Form Body Technique Space

Bagsvaerd Church Jorn Utzon

Amy Wowk

F O R M

Bagsvaerd Church located on the outskirts of Copenhagen, Denmark, was designed by Danish architect, Jorn Utzon in 1973-1976 for a Lutheran-Protestant denomination (Andersen, 97). To generate Bagsvaerd Church’s form, Utzon uses his idea of additive architecture, aspects of critical regionalism, and light as a function of architecture.

Fig. 2 – Structural Units

Utzon employs the idea of additive architecture to create form. (Fig. 1) The prime driver for his preoccupation with additive architecture was his “realization that society not only needs appropriate type-forms but also ways of achieving these forms in an economic manner” (Andersen, 98). The exterior materials choices and plan arrangement for Bagsvaerd Church reflect this idea of additive architecture. The structural logic of the building is organized on a grid of 2.2m x 2.2m, 36 units x 10 units across. (Fig. 2) There are five separate bays arranged in a row from west to east with lateral sky-lit corridors that establish the zones around each area and delineate the organization around the courtyards. The functions of the five bays are laid out one after another so that together they make up a unified building volume. The exterior of the Church suggests the form of warehouse and Danish barn and the only suggestions of what the interior of this Church expresses is the rising and falling of the tile work that loosely corresponds to the line of the vaulted interior (Fig.3). The interior, specifically the vault, contrasts the utilitarian exterior with a poetic spatial experience of curvilinear concrete forms that produce the experience of fluffy white clouds opening up to the sky above.

Fig. 3 Ceiling Projection on North Elevation

Kenneth Frampton, in Towards a Critical Regionalism, views Utzon’s Bagsvaerd Church as a “self conscious synthesis between universal civilization and world culture” (107). The Bagsvaerd Church is a building of many contrasts. The exterior is constructed following the universal technique of rational, modular, economic, prefabricated concrete, versus the interior that expresses the culture of the region with a specifically designed, organic, reinforced concrete shell that manipulates the Scandinavian sky and has multiple cross-cultural references.

Cross-cultural references to the plan arrangements can be found in some of the Chinese Buddhist monasteries, and also Gunnar Asplund’s Holy Cross Chapel where, in both instances, the courtyards mediate between the spaces and between the open landscape and in the interior. In Bagsværd Church, the courtyards have a similar spatial function and also let day light into the adjoining rooms. (Fig 4). Also, the contrasting interior and exterior dialog at Bagsvaerd is similar to that at Alvar Aalto’s Mount Angel Library.

Fig. 4 Courtyard Projection on Basic Form

Utzon conceived the concept of Bagsværd Church in two sketches, showing the transformation of a group of people on a beach into a congregation in a church with cloud-like vaults. Bagsvaerd Church was a spatial response to daylight and the path of the sun in Denmark. “The approach is so fluent that it is fair to say that the church is organized in light “(Poulson, 12). According to Paul Rudolph’s Six Determinants of Architectural Form, the third determinant is the importance to address the “particular region, climate, landscape and natural lighting conditions (213). Utzon’s orientation of building openings are primarily in one direction – upwards, creating its poetic cloud-like undulating ceiling and sky-lit corridors. Additionally, courtyards also take light and reflect it through screens of wood and glass and into offices and meeting rooms. Almost every room in the church is situated between and brightened by two light sources: corridor and courtyard.

Utzon “conceives daylight as a function of architecture”, and designs the vaults purpose to diffuse light and distribute sounds in the space (Poulson, 13). The vaults are not only inspired by clouds, but also work like clouds as a sheltering canopy and a reflector of light. The undulating concrete structure makes the emergence of light from the clerestory windows high on the west side of the sanctuary even more dramatic. The ceiling of the interior was initially designed from continuous over-lapping curves.

Fig.5 – Additive Architecture Reconfigured

Perhaps a different form would have resulted had different influences from other cultures have been combined. Or still applying Utzon’s principles of additive architecture, different configurations using the same blocks and framed with corridors would result in a very different form. (Fig. 5)

Works Cited:

Andersen, M. (2000). “Revisiting Utzon’s Bagsvaerd Church” Retrieved from: www.www.arkitekturforskning.net

Frampton, K. (1983). “Towards a Critical Regionalism” in Labour, Work and Architecture, New York.

Rudolph, P. (2006). “The Six Determinants of Form” in C. Jencks and K.Kropf, eds., Theories and Manifestoes of Contemporary Architecture, Wiley-Academy.

Schwartz, M. (2005). , “Light Organizing, Jørn Utzon’s Bagsværd Church,” Jørn Utzon Logbook, Volume II, Bagsværd Church, Edition Bløndal,