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Abstract
In shedding light on the 1908–9 competition for Greater Copenhagen this article examines the contest as an instrument for the accumulation and transmission of planning know‐how, ideas and innovations in relation to the development of town planning theory and practice in the Nordic Countries. Plans are considered as both technical and cultural graphics marks reflecting alternative and possibly contradictory images of the greater city or city of the future. The discussion focuses on the relationship between urban design's twin polarities: urban transformation and creation on the one hand; concern for conservation and urban continuity on the other. After considering the competition's international dimension, the article explores the civic art strand of design in northern Europe before 1914 and the idea of the historic city by investigating the conservation movement that flourished in Copenhagen when there were rapid changes in the physical fabric. The article, based on archive materials, analyses of awarded and non‐awarded entries alike, illustrates how architects, engineers and surveyors combined their design of the city's extensions with conservation schemes for both peripheries and centre. It is suggested that, at a time when Nordic municipal authorities were pressing for comprehensive town planning, planners strove to provide ways of protecting the existing built environment. This involved not only safeguarding an emerging ‘historic city’ in contrast to the new extensions, but also proposals for maintaining urban continuity in the peripheries.
Acknowledgements
This paper draws upon research on the 1908–9 Copenhagen Competition which has been carried out with a grant from the Danish Research Council for Humanities. The report is entitled ‘Town Plans and Cultural Models: the 1908–1909 Copenhagen Extension Competition’.
Notes
* Hélène Vacher, is currently writing a book on town planning competitions as a dimension of urban planning development in relation to the contest held in Copenhagen in 1909. She is also editing a book on urban schemes in colonial areas during the twentieth century. Her previous publications include a book on the rise of rationalized urban planning in France in relationship to colonization in the twentieth century. She has written several articles on modern technical education for engineers, surveyors and architects, on the conceptualization of the colonial city, on townscapes and urban conservation. She lectures at Aalborg University in Denmark and is a Research Associate at Centre d'Études et de Recherche sur l'Urbanisation du Monde Arabe, Tours and Centre d'Histoire des Techniques, Paris. Her previous experience includes consultancy in conservation planning for UNESCO and UNDP in Morocco, Yemen and Pakistan.
On competitions see P. Breitling, The role of the competition in the genesis of urban planning: Germany and Austria in the nineteenth century, in A. Sutcliffe (ed.) The Rise of Modern Urban Planning 1800–1914. London: Mansell, 1980, pp. 31–54. For an exhaustive study of a competition, see J. W. Reps, Canberra 1912: Plans and Planners of the Australian Capital Competition. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1997. For an in‐depth discussion of values and representations enshrined in pre‐WWI extension planning, see W. Sonne, Hauptstadtplanungen 1900–1914. Die Repräsentation des Staates in der Stadt, Dissertation Nr.14098, Zürich: Den Eidgenössischen Technischen Hochschule, 2001. See also O. Karnau, Hermann Joseph Stübben – Städtebau 1876–1930. Braunschweig & Wiesbaden: Fr. Vieweg & Sohn, 1996, pp. 66–72. On the traditions of planning prevailing at that time and their cross‐influences, see S. V. Ward, Planning the Twentieth‐Century City : the advanced capitalist world. Chichester: Wiley, 2002. For a diachronic analysis of plans, see A. Corboz (preface), 1896–2001, Projet d'urbanisme pour Genève. Geneva: Georg Éditeur, 2003. For a discussion centred on the role of competitions in architecture and town planning, see H. Becker, Geschichte der Architektur‐ und Städtebauwettbewerbe. Stuttgart/Berlin/Köln: Verlag W. Kohlhammer Gmbh & Deutscher Gemeindeverlag, 1992.
The Vienna and Munich competitions, both held in 1893, had set a new stage in planning, which was, however, dominated by traffic organization, while the production of public space was underscored, see A. Sutcliffe, Towards the Planned City, Germany, Britain, the United States and France, 1780–1914. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1991, pp. 27–35. On the Vienna 1892–4 competition, see the seminal work of K. Mollik, H. Reining and R Wurzer, Planung und Verwirklichung der Wiener Ringstrassenzone. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag GMBH, 1980, pp. 355–74.
See the Memorandum of the Fællesudvalget angaaende den fremtide Bebyggelse af Københavns Kommunes Jorder i de ydre distrikter, 10 October 1907.
