My mind is free, it does what it likes; and it is free because only I know what it is doing. I often envy my mind".
A Modern Architect
Vilhelm Lauritzen said in an interview in 1954 that if he had not become an architect with butterflies as a hobby, he would have chosen zoology with some form of drawing as a sideline. "And incidentally, it is not just butterflies that interest me; it is everything that happens in nature." The functionalist believed that his studies of nature had wide perspectives and were far from useless as inspiration for his architectural drawings.
Vilhelm Lauritzen built his rooms as compositions of volumes in light that give masses weight and surface structure. They are tangible spaces with dynamic qualities that must be experienced in movement, in an effortless progression across the floor.
His rooms were an interpretation of the Greek concept of space and facade during Antiquity, a spatial interpretation that was linked by Le Corbusier with the hovering facade style. Together, the room and style manifested the architecture of the early modern movement ...
Vilhelm Lauritzen studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. In 1926 hewas rewarded with the academy's gold medal. His best known projects are the old airport in Copenhagen, built in 1937, and the new airport in Copenhagen, which he designed in 1962. He is also famous for The Danish Embassy in Washington DC and the Radio- and Television Building in Copenhagen.
Excerpts taken from "Vilhelm Lauritzen - A Modern Architect" (1994) by Lisbet Balslev Jørgensen, Jørgen Sestoft and Morten Lund.
