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International litterature and internet-links concerning the Kingohouses. |
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Faber, Tobias A
history of Danish Architecture About the Kingohouses (page 220): Lastly, Jørn Utzon carried out the Kingo Houses development in the traditional materials og brickwork and wood but with very untraditional plan and architectural form. Strings of courtyard houses hug the undulating site so that each house gets the benefit of its own to trap the sun and yet share in the view over communal open space. Buildings and courtyards are shut in behind yellow brick walls of various heights, providing for private family life but at the same time not standing in the way of a certain outwardness. Big glass areas connect the rooms with the courtyard. The attractive well enclosed access with their yellow-brown almost windowless walls are reminiscent of North African villages. These are cheap buildings which through the unity of the material and simplicity of construction have both architectural strength and excellent qualities as dwellings. |
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Utzon, Jan Three generations Rungsted Kyst, Internationalt Forlag, Anders Nyborg Privattryk, 1988. DK5: 71.6 |
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Utzon, Jørn The Sydney Opera House Zodiac: A Review for Contemporary Architecture, nr. 14, 1965, page 48-86. John Yeomans says in the book The Other Taj Mahal (page 163-64): "The chapter in Zodiac 14 is an exposition of the Sydney Opera House written by Utzon himself, illustrated with drawings and photographs which he made or had taken under his supervision. Pictures and text make fifty-seven pages which are required reading for anybody with serious interest in the Opera House." Yeomans,
John About the Kingohouses (page 40-41): In the chapter "Jørn Utzon and the Third Generation" of his book Space, Time and Architecture, Siegfried Giedion, the architectural teacher and historian, says: "Almost the only thing Utzon had built were 63 Kingohouses near Elsinore, 1956, and a smaller housing project near Fredensborg, 1962. In 1957 Utzon was surprised to find he had won the competition for the Sydney Opera House…" The project at Kingo (near Helsingør) was a group og low cost atrium homes which like the Fredensborg houses ware charming but essentially small work. (page 57): [Bill Wheatland, australsk arkitekt:] "When he wishes, Utzon can be a very good businessmann, too. Very few people know that he is a partner in a successful and hard-headed firm of project architects in Hawaii. They build straight commercial stuff – blocks of flats and so on. Books are always mentioning the houses at Kingo in Denmark, which Jørn designed. The point is that they are a triumph of low-cost domestic planning. And Jørn not only designed the houses but acted as the promoter of the business deal which resulted in their being built. If he hadn’t acted as promoter, I don’t think the project would have got off the ground". Fredensborghusene,
1962-63 Jørn
Utzon: Houses in Fredensborg About the Kingohouses (page 8): Utzon […] was encouraged to develop his ideas further, even though none of the Swedish project was either realised or covered in an architectural magazine. Afterwards Utzon carried out a detailed study of some family houses that had been recently built in Denmark under a special state-loan scheme. The loan idea was a good one, making it possible for people with low income to have their own houses, but architecturally speaking, the results were poor on the whole. Utzon thought that most new developments of the period looked like "messy dog cemeteries". Even though the buildings were constructed in conformity with state building regulations, the solutions were often absurd. One example was a set of single-storey buildings on a slope with an ugly basement storey showing towards the street which was not actually used. Utzon thought that conditions could be much improved even for the same amount of money. He commissioned a photographer to document the development. Utzon presented these photographs and his Swedish project to the mayor of Helsingør and told him that he could create a new and more attractive development with a lot of character and ideal conditions for residents for exactly the same cost as the unsatisfactory project. He had difficulty in convincing the Mayor, but finally succeeded. The Mayor put a vacant plot west of Helsingør at his disposal, an area of about nine acres of rolling land with little hills set around a pond. Utzon carried out the project for Kingohusene, who technically were the clients for the new estate. Utzon commissioned a show house from a firm of builders, and this was completed and opened to the public. At the time state loans were given at low interest rates on condition that houses did not exceed a certain size. Building costs were to be low. A house with one living room, one master bedroom and two small bedrooms on an area of 104 square metres was to be built at a cost of 60,000 DK. The family paid 5,000 DK themselves and was granted a state loan of 55,000 DK at a 2,2% interest rate. The Kingo houses were intended for workers and poorly-paid teachers, and a condition for acquiring a house was a modest income. The contractors were not happy with these conditions, but knew that otherwise nothing would be built at all. The Kingo houses were to be built to these regulations. The budget for the first house was restricted to 35,000 DK for building work only. Fortunately it was a success, and a few days