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In a team with Vandkunsten Architects our Copenhagen studio has been shortlisted for the project competition titled ’Healthy Housing’, involving three experimental single-familiy houses focusing on innovation in climate control in the town of Holstebro.

The competition by Realdania Byg is part of the initiative ”A Good Indoor Environment” under the ”Innovation in Construction” programme and the three houses will be developed to demonstrate innovation and new approaches to improved indoor environment in each their different way.

As a 1:1 demonstration project it will connect research and practice, investigating the ways to create better environments through building materials, methodology and technology based on the theory that recent years’ focus on energy and the environment may have impacted negatively on the health and comfort of building users. The project will demonstrate how the indoor environment can be improved without compromising on energy and without expensive additional costs. It will also shift the focus from inappropriate user behavior to the need for better designed buildings.

The results will establish new knowledge to a buildable reality in a broad sense – in new and existing buildings. Following construction the houses will be let out to ‘test families’ for a period where indoor air quality will be monitored.

The project is well aligned with the expertise and experience of our team as well as our vision of creating integrated, positive environments that are healthy and comfortable, contributing to future research and innovation.

Shortlisted among five teams, during the competition phase we will be preparing a response, describing the holistic and functional as well as economically viable ideas for an improved indoor climate with a primary focus on innovative initiatives for ventilation, building physics, moisture and degassing.

Steensen Varming has previously completed a project for Realdania Byg with a focus on improved climate control and sustainability, restoring the Varming House, a compelling space of modern Danish architecture designed by our founder, Jørgen Varming with the architects Eva and Nils Koppel.

Photo: Arkitema Architects

As part of our unique development plan, new appointments have been made at Steensen Varming, including a Senior Sustainability Consultant, a Senior Lighting Designer, a Lighting Designer and an Electrical Engineer in order to strengthen our specialist areas and to support new projects.

Fredrik Emil Nors has joined the Copenhagen team as a Senior Sustainability Consultant from Esbensen Consulting Engineers where he has led projects in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Fredrik is a certified DGNB-DK consultant – Green Building Council Denmark’s rating system based on voluntarily outperforming common concepts, acknowledged as one of the highest in the world. He specialises in the areas of indoor air quality and health, sustainable masterplanning and reduction of energy consumption of urban development areas.

Simm Steel joins the Sydney studio as Senior Lighting Designer. Simm has been the Senior Lighting Technician at the Art Gallery of NSW since 2004 and a consultant to public museums and private galleries. He brings with him a wealth of experience in lighting design and on-site focussing and commissioning, the ability to understand and meet the needs of the client, and to balance technical requirements with the creation of the best possible visual experience.

Erin Slaviero has relocated from Melbourne to join the Sydney team as Project Lighting Designer until the end of the year after which she will be based at the Copenhagen studio. Having completed a Bachelor of Interior Design and a Masters of Lighting Design, Erin’s passion for design and lighting is well reflected in her maturity of understanding in both fields.

Tiadra Simpson joins Sydney’s electrical team from the US. She is a previous student of architecture and has a degree in Electrical Engineering, specialising in renewable electric energy systems with a passion for the detailed aspects of electrical engineering in the built environment.

In addition to these appointments, Steensen Varming has recently welcomed the interns Susanne Thomassen and Finlay Robinson in Sydney, Oliver Halliwell in London and Søren Skeel Olesen in Copenhagen. With various programmes, we will promote the opportunities for students and graduates in gaining practical experience and knowledge of different subjects, enabling them to make better, informed decisions in their future education and career.

Our proposal with VK Studio, Mikkelsen Arkitekter and Dorte Mandrup is among the three winners in the project competition for Ny Psykiatri Bispebjerg, a new facility which will serve more than 420.000 patients in Copenhagen, providing mental healthcare at the highest international level. The proposal presents an intimate functional building, unfolding from the inside out with surprising distinguished hanging gardens.

Once again, VIVID has turned Sydney into one of the world’s largest outdoor spectacles submerging the City in light, music and ideas.

Two of Steensen Varming’s lighting designers have also participated in VIVID 2015: Associate and Lighting Designer Emrah Baki Ulas is exhibiting two works this year. His contributions include Ayla, a serene image of the moon projected on a giant scale and surrounded by an ecliptical halo of light. The installation is named after Emrah’s daughter, Ayla, meaning “halo of light around the moon”.

Emrah’s second installation is the space-themed A Light Year Ahead, inspired by the UNESCO 2015 International Year of Light and Light-Based Technologies. The work simulates the sensation of space travel through moving spatial high-definition images, a mirrored floor and ceiling, and screen walls lit by projections with a futuristic soundscape adding to the experience.

A new member of our lighting team, Erin Slaviero, is also taking part in this year’s event with a collaborative project Kaleidoscope, a unique colourful installation that creates portals of infinite space by manipulating perspective with light and mirrors, merging the ideas of an infinity mirror and an infinity room. The viewer is taken on a journey through a never-ending space in which the deepness of space is shown in the direction of fading light.

