VILHELM LAURITZEN
Uncompromising aesthete and revolutionary architect.
Vilhelm Lauritzen left his modernist mark on several buildings and interiors, which today stand as unique contemporary works—in perfect balance between form and function.
Vilhelm Theodor Lauritzen (1894-1984) was one of Denmark's most important architects of his time and helped pave the way for Danish modernism. Today, a number of his projects stand as enduring examples of what was then a new and revolutionary architecture, where form follows function.
As an architect and designer, Vilhelm Lauritzen's design language sprang from an approach he maintained throughout his career, namely that architecture should be applied art for everyone – not just for the privileged few. He had a great passion for studying butterflies, and the organic also featured in several of his designs, but first and foremost he emphasized function, simplicity, and clean lines.
Vilhelm Lauritzen was born in 1894 in Slagelse and later graduated from Sorø Academy. He graduated from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in 1921 and founded Tegnestuen Vilhelm Lauritzen (now Vilhelm Lauritzen Arkitekter) the following year.
On study trips to Spain and Greece, he found inspiration that greatly influenced his later works, including his first major commission, Daells Varehus, a competition he won together with architect Frits Schlegel in 1922.
Lauritzen's most famous and iconic works include Copenhagen Airport's first terminal (1939), now known as the Vilhelm Lauritzen Terminal, the Radio House in Frederiksberg (1945), Vega – Folkets Hus in Copenhagen (1956), and the Danish Embassy in Washington (1960).
In addition to buildings, Lauritzen also created interiors in the form of door handles, railings, lamps, and chairs. Several of the pieces of furniture were designed in collaboration with architect and designer Finn Juhl, who was employed at the firm for 11 years from 1934 to 1945.
To understand how groundbreaking Vilhelm Lauritzen's architecture was, it must be viewed in its contemporary context. Architecture had long focused on the form and ornamentation of buildings, but Lauritzen's approach was more about usability and functional solutions. For this reason, at first glance, one risks overlooking its genius.
This applies, for example, to the Vilhelm Lauritzen Terminal and the Radio House. When Lauritzen began designing the airport terminal, commercial aviation was still new. But as a functionalist, he saw the need to divide the building into two sides: airside and landside. Today, this is still how the vast majority of the world's airports are designed.
The Radio House is characterised by a functional exterior and interior that is so simple that it is easy to overlook details that continue to contribute to the building's function today. The various functions, such as the foyer, concert hall, and offices, can be seen in the building's typology, where the sound studios function as Chinese boxes with walls and foundations that provide optimal acoustics and sound insulation.
The Radio House appears as a Gesamtkunstwerk, uncompromisingly designed from the inside out – from the furniture and door handles to the floor plan – as one of the most successful examples of functionalism. Vilhelm Lauritzen was a Knight of the Order of Dannebrog and was awarded the Eckersberg Medal in 1941, the C.F. Hansen Medal in 1954, and the Academic Association of Architects' Medal of Honor in 1964. He died in Denmark in 1984 at the age of 90, leaving behind an indelible mark on Danish design.
“There is no life without aesthetics,”
Vilhelm Lauritzen