later seventeen houses had been ordered. The builders agreed to put up all 63 houses in the development at the restricted price. They offered to do the work in their free time, when they were not working on other contracts. This meant that the development took longer than usual, but finally the estate was finished at a lower price than for any other housing scheme of the period, and – thanks to Utzon – with more character than any other contemporary Danish development. Utzon had developed the ideas put forward in the Swedish competition, and placed the 63 houses in rows following the undulations of the site, providing a specific view for each house as well as the best possible situation as far as sunlight and shelter from the wind were concerned. The houses are arranged like flowers on the branch of a cherry tree, turning towards the sun from each flower’s particular position. Similar qualities can be seen in the white buildings on mountainous Greek islands like Skyros or Sifnos. Utzon’s sensitivity to nature produced an arrangement that is beautiful yet simple. Each of the Kingo Houses has a particular quality as a result of special conditions. Within the walls enclosing the courtyard the residents are able to expand according to their needs and wishes without interfering their neighbours. The scheme’s unity comes from a uniform but rich and varied exterior. The main idea of the Swedish competition project is retained in an unusual design with vertical and horizontal displacements relative to the site, and a rhythmically controlled skyline against the background nearby wood. Architectural integrity is achieved by basing a number of variations on the same leitmotif – and by using the same materials, brick and wood. Walls, chimneys, roofs and cladding are all in yellow brick. Dividing walls between two houses are raised above the roof ridge, and have stepped endings. The houses facing the access road are closed, with very few openings for doors and windows. This gives the development a very strong character, which was apparent immediately after the project was finished. In this case it was not necessary to wait for the trees to grow, something that usually needs to happen before a new piece of architecture makes a pleasing impression. Individual houses are L-shaped, the living room and a smaller room that can be used as a study are housed in one section, master bedroom, kitchen and bathroom in the second. The walls closing the courtyard allow different views of the site through openings with low parapets. At first people found the exterior difficult and strange, and nicknames like "Arab City" were coined, but living conditions were so good and so convincing that the development was very soon a great success among low-income groups. At the same time Utzon’s development attracted the attention of Danish and international architects. In 1956 Utzon won the Sydney Opera House competition, and was seen throughout the world as one of the most imaginative contemporary talents. As a huge national monument it was obviously a very expensive building. Utzon had to leave Sydney before it was completed – an absurd situation for him and an immense loss for the building. It is remarkable that at the same time Utzon was able to build a relatively inexpensive development i Denmark and create an architectural masterpiece on a small scale, unique and just as full of character as the Sydney Opera House. With the Kingo Houses Utzon had created a revival of the traditional Danish single-family house; he was later imitated throughout Denmark, but never with equal architectural conviction. Utzon,
Jørn Teater
i Zürich, 1964 Utzon,
Jørn Skriver,
Poul Erik Møller,
Henrik Sten Nordberg-Schulz,
Christian Bagsværd kirke, 1976 Futagowa,
Yukio Møller,
Henrik Sten |
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About the Kingohouses (page 46-47): The relation between the individual and the collective spheres is a problem which has preoccupied generations but whose solution becomes increasingly urgent. Very few have succeeded in expressing this as an architectural form. Among Utzon’s buildings in Denmark there were two housing projects: the 63 Kingo Houses near Helsingor, 1956 and a smaller project for Danes returning from abroad, near Fredensborg, 50 km north of Copenhagen. Both show great sensitivity in their site planning. The placing of the houses willingly responds to slight changes in the slope of land. They are linked together like the scales on a butterfly’s wing, while the flexible plan of the individual houses makes full allowance for individual privacy. The houses of both projects are based on the frequently employed L-shaped ground plan, but used in their own manner. They are disposed on the site so that they share the minimum length of common wall. This is made possible by forming each house into a square with its own open court. Should not one really call this court a patio since it is the private open space of the house? The detailing of the project shows that Utzon knows how to model. He cut a rectangle from each garden wall so that the landscape, the garden-like exterior space, can flow freely into the project. In surgery everything depends upon the sureness of the cut; it is the same with the architect. Instead of a small scale landscape of minuscule gardens the site displays a spacious generosity. The same kind of thinking, through formulated quite differently, resulted in the common gardens of the Bloomsbury Squares of London in the first half of the nineteenth century.
Møller,
Henrik Sten
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