The programme was provided in Danish and in French. On Frederiksberg, see H. Bro, Frederiksberg‐Storbykommunen i hovedstaden, in Da København fik voksevaerk. Historiske Meddelelser om København (2001) 161–81.
Arkitektur (3 July 1909) 99.
With 27 entries, the competition for Great Berlin had only three foreign, submissions from Siegfried Sitte, Léon Jaussely and Charles Nicod, respectively. Most of the competitors were Berliners. For further analysis on the international dimension, see H. Vacher, Byplaner og kulturelle Modeller den internationale konkurrence i 1908 om København efter indlemmelserne. Historiske Meddelseser om København (2001) 63–83.
This was a relatively new phenomenon, partly due to the development of a civil engineer curriculum in Den polytekniske Læreanstalt (the Polytechnical Institute). On technical education in Denmark in the nineteenth century see H. Vacher, L'enseignement technique et l'émergence du génie civil au Denmark au XIXe siècle, in Livre du Cinquentenaire de la Faculté d'Electricité de l'Université Technique de Prague. Prague: Nakladatelstvi Libri, 2003, pp. 48–71.
This ‘post‐sittian’ planner, city engineer of Gothenburg in 1907–27, rose to a leading position in Swedish planning, see H. Bjur, Stadsplanering kring 1900 ‐med exempel fran Göteborg och Albert Lilienbergs verksamhet. Göteborg: Chalmers Tekniska Högskola, 1984. The Norwegian civil engineer E. Bjerknes was the lone candidate for his country, independent from Sweden since 1905.
Following the defeat by the Prussian–Austrian armies that led to the loss of the duchies of Schlesvig and Holstein, the National Liberals lost their credibility and their leading position in Danish politics. A conservative turn occurred giving the Højre (Right) party a firm grip on the government under the leadership of J. B. S. Estrup who hold power from 1875 till 1894.
Jens Jensen (1859–1928) was elected to the municipal council in 1893 when Venstrereformpartiet and Socialdemokratiet made an alliance to enter the City's government. He was heading the Confederation of Trade Unions and one of the leaders of Socialdemokratiet.
For an extensive analysis of the political set up in relation to planning see T. Knudsen, Storbyen støbes – København mellem kaos og byplan 1840–1917. Copenhagen: Akademisk Forlag, 1988, pp. 161–9 and T. Knudsen, International influence and professional rivalry in early Danish planning. Planning Perspectives 3 (1988) 297–310.
On this aspect see A. Sutcliffe, op. cit. [2], pp. 202–9.
See J. A. Tarr and G. Dupuy, Technology and the rise of the networked city in Europe and America. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1988.
O. Wetterberg, Monument och miljö. Perspektiv på det tidiga 1900‐talets byggnadsvård i Sverige. Göteborg: Chalmers Tekniska Högskola, 1992. For the reception of the garden city concept in Scandinavia see H. Porfyriou, Artistic Urban design and Cultural Myths: The Garden City Idea in Nordic Countries, 1900–1925. Planning Perspectives 7 (1992) 263–301.
The instrumental function of conservation as a social ‘stabilizer’ is discussed by R. Koshar, Against the “frightful leveler”: Historic Preservation and German Cities, 1890–1914. Journal of Urban History 19 (1992) 7–29. See also K. Hartmann, Städtebau um 1900, Romantische Visionen oder pragmatische Aspekte in C. Meckseper and H. Siebenmorgen (eds) Die Alte Stadt: Denkmal oder Lebensraum? Die Sicht der mittelalterlichen Stadtarchitektur in19. und 20. Jahrhundert. Göttingen: Kleine Vandenhoeck‐Reihe, 1985, 90–113. The status of the Altstad within planning doctrines is thoroughly considered by G. Felh and J. Rodriguez‐Lores, Stadt‐Umbau, Die planmäßige Erneuerung europäischer Großstädte zwischen Wiener Kongreß und Weimarer Republik. Basel: Birkhäuser, 1995.
See J. Jokilehto, A History of Architectural Conservation. Oxford: Butterworth & Heinemann, 1998.
G. R. Collins and C. C. Collins, Camillo Sitte and the Birth of Modern City Planning. London: Phaidon Press, 1965, pp. 51–2 and also G. R. Collins and C. C. Collins, Camillo Sitte reappraised, in R. Kain (ed.) Planning for Conservation. London: Mansell, 1981, pp. 63–73. On Sitte and the founding of a sittian planning tradition, see R. Wurzer, Franz Camillo und Siegfried Sitte. Ein langer Weg von der Architektur zur Stadtplanung. Berichte zur Raumforschung und Raumplanung 33 (1989) 9–34.
