…what a lotta’ flavor!

last weekend, sierra, geoff, gavin and i took a trip to scandinavia. we thought, why not? we’ve seen central europe, turkey, and now its time for denmark and the north. i think the weather was actually warmer than it has been in düsseldorf.

we left very early friday morning via airberlin (again not as good as lufthansa, but ok) and arrived in denmark around 8:30am. the danish speak perfect english – as if they were american, but better and are also super nice and helpful. there were several times that we were just glancing over our map of the city and someone would come up to us asking if we needed help.

we had previously decided that since we were SO close to sweden, why not take a short train ride over the bridge and add one more country to our maps. see here. the danish krone and the swedish krona are quite different currencies so we had to have both. in sweden, the exchange rate is like 6 or 7 to 1USD. so our 120 krona lunch was only around 15 bucks. prettty bizarre.

we arrived in malmö, sweden – a small port town about a 40 min ride over a bridge from copenhagen. it was really nice. we walked around and as it was early, we were able to see the city come alive in the morning. again, the people spoke english flawlessly. we grabbed breakfast, sat by the river and watched a kayaking team speed by, walked through their pedestrian area, and checked out a few swedish design shops. one in particular, ‘designtorget‘ was especially cool. they had all kinds of neat designer items, like you would find off of swissmiss. i need to find a place like this in texas. fat chance.

we ate lunch at a nice outdoor cafe, mello yello, where i had an excellent garlic-cheese hamburger. then we caught a train back to copenhagen.

it reminds me a lot of amsterdam: fairly ornate and dutch/danish-looking building facades, several waterways, large harbor, ocean breeze. one thing we wanted to accomplish was to see some good ‘ol modern danish architecture. a few days before, i emailed the firm BIG (bjarke ingels group) about visiting their office while we were in town. late thursday night i got a reply to confirm that they would be more than happy to have us stop by. as BIG is probably my favorite firm, i was ecstatic.

we found their office and were shown around by one of their interns. typically their office is active 24/7 but this saturday, it was a bit quiet. nevertheless, we were able to see how the studio works. it was all open, no walls (except on bathrooms), glass for their conference rooms and kitchen (complete with ping pong tables), and a big open space for model building. the fact that they do pride themselves with simple, yet effective model building is one for their strong points. they make them all in-house, by the project team. so for a project of 3-4 people, they plan the design, produce the drawings, and build the model. it makes so much sense. i was so impressed and in awe that i forgot to take pictures. so you will just have to peruse their site and imagine.

later that afternoon, we checked into our hostel, planned out what else we wanted to see in the city, and went out to find food. copenhagen is a bit more pricey than other cities we’ve visited, but it is especially so with their food. why? i have no idea. we walked around for at least 2 hours in search of a fairly nice, sit-down restaurant that was less than 150 DKr a plate (30USD). we were unlucky, and had to opt for a famous danish hot-dog stand. i have to admit that it was very tasty. a sausage wrapped in bacon on a bun, with 4 different sauces, onion, and pickle slices. yum.

the next day, we grabbed some breakfast in town and stopped by the danish design center. it was one of the coolest museums i had ever seen. in case you didn’t know LEGOs were invented in denmark, only adding to their coolness.

they had an exhibit running called FLOWmarket, a sarcastic reminder of everyday household items we use, waste, or could use more efficiently. it was set up like a small market and you could actually take the items and buy them at the center’s shop.

the dane’s are also known for their clever and modern craftsmanship when it comes to wood. there was a large exhibit on wood furniture and item design.

finally, there was a showcase of the design firm, muuto. besides great and ergonomic products, they had a great concern for their packaging and identity design. check them out.

later, we walked around the port and harbor of copenhagen. it was similar to rotterdam in that they are renovating old industrial buildings and spaces into higher-class residential, commercial, and pedestrian areas.

this was pretty exciting as it is a type of work i am very interested in.

the building behind these cool kids is by mvrdv. they took two abandoned silos, gutted them, added apartments to the exterior, and left the inside as a large atrium and circulation corridor.

we stopped for lunch at a pastry shop, sat by the water and people-watched/fed the birds.

geoff, gavin, and i ventured out north to see the famous “little mermaid”. it was not much more than what you see behind us, but later, i’ll show you how we made it better.

all in all, a super weekend in scandinavia. we really wanted to make it to stockholm sometime this trip, but it will unfortunately have to wait.