Henning Larsen Architects


Henning Larsen Architects is an international architectural firm based in Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1959 by noted Danish architect and namesake Henning Larsen, it has around 300 employees. In 2011, the company worked on projects in more than 20 countries.
In 2008, it opened an office in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and in 2011, an office in Munich, Germany were inaugurated. The company also have offices in Oslo, Norway, in the Faroe Islands, and in Hong Kong, China.
It is known for its cultural and educational projects. Among them Harpa Concert Hall and Conference Centre in Reykjavík that was selected as one of the ten best concert halls in the world by the British magazine Gramophone and won the Mies van der Rohe Award 2013, the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture. It also designed the Copenhagen Opera.

History

After having worked both for Arne Jacobsen and Jørn Utzon, Henning Larsen founded Henning Larsens Tegnestue in 1959. With firm roots in Scandinavian design tradition, the office grew to one of the largest in Denmark. The first major project outside Scandinavia was the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Riyadh, establishing the firm's international reputation.
In the 1980s, Larsen initiated the architectural journal SKALA and an architectural gallery of the same name. As a professor in the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Larsen had invited international architects, who were interviewed in SKALA, to give lectures in the academy. This came to have a great influence on the new generation of Danish architects who acquired a much greater international vision than previously. The journal existed for 10 years.

Ownership and management

Today, Henning Larsen Architects is owned by a group of partners. The partner group consists of Mette Kynne Frandsen, Louis Becker, Werner Frosch, Viggo Haremst, Signe Kongebro, Jacob Kurek, Kasper Kyndesen, Nina La Cour Sell, Ingela Larsson, Sarah Müllertz Gudiksen, Lars Steffensen, Jakob Strømann-Andersen, Michael Sørensen, Peer Teglgaard Jeppesen, Søren Øllgaard, Osbjørn Jacobsen, Claude Bøjer Godefroy, Elva Tang, Aljohara Al-Saud.

Research and sustainability

Henning Larsen Architects has its own Department of Research and Sustainability run by Signe Kongebro and Jakob Strømann-Andersen. The department takes actively part in climate and sustainability discussions and develops different design tools based on the newest knowledge within the field.
It has employed several PhD-students from the Technical University of Denmark, who work with different projects related to sustainable design. The aim of the collaboration is to implement sustainability in the building design and building components at the very beginning of each project.

Selected projects

Completed