Scan Magazine | Special Theme | Nordic Architecture & Design Special – Denmark
Entasis’ master plan for the old Carlsberg Brewery was awarded the prize for the Best Masterplan World Wide at the World Architecture Festival (WAF) in Barcelona.
A small special unit Providing master plans, construction designs, landscape architecture, and financial and political analysis, the 20 employees of Entasis Architects wear many hats. Christian Cold, director and co-founder of the firm, tells Scan Magazine why his firm, despite its success, has chosen to remain and work as a small multidisciplinary unit rather than expand in size. By Signe Hansen | Photos: Entasis
When Entasis sent in their master plan for a new Copenhagen district on the old grounds of the Carlsberg Brewery, they were not alone; 218 other architect firms from 35 countries also had their hopes set on the project. Nonetheless, it was the small Danish company that won the job. The project took the firm to another level but, despite specialising in construction and landscape architecture as well as master plans, the firm has managed to retain its tightly knit company structure. “The prestige and scale of the Carlsberg master plan elevated us to an international level and, after two very busy years, we managed to expand 44 | Issue 105 | October 2017
our areas of expertise without expanding our firm. Today, we are 20 architects and landscape architects who manage everything, big and small projects, and that has enabled us to retain our integrity as a small special unit,” Cold explains. The prestigious win was followed by several first-prize city plans, and the firm is currently in the middle of a huge project to restructure, heal, and reconnect the heart of Odense.
Breaking conventions to create cities One of the defining characteristics of the Carlsberg master plan was that it discarded several preconceived architectur-
al standards and struck up a new tone in the design of urban spaces. Instead of the large open spaces that then characterised most new residential neighbourhoods, Entasis created a modern, dense, green city structure, giving a revival to the city as we know it with small plazas, towers, narrow streets, backyards and numerous townhouses. “In reality, the Carlsberg project was the first time in around 100 years that, politically and architecturally, it was accepted that if you want to create a real city, building a bunch of separate blocks in a field is not the way. It might give people more space and air, but it will not give them the feeling of living in a city,” stresses Cold. Entasis’ ability to create connected urban spaces is currently being fully utilised in a major city restructuring project in Odense, Denmark’s third-largest city. The Thomas B Thriges Gade project is going to reconnect the city previously cut through