Gunnløgsson's own home on Rungsted Strandvej was built to house himself and his wife Lillemor Gunnløgsson, and since they had no children the house consists of only two rooms with a bathroom and a kitchen. The house is typical of the individualistic modern lifestyle of the 1950s, characterised by simplicity and functionality and ideally placed in the middle of beautiful natural surroundings overlooking Øresund. The isolated and undisturbed location makes outer shielding walls unnecessary, and the outside is left to penetrate the rooms by means of "glass walls". The feeling of being inside the house is thus close to the feeling of being outside, or rather to the feeling of being on a protected terrace, since it is possible to get a glimpse of the Sound from almost every spot in the house. The floating impression of the building, caused by the large windows and the simple wooden construction between the end walls, underline the floating atmosphere of the interior with its open and continuous rooms. An interesting fact about Gunnløgsson's house is the way it is adapted to serve the needs of two people. The splendid view of the ever-changing Øresund, combined with the isolated location, allowed the window-facades towards the Sound and to the other side towards the sunny garden protected against the wind and the road by a fence. The building is erected as a wooden framework between the two end walls. The end walls are made in stone and are white-washed, while the wooden construction is stained in dark shades. In front of the house on the eastern side facing the Sound is a terrace made of salt-impregnated boards. The "glass-walls" on this side have two sliding doors, also in glass, which form the entrance to the terrace. The interiors are typical of Gunnløgsson's work: simple materials and very few colours. The ceilings are constructed by means of untreated deal battens. The visible beams are stained in dark shades in the same manner as the supporting timber described above. The interior walls are made of wood and varnished black and have a polished surface. The sliding doors, which separate the main room from the kitchen and the bedroom, are painted in a light grey while the chimney brickwork is treated as the outer walls and white-washed. To keep the simplicity and the minimalist impression even the heating pipes are invisible, embedded in the floor and covered by heat-conducting Swedish marble also, in a light grey tone. For extra heating the living room is supplied with a chimney and a fireplace situated in the middle of the room. The windows can be covered by Venetian blinds in the same light colour as the untreated wood of the ceiling. Approaching the house from the main road one needs to walk along the garden following the sloping terrain. The difference in altitude between the road-level and house-level is almost two meters. The garage is situated in the northern part of the building, while the living facilities are placed towards the south. Entering from the western side of the building through a door leading to a narrow part of the main room behind the kitchen, one continues directly into the main room with the free-standing chimney in the middle. The bathroom and the kitchen lie parallel to the facades, and can be entered either from the bedroom or the main room. Gunnløgsson's own house on Rungsted Strandvej is a brilliant example of the new style characteristic of the modernist movement in Denmark in the 1950s and 1960s. Traditionally the whole area along the coast of Øresund north of Copenhagen was characterised by large, prestigious villas with many rooms, placed in parks and surrounded by garages, barns, etc. Gunnløgsson's home is modest in comparison to these. The parks were divided up into smaller sites of 1000-1500 m2 according to the new ideal of a more functional and individual way of living, without the staff necessary to maintain the house and the surroundings. In the case of Gunnløgsson, the trimmed gardens are replaced by the natural flora of the coast itself, while the house is limited to the specific needs of a couple. Gunnløgsson's own house thus resembles Farnsworth House by Mies van der Rohe or Phillip Johnson's Glass House, and in its overall impression the building clearly shows an original Japanese inspiration. The Nordic materials - bricks, wood, and Swedish marble - turn the house into an indisputably Scandinavian interpretation of these styles. His detached houses in general, and his own house in particular, inspired many architects of the period. The same attitude towards materials and simplicity also characterises his other major works. In the case of the City Hall of Tårnby or Fredericia the precious materials and the severe and rhythmic structure of the facades are remarkable. Working in the southern part of Jutland he used the local red brick so the new buildings could match the existing traditional ones. He often underlined the function and importance of the building by making large steps leading up to official buildings like city halls or museums. Likewise, in his project for the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Copenhagen, he tried to make the new buildings correspond to the old monumental and enclosed warehouses dating back to the eighteenth century. His oeuvre is characterised by an overall aesthetic close to that of Asplund, defined by the idea of an architectural whole, functionality and regard for the surroundings, thorough construction and a delicate attention to detail. < BACK
Kira Pedersen