We worked with Arne Jacobsen and Flemming Lassen on Søllerød Town Hall, now renamed Rudersdal Town Hall, having only a few years earlier collaborated with Arne Jacobsen on Aarhus Town Halll, designed on similar modern functionalist principles. Rudersdal is located 20km north of Copenhagen and the Town Hall was completed in 1942 with chairs, desks, lamps and textiles all designed by Arne Jacobsen. Built in reinforced concrete, faced in marble with a copper-plated roof, it was the first public building built after 1900 to become heritage listed.

72 years and a couple of generations later, Søllerød Municipality has become part of Rudersdal Municipality and Steensen Varming has after its permanent establishment in Australia following the commission on the Opera House with Jørn Utzon, re-opened its Copenhagen and London studios along with new studios in Hong Kong and New York. The reunion with this iconic masterpiece is the second recent project that represents a re-connection with our past, following our engagement on the restoration of the Varming Villa in Gentofte designed by our founder Jørgen Varming with the architects Niels and Eva Koppel. The continued involvement on projects from our early years enable us to apply the knowledge and approach that has been passed on through our people and practices and this opportunity represents one of the main reasons behind the return to our roots.

From 1 to 5 October a luminous arch of 50 subtle colour fades stretched across Parramatta River as our lighting team lit up the Gladesville Bridge in celebration of its 50th Anniversary.

When opened on 2 October 1964 it was, at 1000 feet (305 metres) the longest span concrete arch bridge in the world. On the official ceremony held by RMS on 1 October the Bridge received an “Engineering Heritage International Marker” joining only three other Australian recipients of this prestigious international award which include the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Snowy Mountains Hydro Scheme and the West Australian Goldfields Water Supply. Applying high-efficiency LEDs, the lighting solution enhances the elegant structure and creates a night-time landmark with minimal daytime impact and will be used for future special events and projects by RMS.

Steensen Varming is sponsoring the ‘Valuing Architecture’ visiting programme by the Danish Agency of Culture which on Monday 18 August will be welcoming eight Australian guests in Copenhagen, representing the academic and practicing as well as the governmental levels of architecture.

The programme is a follow-up on the Opera House 40th Anniversary celebrations with the purpose of strengthening the exchange of ideas, methods and theories concerning architecture as well as to inspire to future partnerships between practices in Denmark and Australia.

CEO Dan Mackenzie noted the importance of retaining the cultural and professional links between the two countries that began with Jørn Utzon’s visionary design of the Opera House, also leading to Steensen Varming’s establishment in Australia: “The Opera House is an example of a truly innovative result enabled through collaboration across disciplines and continents. As this is as important in our work today as then, we support initiatives that promote this way of thinking, such as MADE, the Multidisciplinary Australian Danish Exchange programme. Valuing Architecture will similarly address how value is created in this interaction, looking towards the design of our future cities and the shared values they are developed on.”

The visiting programme will include an architecture symposium held by The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture and a visit to the heritage listed Varming Villa, designed by the company’s founder Jørgen Varming where Steensen Varming are currently engaged by Realdania on the sensitive and seamless integration of updated mechanical systems.

The 1500 seat recital hall designed by PTW has been shortlisted for the Public Sector category of the World Interiors News Annual Awards 2014. Located 17m underground, the project was a building services challenge with its exposed bedrock and multi-purpose requirements.

Our mechanical, electrical and lighting services enabled the total integration of this unique interior within a comfortable environment and energy efficient campus. The hammered apsidal wall is uplit to create a dramatic focal point. Employing the natural qualities of the Sydney sandstone, our low noise, low energy systems maximise the thermal capacity of the rock while maintaining the acoustic quality of the space.

With this year’s World Architecture Festival Awards Shortlist announced, we are pleased to see three of our projects in the running including Bankstown Library and Knowledge Centre in the Culture category and Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery in the New and Old category, both by Francis-Jones Morehen Thorp (FJMT) and the National Arboretum Canberra in the Landscape category by Taylor Cullity Lethlean and Tonkin Zulaikha Greer. We congratulate the architects and are looking forward to hearing the results from the festival in Singpore 1-3 October 2014.

Applications are now open for the second round of the Multidisciplinary Australian Danish Exchange programme which since its establishment in 2013 has proven to be a great exercise in collaboration across disciplines and countries to create truly innovative results as well as an enriching experience for everyone involved. We are proud to have been supporting this programme from the beginning as part of the Sydney Opera House 40th Anniversary celebrations and now as it enters into its second year.

Steensen Varming CEO Dan Mackenzie said: “After having now participated in the actual running of the programme, with a uniquely privileged viewpoint in both Australia and Denmark, MADE has so far proved to exceed Steensen Varming’s expectations on a number of fronts. The commitment of the students, the quality and enthusiasm of the host architects, the support of the Sydney Opera House at all levels and even the intangible benefits to ourselves in mentoring and guiding the programme, have all reinforced our view that this is not only a hugely worthwhile initiative in itself, but one that can instigate an approach for wider education that will benefit our built environment in the future.”

Applications for the second Australian cohort close on 22 July 2014. The successful students will be notified in mid-August and invited to the farewell event for the inaugural Danish participants at the Opera House on 22 August 2014.

More information on MADE and applications