Danish architects take space and light approach

With a population of less than 6 million, Denmark is smaller than many Chinese cities. Yet the rapidly urbanising China needs what the Nordic nation understands so well: how to build sustainable cities.

It also has something China would love: the title of world’s most livable city, awarded to Copenhagen this year and last year by Monocle, the trendy global affairs magazine.

These two aspirations, which go hand in hand, have led Danish architecture firm Henning Larsen Architects to set up in Hong Kong.

The aim of the launch in March, said Mette Frandsen, the company’s chief executive, was to bring Scandinavian architecture to emerging cities across Asia – starting with China, where the company has been engaged in projects for a decade.

Many global architecture firms invoke sustainability these days, but Elva Tang, an architect and Henning Larsen’s Hong Kong general manager, says the Danish difference is that it is inherent. “The Danish model has always been sustainable because of the way they live. It’s a design approach quite different from other Western countries.”

Because of their climate, she says, the Danes start thinking about sustainability in a passive way – such as site orientation and a sensibility to light and space – at the very start of the process.