Glimpses from other worlds: The Tinghøj Water Reservoir

Once again on the virtual pages of this Blog, we are going somehow to talk about science-fiction. But this is not completely our fault. Concrete architecture, modernism, and, in a peculiar way, brutalism surely poses some fascinating possibilities concerning “futuristic” designs.

Probably, this is also the case of the Tinghøj Water Reservoir, a water collection and reservoir system located in Denmark. Undoubtedly, pictures speak for us but what’s really interesting in this complex is the absolutely astonishing vision behind the realization of it.

© Helene Hoyer Mikkelsen | Instagram via InnovaConcrete 100fomthe20th

Tinghøj Water Reservoir, which was built in the period 1931-35, is Denmark’s largest water plant, located on Vandtårnsvej in Gladsaxe. It consists of 10 water tanks and 20 descent towers and was protected in 1999.

The decision of protecting these buildings complex was a wonderful idea. It helped the conservation and made these buildings still examinable in all of their parts.

The reason for the protection is the architectural and cultural-historical values ​​in the facility, where the individual buildings have each been given their architectural expression with many finely thought out and executed details. Especially the refined fall towers with the elegant juxtaposition of concrete, copper and steel that have resulted in the special architectural expression – executed by architect Ib Lunding.

© Helene Hoyer Mikkelsen | Instagram via InnovaConcrete 100fomthe20th

Lunding graduated as an architect from the School of Architecture in 1925 and worked in the Department of the City Architect but also had a private practice. Although his apartment buildings have many of the hallmarks or use the elements and architectural vocabulary of Functionalism his buildings also have a distinct sense of quirkiness. Perhaps this is why the Tinghøj Water Reservoir reminds something coming from another world with its ovoidal buildings resembling space pods or little colonization structures.

The Danish architect was remarkable for his extraordinary versatility. He was a jewelery and furniture designer and developed a well-known urban streetcar system. He published a number of books and worked as a municipal architect for the city of Copenhagen for more than 40 years. From the city council, he defended modernization and the identification of public architecture and design with functionalism and rationalism.

© Helene Hoyer Mikkelsen | Instagram via InnovaConcrete 100fomthe20th

In the early 1930s, Lunding drew up the plans for the underground reservoir system that supplies water to the city of Copenhagen. Construction went on for several decades until the ten reservoirs that still exist today were completed.

Even if this urban infrastructure was largely underground, Lunding approached the project with care, globally and in the details, in the visible aspects and in the parts that would remain hidden. The design drawings are precise in their attention to the architectural details but also in the design of valves and pipe systems, and they stand out as a beautiful example of functionalism.

When construction on the reservoir began, the use of reinforced concrete in Denmark was restricted by law to industrial architecture. Lunding took advantage of the situation as an opportunity to exhibit the material’s expressive possibilities. A beautiful example of the refinement in the details can be seen in the access points: small parabolic domes that combine concrete, steel and copper, which periodically dot the enormous surface of the Tinghøj reservoir.

© Helene Hoyer Mikkelsen | Instagram via InnovaConcrete 100fomthe20th

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