-Møller.
From the outside, constructed in reinforced concrete and aluminium with glass-covered sections, the building looks more like a factory than a traditional church but inside it offers an impressive combination of soft, rounded shapes and sharp edges.
Writing in Berlingske Tidende
on the occasion of the church's consecration, architectural correspondent Martin Hartung commented: "Bagsværd Church has turned into an architectonic attraction, an example of how Jørn Utzon can combine the technique and the art of building to form something transcending them both."
The church is open to visitors from 9 am to 4 pm on weekdays throughout the year as well as on Saturdays during the summer months. On Sundays it is open from 11.30 am to 4 pm.
Church of Denmark
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark, Church of Denmark or Danish National Church, is the state church and largest denomination in Denmark and Greenland...
church in Bagsværd
Bagsværd
Bagsværd is a suburb approximately 12 km northwest of Copenhagen, in the Gladsaxe Municipality. Its center is dominated by the Bagsværd Towers, two high-rise apartment blocks...
on the northern outskirts of Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
, Denmark. Designed in 1968 by Jørn Utzon
Jørn Utzon
Jørn Oberg Utzon, , AC was a Danish architect, most notable for designing the Sydney Opera House in Australia. When it was declared a World Heritage Site on 28 June 2007, Utzon became only the second person to have received such recognition for one of his works during his lifetime...
, it was completed in 1976. The building is considered to be a masterpiece of contemporary church architecture, especially its bright, naturally illuminated interior and its ceiling straddled with softly-rounded vaulting.
History
In 1538, the church in Bagsværd was pulled down on the orders of the king so that the stones could be used to repair the old Catholic bishop's palace which, after the ReformationProtestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
, was to be used as a seminary
Seminary
A seminary, theological college, or divinity school is an institution of secondary or post-secondary education for educating students in theology, generally to prepare them for ordination as clergy or for other ministry...
for the new Lutheran Church
Lutheranism
Lutheranism is a major branch of Western Christianity that identifies with the theology of Martin Luther, a German reformer. Luther's efforts to reform the theology and practice of the church launched the Protestant Reformation...
. Thereafter, the parishioners had to use the church in Gladsaxe
Gladsaxe
Gladsaxe Kommune is a municipality near Copenhagen in Region Hovedstaden on the island of Zealand in eastern Denmark. The municipality covers an area of 25 km², and has a total population of 62,562...
though there was increasing interest in building a new church in Bagsværd. It therefore came as no surprise that the congregational council took special interest in the church Utzon had included in a competition exhibit for the town centre in Farum
Farum
Farum is a town in the northeast of the island of Zealand in eastern Denmark, 20 km northwest of Copenhagen. The town has a population of 18,521 .The town is part of Furesø municipality. Until 2006, it constituted Farum municipality....
when it was displayed in Gladsaxe at an architectural exhibition in 1967. When he was asked whether he would like to submit a proposal for a church at Bagsværd, Utzon was elated: "There I stood, and was offered the finest task an architect can have — a magnificent time when it was the light from above that showed us the way." The proposal he submitted the following year included four sketches: the first one showed a group of people under the clouds on a beach, the last one depicted the same people as a congregation in a church where the clouds had become the sculptural roof. They were intended to illustrate Utzon's understanding of the overall concept.
There were a series of difficulties over the funding of the building which finally cost DKK 10 million after Utzon had reduced its size by 10 percent and the Gladsaxe municipality had contrbuted DKK 1 million. A building permit was granted in 1973 but, experiencing financial difficulties, the church ministry quickly attempted to halt construction. However, before their ruling came into force, the contractors Christiani & Nielsen
Christiani & Nielsen
Christiani & Nielsen is a construction contractor with major operations in Thailand and Southeast Asia. Originally a Danish company, it is today a listed company majority owned by the Crown Property Bureau of King Bhumibol of Thailand....
established a presence on the site allowing work to begin. The new church was consecrated on 15 August 1976.
Architecture
Located on a narrow plot in a suburban setting, the building itself is narrow, and has an austere façade which encloses the various rooms and a number of small courtyards. Surrounded by birch trees, the exterior walls are faced with white prefabricated concrete panels and white glazed tiles. The aluminium roof gives the church a rather industrial look. Glass sections provide lighting over the connecting corridors. Covering an area of 1,700 square meters, the tight geometrical plan consists of three sections and a courtyard between two parallel corridors.The rectilinear, modular structure of the building and its integrated courtyards, as well as the connecting corridors, are said to be inspired by the design of Buddhist temples in China.
The interior
The interior includes the nave and sacristy, offices, rooms for confirmation classes, a meeting room, and a whole section for youth activities. They are all linked by wide corridors which run both through the building and along the external walls where they are illuminated by skylights. The vaulted ceiling is made of reinforced concrete shellConcrete shell
A concrete shell, also commonly called thin shell concrete structure, is a structure composed of a relatively thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses. The shells are most commonly flat plates and domes, but may also take the form of ellipsoids or cylindrical...
s, only 12 centimetres thick and spanning 17 metres. The curved cylindrical shells rest on flanges supported by rows of double columns which act as flying butresses.
