FJORDENHUS / SEBASTIAN BEHMANN WITH STUDIO OLAFUR ELIASSON
Fjordenhus (Fjord House), the first building entirely designed by artist Olafur Eliasson and the architectural team of Studio Olafur Eliasson, will open on June 9 in Vejle, Denmark. Commissioned by KIRK KAPITAL, the company’s new headquarters presents a contemporary interpretation of the idea of a fully designed artwork, combining Eliasson’s striking site-specific artworks with custom-designed furniture and lighting.
Rising from the water, Fjordenhus establishes a striking connection between the Vejle Fjord and the city center of Vejle, one of the emerging economic hubs of the Jutland Peninsula. Moving from the train station toward the harbor, Fjordenhus can be seen from the expansive plaza of Havneøen (The Harbour Island), a man-made area currently under development as a mixed-use residential and commercial district. From here, residents and visitors can access the ground floor of Fjordenhus via a pedestrian bridge or explore the pier designed by landscape architect Günther Vogt.
The building’s public, double-height entrance level is dedicated to its relationship with the water and draws attention to the plane into which the structure sinks, its curved edges, and the surrounding views of the shoreline and harbor. The building penetrates the harbor itself, with its two water areas visible from viewing platforms. Both the architectural spaces and Eliasson’s artworks engage in dialogue with the constantly changing surface of the water.
Fjordenhus, composed of four intersecting cylinders, rises to a height of twenty-eight meters (92 feet). The round negative volumes are carved from specially glazed brick facades to create an extraordinary architectural expression of complex curved, circular, and elliptical forms, twisted walls, and parabolic arches. In its unique setting—a hybrid of natural and industrial-urban contexts—the building emphasizes the future of Vejle not only for the current generation but also for generations to come, serving purely as a center.
Olafur Eliasson said, “I am very grateful to the Kirk Johansen family for inviting me and my studio to think about Fjordenhus. This allowed us to transform years of research—on perception, physical movement, light, nature, and spatial experience—into a building that is at once a work of art and fully functional architecture. With the design team, we experimented from the earliest stages on how to create an organic building that responds to the tides and currents, to the sparkling surface of the water, and changes throughout the day and year. The building’s curved walls transform our perception as we move through its spaces. I hope the people of Vejle will embrace Fjordenhus and identify with it as a new landmark for their harbor and city.”
The completion of Fjordenhus marks a shift of Studio Olafur Eliasson’s large-scale architectural activities to studio other spaces (SOS), a new international art and architecture office founded in 2014 in Berlin by Eliasson and longtime collaborator Miamr Sebastian Behmann. As an architectural counterpart to Studio Olafur Eliasson, SOS will realize large-scale, interdisciplinary, and experimental architectural projects similar to Fjordenhus, in addition to public space works and other areas. Projects are currently underway worldwide, from Paris to Addis Ababa.
Sebastian Behmann, Design Director at Studio Olafur Eliasson, said: “Throughout the process, we paid great attention to choreography and the arrangement of spaces, using the modulation of light and acoustics to enhance the sensory aspects of the entire building. Fjordenhus is experienced in the harbor as a sculptural presence, through the interplay of solids and voids. These voids serve as key design elements in the interaction between interior and exterior and create parabolic, multi-story windows. Our clients understood the value of experiencing the ground story of the building, together with its pier, plaza, surroundings, and its relationship with the public.”
Content: Tasarım Group
