portfolio cv
2016
cand.arch
Nicolai Larasse
A short presentation of who I am My joy in architecture lies in the negotiation of the social, the poetic experiance of space and the ecological and aesthetic implemetation of the physical frames. It interests me how we can give both our abstract and concrete patterns of life new spatial definitions through critical enterpretation. How the complexity of different contexts and the inherent posibilities of the material can enrich our surroundings. A facination in the multiplicity of life, hopefully resulting in a more grounded architecture, giving back to all parts involevd. Through my studies and work experiance I belive I have developed a strong sense of the craft and discovered my joy of colaborating with other people to reach our goals. It is important for me to be part of a lively discussion about architecture and its role. I have a strong ambition to learn both on a personal and a professional level. I grew up in Sweden, but have been living in Copenhagen the last six years, where I recently graduated from The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture. I speak swedish, danish, english and german fluently. The adventure of traveling has always been a passion for me; whether it is hitchhiking through the USA, sailing the swedish archipelago or riding a motorbike through Vietnam. With the school, I’ve been to several interesting places, many of which were investigated during 2-3 weeks and used as project sites back at the academy. I belive input from other activites are essential, in order to be inspired. For me it comes through reading, cooking, snowboarding and cocreating different projects or festivals, but mostly through friends. What do I have to offer? The experiance I gained, escpecially through my internship, has given me an understanding of, just how complex the processes are in architecture today. The pace it has to endure and the effort it takes to create quality architecture. This, together with my strong urge to give form - negotiating the social, functionality and expression, the precision I strive to keep and my will to learn, makes me a great investment.
Nicolaia Johannes Larasse S t r a n d b o u l e v a r d e n 1 2 , 2. -1 2100 CopenhagenĂ˜ e-mail: l a r a s s e @ g m a i l . c o m tel: + 4 5 2 9 8 9 5 5 4 9
It would be very thrilling to have the oppurtunity to work with you and to get to know you and your office. An important experiance to my career and creativ development. I hope this brief presentation has given an initial idea of who I am, and why I should be concidered as an architect at your firm. I look forward to hear from you and have the possibility to present myself further. Best Regards
Nicolai Larasse
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dismantling the veil, Chittagong
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7th semmester
thesis project
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proposal to a festival installation, Oslo
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concept, key and lock, Granada
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apartment collective, Copenhagen
competition; 120 houres, 2014
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the final burn, Gotland at The borderland festivalen, 2014
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residency and practice, Müløv
1:1 conceptual object, Istanbul
5th semmester
3rd semmester
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8th semmester
theater for travelling ensambles, Copenhagen bachelor project
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study of a passage, Istanbul
10. wind shelter, Kongelunden
7th semmester
2nd semmester
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front page: winning proposal for a workshop- and ceremonial space, on Gotland
Curriculum vitae
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dismantling the veil thesis project in Chittagong, Bangladesh. read more on; kadk.dk/project/dismantling-veil programme; issuu.com/nicolailarasse/docs/program_for_issuu/1
The reach of this project is twofold. The initial intention was to create a public space for women in a male dominated urban landscape. Alongside, it developet into an investigation on whether and how architecture can alter social structures. The aim was to frame and make visible the problematics of gender, through programmatic and architectural interventions - leaving the actual choice of action to the local women themselves.
nicolai larasse — larasse@gmail.ocm — +4529895549
Some of the aspects of life and activity in the enclave that I’ve worked with in the project.
The liminal, between the public - the male domain, semi-public - the collective and the private - the female domain.
The site is a dried-out pond in a Hindu enclave in Chittagong, Bangladesh. A village in the city.
Tthe existing buildings are built of easy accessible, often local, cheap materials witha clear logic in its tectonics.
