Danish artist Olafur Eliasson designed his first building, a castle-like office called Fjordenhus, located in the Vejle Fjord of Denmark. Fjordenhus is the headquarters of Kirk Kapital, the holding and investment company owned by three brothers, who are direct descendants of the founder of Lego. However, it also features a public ground floor.
Previously, Eliasson had collaborated on architectural projects such as the Harpa Concert Hall in Reykjavík and the Serpentine Pavilion 2007 in London, as well as building smaller structures, including the Cirkelbroen bridge in Copenhagen. Fjordenhus is the first building entirely designed by Studio Olafur Eliasson.
The building rises from the water in the harbor of Vejle. A pedestrian bridge leads to an underground passage connecting the basement of the building to the quay. The pedestrian bridge opens up to a public ground floor, offering views of the building. The area across the harbor is decorated with site-specific artworks created by Eliasson. Above this double-height space, there are three floors of office space for Kirk Kapital. The unique form of Fjordenhus was created as a reference to the surrounding Vejle Fjord.
Eliasson explains, “We asked the client if we could take a temporary language, an organic language that could serve as a starting point for the design, and build into the water. It took a lot of time to convince the client to take the step, and we said, ‘Let’s jump from the island to the water, let’s celebrate the wind, the light, and the quality of the water.’ And let’s celebrate the atmospheric qualities that define the quality of life in Vejle.”
The building is part of a larger development plan for the Vejle harbor, standing next to a series of reclaimed lands also being developed by Kirk Kapital. Along with several residential blocks, the development includes a plaza and pier designed by landscape architect Günther Vogt. Eliasson states, "As in many cities, revitalizing the harbor and turning the city square towards the harbor to highlight the city’s main face took quite a long effort."
The building and plaza are expected to become a key destination in a public promenade stretching from the city center to the fjords. The geometric form of the building is made up of four intersecting circles. Each of these cylinders has voids carved from one side, with rounded ends on one side and elliptical on the other. Partly glazed, arch-shaped openings are also cut from these volumes.
Built around a concrete structure, the interior and exterior walls of the building are made of 970,000 bricks. The artist selected 15 different tones of unglazed bricks, along with blue, green, and silver glazed bricks. Each of the facades features a different brick combination depending on the light, with glazed blue bricks used closer to the base and more frequently at the top of the building.
The interior spaces also feature specific brick combinations tailored to the function of the room. For instance, only gray and silver bricks are used on the stairs. To regulate sound and temperature, hollow ventilation bricks are incorporated into the interior walls. Each visible brick placement was digitally selected by Studio Olafur Eliasson to create what the artist calls “mini-artistic compositions.”
Fjordenhus includes office spaces for the three Kirk Kapital executives and staff. It also features meeting rooms, a boardroom, a dining room, and a rooftop terrace. All tables and office furniture, except for the chairs, were also designed by Eliasson.