C. Sitte, Der Städtebau nach seinen künstlerischen Grundsätzen, Wien: Verlag Karl Graeser, 1922 (First edition 1889).
P. Geddes, City Development, A report to the Carnegie Dunfermline Trust. Shannon: Irish University Press, 1973 (first edition 1904), p. 11.
C. Buls, L'esthétique des villes. Bruxelles: Bruylant‐Christophe & Cie, 1893. On Buls' contribution to conservation and planning see M. Smets, Charles Buls, Les principes de l'art urbain. Liège: Mardaga, 1995.
Giovannoni's conclusions are developed in two articles published in 1913: Vecchie città ed Edilizia Nuova. Nuova Antologia 995 (1913) 449–72; and Il diridamento edilizio dei vecchi centri‐il quartiere della rinascenza in Roma. Nuova Antologia (1913) 53–73.
An illustration is given by the reconstruction project of a ‘barrio gotico’ in Barcelona around 1908–11, in J. Ganau, Town‐planning and conservationist policies in the historic city center of Barcelona (1860–1930). Planning History 19 (1997) 23–31.
A. Sutcliffe, op cit [2], p. 170.
See C. Smets, op. cit. [21], pp. 145–8. In the post‐WWI years this movement was almost confined to its Swiss strongholds of Geneva and Lausanne. By 1902 the Société d'Art Public was founded as a Romandy version of the Heimatschutz movement.
For a list see, L'Art Public (1909) 2.
‘Classicism’ and ‘French style’ were associated to cosmopolitism and industrialism and considered as ‘anti‐ national’, see, for instance, E. Broerman, L'école dans la nature, l'éducation morale et nationale. L'Art Public (1908) 3–12. This seems contradictory with the presence of leading members of the City Beautiful movement. However, Olmsted had himself been at bay with many characteristics of the City Beautiful and one may say that Burnham's presence was symbolic. On the City Beautiful see W. H. Wilson, The City Beautiful Movement. Baltimore/London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989.
Op. cit. [26], p. 149.
The exhibition of ‘Oud Antwerpen’ and the founding of the ‘Kunst in het openbaar leven’ (Art within public life) in 1894–5 with a strong national Flemish overtone was often quoted as major stimuli for the Art Public movement in francophone Belgium with the first congress held 24–9 September 1898. However, the Flemish and francophone movements developed on a separate plane.
Though Civic Art might sound close to the francophone notion of Art Public, a straightforward translation is not advisable. Art Public, also called at that time ‘l'art de la rue’, was first developed in Belgium in the 1890s. Open to the influence of the Arts and Crafts, it also incorporated, by 1900, the paraphernalia of Sittian planning through the mainstream of Städtebau (namely Joseph Stübben).The term Civic Art was progressively to become generic for international planners. For instance, Hegemann and Peet's book, The American Vitruvius: an Architects' Handbook of ‘Civic Art’, New York: Architecture Book Publishing Co. 1922, incorporated a wide spectrum of planning traditions including the continental European and the Atlantic neo‐classicist's streams. The notion of Civic Art can, therefore, be confusing if not put each time in its proper historical and cultural setting. This article refers mainly to the Nordic and Central European tradition. On the watering away of the Art and Crafts within Civic Art design, see C. Crouch, Design Culture in Liverpool 1880–1914: the origins of the Liverpool School of Architecture. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2002. For an in‐depth account on the development of a neo‐classical stream of Civic Design in Liverpool, see P. Richmond, Marketing Modernisms: The Architecture and Influence of Charles Reilly. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2001.
The new central railway station was in use in 1911.
For his extensive land surveys of Copenhagen and publications, M. A. Ramsing, a military engineer, was the main reference for scientific archaeology until recently: K. Gabrielsen, Kobenhavns arkeologi og den historiske topografi‐tolkninger fra 1760 til i dag. Historiske Meddelelser om København (1999) 9–35.
On the city‐building process in Copenhagen, see C. Jørgensen, Aspekter of Citydannelsen i København. Master thesis, Copenhagen: Copenhagen University, 1986.