The old pond
The enclave
Chittagong is a very dense city with poor infrastructure, a variety of different typologies creating a very mixed urban fabric of high and low. The site is in a small Hindu enclave, a village in the city where urban and rural manners meet. After a thourough field study I identified some of the most important carachteristics to work with; local community strenghening activities, education, the liminal spatiality and the buildings rudimentary materiala and tectonics. nicolai larasse — larasse@gmail.ocm — +4529895549
thesis project read more on; kadk.dk/project/dismantling-veil programme; issuu.com/nicolailarasse/docs/program_for_issuu/1
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thesis project read more on; kadk.dk/project/dismantling-veil programme; issuu.com/nicolailarasse/docs/program_for_issuu/1
One aspect, crucial to a project like this is to root it locally. Therefore I worked with the idea of “the common”; that all the interventions would be part of the community - both in the design, the building process and in the use and maintenance thereof. Another “tactic” was to create a programmatic gradient between; on the one hand architecture enhancing every-day chores, and on the other; architecture focused nicolai larasse — larasse@gmail.ocm — +4529895549
on the problematics of gender, mostly educating and empowering the women. By introducing a design, based on my eterpretation of their spatial routines, but adding new, distinctive character to it, I speculated that, the architecture will embody both a safe sphere and a new challenging aspect of how to use space. Opening up for new ways to see the conformity in the every-day. nicolai larasse — larasse@gmail.ocm — +4529895549
thesis project read more on; kadk.dk/project/dismantling-veil programme; issuu.com/nicolailarasse/docs/program_for_issuu/1
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a new washing area and a new well
a NGO-microbank and a cafe for women
a library, with secluded reading rooms
a class room bridge fo
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water and play tower, childrens meeting point
the garden - a sanctuary and a communitybuilder
thesis project read more on; kadk.dk/project/dismantling-veil programme; issuu.com/nicolailarasse/docs/program_for_issuu/1
My proposed scenario contains eleven interventions that where to be built over time. Beginning with the most basic needs, establishing a recognition of the architecture, then advancing to programmes dealing with strenghtening the community, education and empowerment. In a real dialog with the recidents and the beneficiaries, the priority might look different and all the interventions would, most likely, not be built. Even
or women and children
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a communitybuilding waste water plant
a canal leads purified water to play and garden
a square, between new and old - a negotiating space
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a communal kitchen in the gadern - meetingpoint
a pavillion - an intellectual meeting point
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though all of them, I believe, has a part to play in the process of making the people councious of the gender problematics. They range from a new impoved well, to a library, to a waste water treatment system built together, to a sanctuary for the women. Some relate to the city, like the cafe where women from the outside can mingle informally, others to the enclave inviting them to learn more.
thesis project read more on; kadk.dk/project/dismantling-veil programme; issuu.com/nicolailarasse/docs/program_for_issuu/1
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thesis project read more on; kadk.dk/project/dismantling-veil programme; issuu.com/nicolailarasse/docs/program_for_issuu/1
The bench, a social piece of furniture, is combined with small nisches, making rooms in rooms where people can meet. The small niesches are in a dialogue with the roof construction, anchoring columns holding the roof. The scale of the different nieches is a central theme in the project, building on the research of local spaces to create safe spots, spaces to inhabit, to take ownership of. nicolai larasse — larasse@gmail.ocm — +4529895549
The last intervention, a pavillion, is connecting the garden and the cafe and is ment as a sanctuary for women. The idea is that it should be a learning interface, wheather it is a garden related workshop strengthening the community or a lecture on business economy or a more sensitive subjects like sexual abuse, politics or alternative ideologies. Here, both women from the city and the enclave can learn enought to take a stand in their situation. nicolai larasse — larasse@gmail.ocm — +4529895549
thesis project read more on; kadk.dk/project/dismantling-veil programme; issuu.com/nicolailarasse/docs/program_for_issuu/1
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proposal for a festival installation;
time, transformation and mobility.
Competition; 120 houres, with Emil Jespersen and Åsmund Vinje. 2014
Making time visible. In this competition proposal for a Norwegian festival we worked with three layers of time. The time of the festival, the materials permanence and memory. Two mobile objects out of wood and several fixed concrete objects, at specific locations, enabled each other to create four different functions. After the festival only the abstract pliths remain - a ruin, a memory. nicolai larasse — larasse@gmail.ocm — +4529895549
Built from recycled material, we wanted to create a peacfull, filtered space with a solemn feeling. During the week it was going to be used for an intuitive clay workshop. The produced sculptures were exhibited within the structure. Before it was burnt a reflective memorial, with hundreds of ligths, was held, creating an extraordinary experiance for the participants. nicolai larasse — larasse@gmail.ocm — +4529895549
the final burn
winning proposal: a workshop space to be burnt at the end of The Borderland Festivalen, in collaboration with Julia Andersson och Kine Fagerheim, 2014
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residence and practice student project 8th semester
An introverted patio house. Dealing with the proximity of the public without compromising the safe haven of a home and a sensitive psychology practice. Challanging the plan with a minimal area, utilizing the patio as an extention enriching the rooms, letting the seasons be an internal part of the house. The rammed earth creates a solid shell with a rich thermal ability, further enhancing the sense of season, and the two sidedness. nicolai larasse — larasse@gmail.ocm — +4529895549
A phenomenological interpretation of the enterance of Sokullu Mehmet Pasa Camii, Istanbul. Photoshop collage.
nicolai larasse — larasse@gmail.ocm — +4529895549
study of a passage in istanbul 7th semmester
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1:1 conceptual object 7th semmester
In a workshop with architects and artists Ben&Sebastian, I developed this interactiv “window”, trying to refine the concept of a printing house project nestled in to a historic “Han” in Istanbul. By manipulating the frames and the edge, the perspective of the story is changed, seeing spaces in a new light. The object is 70 x 70 x 20 cm
nicolai larasse — larasse@gmail.ocm — +4529895549
At another workshop with Ben&Sebastian I developed a conceptual lock and key for for authors, researcher etc. at a long term residence hotel in Granada, Spain. The cane is part metaphorical, part hourglass, part key. It suggests a wanderers way to wisdom, it is a tool to keep track of work and rest, and the key to your room.
