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Copenhagen Modern - 20th-century architecture in the coastal capital
5
days
from
£2,900
Book today with a deposit of
£435
13th - 17th May 2027
Tour highlights
- An invigorating insight to one of the world’s most vital and carefully designed cities, with walks in the historic centre balanced by excursions out along the Øresund shore.
- Traces the city’s development from the Renaissance to the present day with the emphasis on the great 20th-century modern tradition.
- Visit Jørn Utzon’s Bagsværd Church and P.V. Jensen-Klint’s expressionist Grundtvig Church, two of the great modern ecclesiastical buildings.
- Exemplary domestic architecture, from Finn Juhl’s home to Utzon’s Fredensborg courtyard houses and Arne Jacobsen’s Bellevue complex.
- The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art is world-class, see also the beautiful Ordrupgaard Museum and Bjarke Ingels’ extraordinary Danish Maritime Museum.
- Led by Professor Harry Charrington, architect and architectural historian and a specialist in Modernism.
On paper, Danish reads almost identically to its sister-languages Swedish and Norwegian, but hear a Dane speak and it sounds nothing like them. So, at first glance, Copenhagen might seem another well-ordered, well-mannered, Scandinavian city set under clear light over a blue sea, but experiencing it reveals a unique place that melds Nordic qualities with sophisticated continental traditions.
A visitor walking (or perhaps more appositely, cycling) through Copenhagen will find it difficult to think of another city in Europe which has worked so hard, but apparently effortlessly so, at designing a place fit for the purposes of modern citizenship. It is this commitment that makes almost every aspect of living in the city a collective and individual pleasure – and a sustainable one.
Copenhagen continues to draw on the affordances of its littoral location to provide a bucolic natural environment; the vibrant but harmonious historic centre privileges pedestrian life; outstanding buildings of every era sit easily beside each other in a highly considered public realm; first-rate museums and galleries embellish the city; and its various neighbourhoods, schools and housing are all bound together by an excellent transport system, and a citizenry of cyclists who outnumber car-users.
Running through all this is an aesthetic sensibility that combines clarity of line and shape with an informed elegance. Stretching back to the brick and copper buildings of the Renaissance, through the Rococo wit and inventive Neo-Classicism of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and on through early-twentieth century Arts & Crafts and Nordic Classicism, this carefully nurtured and supported design tradition has evolved into Denmark’s now long-sustained tradition of humanist Modernism.
Itinerary
Fly mid-morning from London Heathrow to Copenhagen (SAS). Afternoon walk through the historic centre and around the waterfront; from the unique 18th-century Christian’s Church and crypt (Niels Eigtved, 1755), to the great hall and gardens of Arne Jacobsen’s Bank of Denmark (1970–8), see new harbourside developments including Krøyers Plads (2016), Vandkunsten’s Torpedo Hall housing and Henning Larsen’s Opera House (2005).
Visit Jørn Utzon’s hugely influential Fredensborg courtyard houses (1959–62) set around a common building and shared landscape. Continue to the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (1958), built up over generations into one of the world’s most organic compositions of art, architecture and nature. Then to Helsingør and Bjarke Ingels’ Danish Maritime Museum (2013), dramatically inserted into an historic dry dock overlooking Hamlet’s Elsinore Castle.
The morning walk includes the Strøget, the model for pedestrian-centred urban design the world over, the Nordic Classical police station by Hack Kampmann (1924), and Arne Jacobsen’s functionalist SAS Hotel (1960), including the surviving interior of Room 606. Continue to P.V. Jensen-Klint’s extraordinary expressionist Hanseatic-gabled Grundtvig Church (1921–40). Free afternoon, suggestions include the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek (Hack Kampmann, 1897) with an extension by Henning Larsen (2000), Statens Museum for Kunst with an extension by C.F. Møller Architects (1998) or the Danish Design Museum, an 18th-century rococo building housing the world’s largest collection of Danish design.
Drive to the neighbourhood of Nørrebro to the landscaped Assistens Kirkegård, including the grave of Søren Kierkegaard, and BIGs Superkilen Park (2012). Continue to Jørn Utzon’s Bagsværd Church (1976), alongside the Sydney Opera House considered his masterpiece. Further north is the beautiful Ordrupgaard Museum and Art Park, with the home of the great 20th-century Danish designer Finn Juhl, as well as a fine art collection (French Impressionist and Danish Golden Age) in a manor house extended by Zaha Hadid (2005). End on the Klampenborg shore, home to Arne Jacobsen’s Bellevue and Søholm developments.
Drive south to follow the ongoing development of Amager West and its new university quarter and extraordinary housing by Bjarke Ingels including the Mountain Dwelling, VM Houses and 8 House. At Copenhagen Airport visit the Vilhelm Lauritzen Terminal, a hugely influential landmark of 20th-century functionalism. Fly to London Heathrow, arriving early evening.
Some of these visits are by special arrangement and there may have to be changes to the itinerary.
Expert speaker
Professor Harry Charrington
Architect and Professor of Architecture at the University of Westminster. He read Architecture at Cambridge, where he was the founding editor of Scroope: Cambridge Architectural Journal, and subsequently combined academia and practice in both England and Finland. He has a particular interest in the history of modernism and obtained his PhD from the LSE on Alvar Aalto. His books include the award-winning Alvar Aalto: the Mark of the Hand and contributions to Artek and the Aaltos: Creating a Modern World (Yale University Press).
More tours led by Professor Harry Charrington
Practicalities
Price, per person. Two sharing: £3,120 or £2,900 without flights. Single occupancy: £3,630 or £3,410 without flights.
Coach travel; accommodation as described below; breakfasts, 1 lunch and 3 dinners with wine, water and coffee; all admissions; all tips; all taxes; the services of the lecturer and tour manager.
Phoenix Copenhagen: a traditional 4-star hotel close to the Amalienborg Palace and Nyhavn. Single occupancy rooms are doubles for sole use.
There is quite a lot of walking on this tour and standing in museums and buildings. It should not be undertaken by anyone who has difficulty with everyday walking and stair-climbing. Average distance by coach per day: 25 miles.
Typically between 10 and 22 participants.
Before booking, please refer to the FCDO website and Travel Health Pro to ensure you are happy with the travel advice for the destination(s) you are visiting.
Dates & prices
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2027
Date
Speaker
Price
Date:
13th - 17th May 2027
Speaker:
Professor Harry Charrington
Price:
from £2,900
(Based on two sharing)Related tours and events
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