See T. Goecke, Allgemeine Städtebau‐Ausstellung, Berlin 1910. Der Städtebau (1910) 73–92, 79. Copenhagen sent those projects for display during Berlin's exhibition, instead of the Competition's winning entries which Werner Hegemann had been hoping would be sent: correspondence of W. Hegemann in Copenhagen City Archives.
Nybors i København. Arkitekten‐Tidsskrift for Bygningsvaesen (17 February 1899).
The National Museum was organized in 1892 with two main departments.
A. Larsen and E. Schiødte, Gamle Kjøbenhavnske Huse og Gaarde. Copenhagen: Foreningen ‘Fremtiden’, 1894–1897, four volumes.
Staten and Bygningskunsten. Architekten (15 July 1905) 409–12.
O. Asmussen, (ed.), Køberhavn, som den er og somden burde vœre. Copenhagen: Foreningen til Hovestadens Forskønnelse, 1914.
The state of the debate is reflected in the collective work edited by O. Asmussen, København, som den er og som den burde vaere. Copenhagen: Foreningen til Hovedstadens Forskønnelse, 1914.
V. Lorenzen, Lovgivningen og Bevaringen af gamle Bygninger udenfor Danmark. Meddelelser fra Foreningen til Gamle Bygningers Bevaring 1 (1909) 3–14.
This article's translation: V. Lorenzen, Om Bevaring af gammel Bygningskunst, in O. Asmussen (ed.), op. cit. [40], p. 118.
Lorenzen was to be associated closely with the 1915 founding of ‘Bedre Byggeskik’ (the Association for Better Building Practices), actively promoting the quality of ordinary Danish vernacular building, an art which has been already sketched on the occasion of the National Exhibition held in Aarhus in 1909 and with the setting up by the Akademisk Architectforening in 1907 of a design assistance group.
F. Sündbarg had published, in particular, Om stadsplaner med särskild hänsyn till svenska förhaallanden. Ord och Bild (1897) 145–60 and 193–213. Hallman's ideas on planning were introduced in Denmark in 1901 with his article, De nya stadsplaneideerna. Architekten, Meddelelser fra Akademisk Architktforening (1901) 287–92.
This article's translation: A. Abendroth, Der Landmesser im Städtebau. Praktisches Handbuch zur sachgemäßen Erledigung der landmesserischen Geschäfte im Gemeindedienst. Berlin: Paul Parey, 1909, p. VII. H. Joseph Stübben, Der Städtebau Darmstadt: Bergsträsser, 1890.
In 1861 in Poppelsdorf (Bonn), the Königliche Preussische Landwirschaftliche Akademie, which included surveyors' education, was founded. The other centre for education in surveying, also under the aegis of the Prussian Ministry of Agriculture, was in Berlin, where Abendroth received his training.
K. Strinz, Die historische Entwicklung des Siedlungsgedankens. Zeitschrift für Vermessungswesen (15 October 1920) 674–82.
For a hypothesis concerning the strength of Sittian planning in central and northern Europe, see A. Sutcliffe, La diffusione delle teorie sittiane: un' ipotesi per definirne lo sfondo, in G. Zucconi (ed.) Camillo Sitte e i suoi interpreti. Milano: FrancoAngeli, 1992, pp. 99–108.
K. Strinz, Die gesetziche Regelung der Baulandumlegung. Der Städtebau (1905) 135–8.
Fassbinder further developed this project in 1898 in the form of a 750 m large leisure ground. Adapted by engineer H. Goldemunds it was presented in the Paris 1900 exhibition and adopted by the Viennese municipality in 1905.
B. Larsson and O. Thomassen, Urban planning in Denmark, in T. Hall (ed.) Planning and Urban Growth in the Nordic Countries. London: E&FN Spon, 1991, pp. 6–59, esp. pp. 14–18.
See J. Gregersen, Engelske Havebyer. Maanedsskrift for Sundhedspleje (1908–9) 165–90.
See O. Forchhammer, København – de indlemmede distrikter byplanmæssig udvikling 1901–1941. Copenhagen: Stadsingeniørens Direktorat, 1942, p. 28. Also S. E. Rasmussen, København – et bysamfunds særpræg og udvikling gennem tiderne. Copenhagen: G.E.C. Gads Forlag, 1994, pp.141–2.
See N. D. Olsen, Den Fri Architektforening, Foreningen som markerede et stilskifte i dansk arkitektur. Architektura‐10 (1988) 84–132.
