Park with Kolumba

The first of nine planned underground parking facilities in Copenhagen opened on Nørre Allé in June.

The system is fully automated – you drive on to a hydraulic platform, get out and the platform parks the vehicle for you. To pick up your car, you pay at a machine and the vehicle automatically resurfaces.

All passers-by will see above ground is a 60m2 box designed by Creo Architects CPH.

The box is made of glass and brick According to architect Jesper Lund of Creo CPH, it was only natural to use the type of bricks found in the area around Nørre Allé to stimulate a dialogue between the new edifice and its surroundings. "To achieve a contemporary idiom, we chose Kolumba by Petersen Tegl. It isn't as high as a traditional brick but it's longer, which accentuates the length of the wall and enhances the design quality of the lift box. We opted for Kolumba K43 for its combination of red and charcoal-gray shades," Lund explains.

 

C.F. Møller wins RIBA award

Architect company C.F. Møller has received the RIBA award for the A.P. Møller School, built with bricks from Petersen Tegl.

The A. P. Møller School was erected for the Danish School Association for South Schleswig. The school is a present from the A. P. Møller og Hustru Chastine Mc-Kinney Møller foundation.

Completed in 2008, the school is located in scenic settings in Schleswig, the location and design of the school interplaying with the town of Schleswig and the view of the Schlei bay area. Inside, the school displays an open learning landscape in which not only the individual class rooms but the entire school creates a learning environment for individual work, group work and plenary sessions.

During the design phase, focus centred on finding the ideal brick for the construction. Brick D71 from Petersen Tegl was too pale, while D72 was too yellow. Consequently, a special brick with a colour compromise between the two existing colours was created and can now be found in the Petersen range under the name D70. A multi-storey mock up of a section of the school was built at the tileworks site during the process.

The RIBA award is given for buildings that have high architectural standards and make a substantial contribution to the local environment. The award has existed since 1966 and is mainly given to constructions in Great Britain. However, this year, nine constructions in the EU have received the award.

 

 

Bøler Church

The first load of Kolumba™ bricks has arrived at the building site for Bøler church in Oslo.

A new, exciting church with Kolumba™ bricks is taking shape in the Oslo region. Bøler church is the result of an architectural competition in 2008, arranged by The ecclasiatical joint council in Oslo, won by Hansen/Bjørndal Architects.

The architects’ aim has been to design Bøler church in a futuristic idiom yet with a sacral, solemn note. It was also important to design the church so that it is shielded from the surrounding traffic arteries without sacrificing an open and inviting exterior. The third important point was including the beautiful, surrounding landscape and making it part of the experience of being in the church.

The result is a building with a heavy base, cutting into the terrain. The base is built from Kolumba™ K 58, the brick that was evolved for the Kolumba Museum in Cologne in a co-operation between Swiss architect Peter Zumthor and Petersen Tegl. The other materials for Bøler church are copper, concrete and wood.

The Bøler church will be finished in the spring of 2011.

 

Burnt clay in new guises

Large, glazed one-of-a-kind jars in beautiful, muted shades are a new and enjoyable experience for everyone at the brickworks in Nybøl Nor.

For many years Per Arnoldi has been fascinated by ceramic production techniques, with particular focus on pot decoration.

So when the artist needed a new business partner who could provide ovens and other ceramic production facilities, it was only natural his choice fell on Petersen Tegl.

The Petersen Tegl brickworks builds its own machinery. True to form, the brickworks therefore launched the partnership by constructing a new potter’s wheel for ceramic artist Bjarne Puggard, who has turned pots for Per Arnoldi for several years.

 Work could then begin. Bjarne Puggaard turned the pots, Per Arnoldi painted them, and Petersen fired them – to the complete satisfaction of all concerned.

The future of the beautiful unique pots has not yet been decided, but they may feature later as part of an exhibition.

The picturesque house of year 2010

A house in a Hamburg suburb has been converted and given a new facing wall based on a project by Rudolph + Weeren

Picturesque is a descriptive adjective rarely used to describe modern architecture. But when it is, it is noticed.

This is what’s happened in a current project in Othmarschen near Hamburg: an existing family house from the 1960s was originally built with white painted walls. The client wanted a facade which was as light, but also noble and maintenance-free, and contacted the Hamburg architects Rudolph + Weeren: - We knew Petersen Tegl from a previous housing project and knew that their bricks were excellent for renovation projects due to the wide range of colours and textures, and because the bricks vary in size, providing a wider scope for the joints.

At the same time, the client and the architects looked at reference projects in the Hamburg area which had Petersen coal-fired clinkers. Rudolph + Weeren chose D71 bricks for the project in Othmarschen and built with them as mixed by the brickworks.

- In the reference projects, the darker side was facing away and thus was not visible. We chose to keep the mixture precisely as we received it, and the result is a very picturesque and beautiful facade, says Christian Weeren, Architect BDA.