Fjordenhus

Fjordenhus - Fjord House, is an iconic new building at the port of Vejle in Denmark. The design is the work of Danish/Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson and his studio, who present new construction techniques and artworks united in one building. Fjordenhus consists of four contiguous cylinders, each 28 metres high. The ground floor is open to the public. The first floor houses the gourmet restaurant LYST, while the rest of the building serves as the headquarters of KIRK KAPITAL A/S, which commissioned the project. Fjordenhus is a contemporary Gesamtkunstwerk embracing a number of location-specific artworks as well as interior decoration and lighting specially designed for the building by Eliasson and his team.

 

 

With great reverence for Olafur Eliasson’s beautiful building and interior, Lulu Mosquito has supplemented the custom-made furniture he designed specially for the building with classic Danish design, plants and other personal furnishing accessories requested by the building’s users.

The most important aspect of this project was to complement Olafur’s artworks and the building itself with interior decoration and individual pieces of furniture without creating ‘noise’ or detracting in any way from the building and the subtle energy pervading the rooms.

We chose a relatively simple and minimalist plant scheme for the entire building. Simple, round concrete pots adorn the various conference rooms, offices and canteen. The pots are always grouped in threes, forming an interconnected still life. One pot was specially designed by Lulu Mosquito, and is half concrete, half oak to match Olafur’s furniture. All the plants are cacti and succulents, resulting in a vivid display of bright, green and soft colours that are a perfect match for the carpets and curtains. Emphasis has been placed on materials and colours which are as unobtrusive as possible. It is the organic shapes of the plants that lend dynamism to the rooms.

The two sofas in one of the private offices and in the reception area were specially designed in Italy. One is blueish and matches the carpet and curtains, while the other has a burnt orange hue and matches the building’s beautiful brickwork. Both sofas are large and angular and provide an excellent contrast to the round space without stealing focus from the artistic expression of the rooms.

For the lounge/conference area, we chose the Poet sofa, an example of classic Danish design. Finn Juhl designed the Poet sofa for his own home in 1941, inspired by free art. We found that the style of the sofa harmonised with the round shapes of Fjordenhus extremely well. Furthermore, the Poet sofa is produced to a very high quality with hand-sewn upholstery. The sofa represents a piece of Danish cultural history that beautifully complements Olafur Eliasson’s artistic architecture.

Lulu Mosquito also chose to use Danish furniture design in one of the private offices. The conference table, designed by Olafur Eliasson, is a work of art in itself. Here, it was important to find a chair that matched the table perfectly without drawing attention away from it. The final choice was the DIY chair from Fredericia Furniture – an incredibly beautiful and comfortable chair that we upholstered in rust-red leather to match the beautiful brick walls.

Lulu designed the bar table for the private offices as an understated neutral piece of furniture, whose material (oak) and round shape is a continuation of the building’s idiom without pretending to be one of Olafur’s stunning artistic furniture pieces. It was a privilege to be allowed to assist in the interior decoration of Fjordenhus.