This article's translation. All references to the memoirs and to the plans are based on the documentation kept in Copenhagen City Archives.
See E. Fischer, Byplanlaegningens love, in O. Asmussen (1914), op. cit. [40], pp. 43–77.
On Danish modern architecture, see K. Millech and K. Fisker, Danske arkitekturstrømninger 1850–1950. Copenhagen: østifernes Kreditforening, 1951. On Plesner's much creative architectural design, see H. Finsen, Arkitekten Ulrik Plesner. Copenhagen: Arkitektens Forlag, 1951.
This article's translation. Fælledparken had been presumably inspired by Central Park.
Det Teknisk Selskab Skole, created in 1876 for technical intermediary education, produced a great many of the builders in the last quarter of the nineteenth century in parallel to the civil engineers educated at the Polytechnic Institute. See H. Vacher, op. cit. [7], pp. 57–60.
A. J. Raavad, Borgmesterbogen – En bog om dansk byplanlaegning, For embedsmaend under stat og by, folkerepraesentanter, ingeniører og arkitekter samt skattydende borgere (gaende, ridende og korende; sejlende og flyvende). Copenhagen: Arkitektforenings Forlag, 1929. On Raavad's professional career in the USA, see H. H. Madsen, Chicago‐København: Alfred Raavads Univers. Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1990.
Raavad and Gellersted's plans for Canberra are reproduced and discussed by J. W. Reps, op. cit. [1], pp. 186, 188, respectively.
A. J. Raavad, Beskrivelser til de fire praemierede og det inkobte konkurrence‐projekt angaaende bebyggelsens af Kobenhavns ydre distrikter, in Tillaeg til Københavns Borgerrepraesentanters Forhandlinger. Copenhagen, 1909, pp. 75–109, p. 95.
Projects pertaining to other schools of design such as the Beaux‐Arts stream were also displayed at the exhibition which was held in the Town Hall in May 1909. Such was the entry of the Catalan architect Ferran Romeu (1862–1943) advising the demolishing of the fortifications and promoting ‘Grand Manner’ schemes. He was among the very few projects to receive negative comments from the press.
On the changing cultural perception of space and time see S. Kern, The Culture of Time and Space, 1880–1918. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1983.
As already discussed, some authors give to civic art a much broader definition than the one used here. Some authors oppose the tradition of Urbanistica to civic art, the latter having failed to go beyond ‘public space’ and address the ‘conceptual and operative core’ provided by architecture. However, if the dividing line between public and private spaces may be accurate to describe the City Beautiful approach, the same judgement cannot be easily applied to the Austrian–German school which paid much attention to the social housing question from the onset. Yet, no unified conceptualization of the role of architecture was provided to answer to the massification of housing, for reasons sketched above. See J. Luque, Architecture and Town‐planning Uninterrupted Dialogue; the Birth of the Two First Urban Tradition. Planning History 24 (2002) 35–42.
This article follows the analysis of L. Andersson, Mellan Byraakrati och Laissez faire. En Studie av Camillo Sittes och Patrick Geddes Stadsplaneringsstrategier. Gothenburg: Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis, 1989.
By ‘historicism’ the article means knowledge and imitation of ancient architectures. It is, thus, fundamentally distinct from ‘traditionalism’, which does not interpret industrial modernity as a radical change. Eclecticism is another approach which focuses on the research of innovation. Historicist positions are symbolic statements, although ‘historicist’ architects and engineers articulated their practice on a thorough constructive knowledge that could also be geared towards innovation.
Trained as an engineer from the Polytechnic Institute before turning to painting and architecture, P. V. Jensen Klint was responsible for the design of the Grundtvig Church and its surrounding housing scheme built on Bispebjerg.
The firm Havestadt and Contag seems to have been opposed to the tertiarization of the inner city by avoiding major encroachments on built forms: E. Konter, Verheißungen einer Weltstadcity, Vorschläge zum Umbau “Alt‐Berlins” in den preisgekrönten Entwürfen des Wettewerbs Groß‐ Berlin von 1910, in G. Felh and J. Rodriguez‐Lores, op. cit. [16], pp. 249–72.
C. Gurlitt, Conservation du coeur d'anciennes villes, Traduction d'une conférence de M. Gürlitt à Salzburg, suivie de La conservation du Coeur de la ville de Bruxelles de Charles Buls. Bruxelles: Ed. Tekne, 1912.