Natural lighting
A notable feature of the church is the natural lighting, facilitated by the all-white interior. It is achieved by means of high lateral windows across the entire width of the nave or, in the case of the smaller rooms, through sidelights bringing daylight in from the courtyards. In addition, there are extensive skylights which, in Utzon's words, result from "the inspiration that I derived from the drifting clouds above the sea and the shore [forming] a wondrous space in which the light fell through the ceiling — the clouds — down on to the floor represented by the shore and the sea." Indeed, Utzon was inspired to design the church when he was lying on a Hawaii beach, shortly after his premature departure from Australia as a result of disagreements over the Sydney Opera HouseSydney Opera House
The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in the Australian city of Sydney. It was conceived and largely built by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, finally opening in 1973 after a long gestation starting with his competition-winning design in 1957...
. Contemplating a regular succession of cylindrical clouds, he concluded that they provided a perfect basis for modelling a church ceiling.
Inventory
Utzon himself designed the altar wall which consists of an airy triangular grid of thin white tiles, known as Flensborg bricks, while the church's colourful textiles, carpeting and ceramic decorations were designed by his daughter, Lin Utzon. The organ, also designed by Jørn Utzon, was constructed in 1979 by Poul-Gerhard Andersen, with woodwork by Kurt Kærsgaard. The light pine pews as well as the church's concert piano, built by Steingraeber & SöhneSteingraeber & Söhne
Steingraeber & Söhne was founded in 1820 in Thuringia and since 1852 it has made Bayreuth its home becoming in just three decades one of the best known manufacturers of grand and upright pianos....
in Bayreuth, were also designed by Utzon.
The church's four bells were designed by Thubalka in Vejle
Vejle
Vejle is a town in Denmark, in the southeast of the Jutland Peninsula at the head of Vejle Fjord, where the Vejle and Grejs Rivers and their valleys converge. It is the site of the councils of Vejle Municipality and the Region of Southern Denmark...
and cast at the Royal Eijsbouts bell foundry
Royal Eijsbouts bell foundry
Royal Eijsbouts is a bell foundry located in Asten, Netherlands.The workshop was founded in 1872 by Bonaventura Eijsbouts as a "factory for tower clocks." In 1893 Eijsbouts was joined by his 15 year old son, Johan, and the workshop expanded to begin supplying striking and swinging bells, which...
at Asten in the Netherlands.
Assessments
The architectural critic Kenneth FramptonKenneth Frampton
Kenneth Frampton , is a British architect, critic, historian and the Ware Professor of Architecture at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation at Columbia University, New York....
considers Bagsværd Church an outstanding example of critical regionalism
Critical regionalism
Critical Regionalism is an approach to architecture that strives to counter placelessness and lack of identity in Modern Architecture by utilizing the building's geographical context...
owing to the synthesis it achieves between universal and regional cultures. He believes the design of the highly configurated concrete shell vault, unique in Western religious architecture, was inspired by the Chinese pagoda roof cited by Utzon in his essay "Platforms and Plateaus" (1963). Furthermore, the plan arrangement of the church's interior is reminiscent of Chinese Buddhist monasteries as described in a book by Johannes Prip-Møller.
From the outside, constructed in reinforced concrete and aluminium with glass-covered sections, the building looks more like a factory than a traditional church but inside it offers an impressive combination of soft, rounded shapes and sharp edges.
Writing in Berlingske Tidende
Berlingske Tidende
Berlingske, previously known as Berlingske Tidende , is a Danish national daily newspaper based in Copenhagen...
on the occasion of the church's consecration, architectural correspondent Martin Hartung commented: "Bagsværd Church has turned into an architectonic attraction, an example of how Jørn Utzon can combine the technique and the art of building to form something transcending them both."
The church today
The church forms an active part of the local community. In addition to regular church services, there are frequent concerts thanks to the choirs (including a Gregorian male choir and various children's choirs), the organ and the concert piano. Some of the concerts are free, thanks to contributions from the church council, others with visiting musicians require tickets for entry. The church also hosts exhibitions of paintings and artwork.The church is open to visitors from 9 am to 4 pm on weekdays throughout the year as well as on Saturdays during the summer months. On Sundays it is open from 11.30 am to 4 pm.
Further reading
- Frampton, KennethKenneth FramptonKenneth Frampton , is a British architect, critic, historian and the Ware Professor of Architecture at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation at Columbia University, New York....
: Towards a Critical Regionalism: Six Points for an Architecture of Resistance in Foster, Hal (ed.): The Anti-Aesthetic: Essays on Postmodern Culture, New York: New Press, 2002. 183 p. ISBN 1565847423 - Norberg-Schulz, ChristianChristian Norberg-SchulzChristian Norberg-Schulz was a Norwegian architect, architectural historian and theorist.He was born in Oslo. He is the father of singer Elizabeth Norberg-Schulz....
: Jorn Utzon: Church at Bagsvaerd, Hennessey & Ingalls, 1982, ISBN 9992444657 - Utzon, Jørn, Bagsværd Church: Logbook Vol. II, Copenhagen, Edition Bløndal, 2005, 168 pages. ISBN 87-91567-07-6
- Weston, Richard, Utzon: Inspiration, Vision, Architecture, 432 pages, Blondal, Denmark, 2002, 432 p. ISBN 8788978982
- Weston, Richard, Plans, sections and elevations: key buildings of the twentieth century, Laurence King Publishing, 2004. ISBN 1856693821