nicolai larasse — larasse@gmail.ocm — +4529895549
concept, key and lock 5th semmester
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the fragrant house
an apartment collective in Copenhagen 3rd semmester
To live together is to live in constant negotiation of space. The project explores how scents kan create connection, communication and privecy. The house consists of one collective space, a stairwell and three apartments with three private rooms each. To ensure the private scent/space, an open air lock disconnect the rooms sitting on a lowerd level from the shared apartment. nicolai larasse — larasse@gmail.ocm — +4529895549
On the ground floor behind a flower shop is a collective living and kitchen space. The core of the house, a stair well, connects the community space at the bottom with the tree apartments, whose baths and kitchenets all emit their scents into it. Always communicating the ongoing life in the collective space.
nicolai larasse — larasse@gmail.ocm — +4529895549
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theater for travelling ensambles bachelorproject
A small theatre next to the main train station in Copenhagen. Nestled in on a “nonsite”, between tracks and roads. The building is folding around programmes and in under a busy road. A mittigating body between infrastructure and city mass. Here traveling ensambles can easily access the complex with its hostel, rehersal areas and the stage, and venture out to discover the city. nicolai larasse — larasse@gmail.ocm — +4529895549
Inspired by how the foyer of the Paris opera acted as a stage, just as important for the fashionable as the real one for the ensamble. I fused the movement and the levels of the foyer with the rhythms of the city. Guests se a play of the ordinary on the trainstations platforms whereas the travelers see people dressed up for a play.
nicolai larasse — larasse@gmail.ocm — +4529895549
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The building is in constant negotiation with the city. Picking up the rhythm and direction of the crossties in its facades and divisions.
nicolai larasse — larasse@gmail.ocm — +4529895549
lodges
restaurant foyer / atrium
auditorium
stage
backstage
hostel rehearsal stage
public space / outdoor stage
The functions are connected in a row, interlocking to creat a logical flow. At the core is the rather compact auditorium and stage, disconnected by a void so that the audience can feel the transition from one reality of performance to another. The hostel can accommodate 12 gustes and is connected underground to the rest.
nicolai larasse — larasse@gmail.ocm — +4529895549
bachelorproject
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wind shelter, kongelunden 2nd semmester
Sketches for a wind shelter at the beach, outside of copenhagen. Investigating how to combine a pitched roof growing out of the landscape, ways to shelter it and a den protected from the winds.
nicolai larasse — larasse@gmail.ocm — +4529895549
Several meter high metal crosses , an abstraction of nature, protecting the building from the wind like reeds or a forrest. A space for school classes and hikers to rest, make a fire and enjoy the view as the sun sets over the sea.
nicolai larasse — larasse@gmail.ocm — +4529895549
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Collage of the shelter. Seen from the other side of an adjacent lagoon in Kongelunden outside of Copnehagen.
nicolai larasse — larasse@gmail.ocm — +4529895549
Nicolai Larasse
CV education The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture (KADK), Copenhagen 2013 - 2015 Masters of Arts (MA) in Architecture The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture (KADK), 2009 - 2012 BA. Arch Nyckelviksskolan - Art college, Design and Architecture Stockholm. Aug 2008 - May 2009
experience Research assistance for Niels Grønbæk at PA-CS, The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture (KADK), Dec 2015 Curator and producer of PA-CS (KADK) Exhibition; ‘Transforming Perspectives of Development’ in Chittagong, Bangladesh. Dec 2015 Internship at Lenschow & Pihlmann Competition development and representation. Nov 2015 Student worker at Park Arkitekter, Copenhagen. May og Jun 2014 Student worker at Rørbæk & Møller Arktitekter, Copenhagen. Jan - Apr 2014
language: Native: Swedish. Fluent in speach: English, German, Danish, Norwegian. Fluent in writing: English, German. Medium level writing: Danish. Basic level: Spanish. computer skills: Very good: Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, Rhinoceros, Autocad, Good: Revit, Sketch up, 3ds Max, MentalRay, Iray, V-Ray. Basic: ArchiCad, Grashopper, Premier Pro and more.
interests: Have fun. Learn somthing new. Discuss with friends. Read. Geek.
nicolai larasse — larasse@gmail.ocm — +4529895549
Intern at Arcasa Arkitekter AS, Oslo. Sep 2012 - Mar 2013 I also have experiance as a painter, carpenter, waiter, bartender and a salesman. published: Houzz.dk - thesis project July 2015 StudArch.dk - thesis project July 2015 Some projects outside of school: Exhibition / installation “The Music Genre Chairs” Copenhagen and Krabbesholm, Jun 2011 Interactiv dance and video installation -“Surroun- Movement” during Holmen Event, Copenhagen, April 2010 Labyrinth installation (350m2). As a part of the art collective Gula Faran, I designed and built it from recycled and donated material at the Arvika Festival, Juli 2009
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Nicolaia Johannes Larasse S t r a n d b o u l e v a r d e n 1 2 , 2. -1 2100 CopenhagenĂ˜ e-mail: l a r a s s e @ g m a i l . c o m tel: + 4 5 2 9 8 9 5 5 4 9
nicolai larasse — larasse@gmail.ocm — +4529895549