birkedal – Møn’s round house. An interview with architect Jan Henrik Jansen

Based in Copen­hagen, he studied archi­tecture with URLAUBSARCHITEKTUR founder Jan Hamer, and Hansen’s house lan­ge­linie was a key pro­perty in the URLAUBSARCHITEKTUR launch in 2007. It was fol­lowed in 2008 by black+bright and now birkedal.

birkedal is round-shaped. However, this is not the only reason why the house is not easy to “decode” at first sight. The architect has invented, planned and built it single-han­dedly over a period of 5 years. Each cen­ti­metre of the building is the mate­ria­li­sation of his thoughts and con­cepts; each element was put in place by him. The house is complex, uncon­ven­tional and chal­lenging. It invites the viewer to sharpen his senses and to expe­rience it room by room.

Nine inter­linked cylind­rical struc­tures open out onto the land­scape through variously sized windows, framing the scenery and entering into dia­logue with the outside world. This trans­forms the house’s ope­nings into a stage for a natural drama to be expe­ri­enced by a con­tem­plative audience. The prot­ago­nists – the clouds, wildlife, trees and light – engage in an ongoing peaceful but powerful interplay with the building and its occu­pants.

birkedal is a vessel that draws in atmo­sphere, colours and shapes, cap­turing its sur­roun­dings like a telescope or a camera. As cosy as a snail’s shell or a favourite tailor-made garment, it expe­ri­ments with material pro­perties and surface tex­tures, with light and shade, with space and con­tents. And the inter­weaving of homely security and far-rea­ching views is mas­terfully achieved.

Interview with Jan Henrik Jansen about his newest house:

Jan Henrik, how does the fact that you are the owner and builder of your houses affect your role as architect? Have your ways of planning, thinking and designing as an architect changed since you became a pro­perty deve­loper and have been building houses for yourself?

“I have taken on a wide range of roles for my own pro­jects: obviously deve­loper and architect, but also building con­tractor, site manager, con­crete worker, tiler, joiner, car­penter, deco­rator, gar­dener and many more.
On the one hand this may seem arrogant, unrea­listic and une­co­nomic – the ultimate (ego­tis­tical) result of my long­standing desire to be a gene­ralist, but on the other hand I’m gaining a whole lot of expe­rience from each of these roles, which will be inva­luable to me in my work as an architect when I’m dealing with all the people who carry out these roles in my pro­jects.
On the face of it, one would expect all these expe­ri­ences to make me a prac­tical prag­matist, but I think the opposite is more true – I use these expe­ri­ences and inside know­ledge of the indi­vidual roles to “achieve the impos­sible”. And it is my aim to find pro­perty owners who want this very “product”. The way ahead won’t be easy…”

You told me earlier that birkedal is rooted in various con­cepts and that during con­s­truction you underwent a kind of learning process. What are these con­cepts? What did birkedal teach you?

“That’s right. There’s no single reason why the birkedal house looks like it does, but a whole range of reasons, ideas and inspi­ra­tions that have led to this outcome.
The first of these is the nature of the location/plot. The topo­graphy, which slopes away from the plot out towards the view over the neigh­bouring meadows and woodland, gave rise to the dif­fe­rences in the heights of the rooms. The con­cealed location of the plot, away from the road and the adjacent birch woods, trig­gered the idea of a clearing in the birch trees in which the house and sauna building, with their façades clad in small spruce trunks mimi­cking the sur­rounding forest, are hidden away.This is what lies behind the evo­cative name “birkedal” — which means “birch valley”, and is also the surname of my partner and our children. The poor soil con­di­tions of this former marshland sug­gested dividing the house into several units that can move inde­pendently of one another.

Secondly there is the element of childhood fantasy. The ideas for the new house were arising at around the time our daughter Alva was born. Her arrival brought sub­stantial and lasting changes to our lives, and gave us the idea not only of dedi­cating the house to her, but also of allowing its form to be inspired by this new world of childhood we had become part of. Alva also has this secret room in the house, which remains con­cealed from most visitors – at least, none of the guests to date has asked about it…

Thirdly there is the expe­ri­mental side. Having built two pre­vious holiday homes with the same com­bi­nation of per­sonal roles, the expe­rience of wearing several hats was in itself no longer a problem. This led to the idea of trying out a new building design (which came from myself in every way): this time all the rooms were to be round. But how could a whole sequence of cir­cular rooms be com­bined? How were they to be con­s­tructed? Sur­faces, mate­rials, fur­niture, details? The indi­vidual cylind­rical rooms were con­ceived as con­tainers, like “cocoons”, that combine cosiness with expansive views over the land­scape, with the white canvas of the cocoons filled by the colours and images of the sur­rounding land­scape. It pro­vided a wide stage for expe­ri­men­tation on all levels, which will cer­tainly be laid down as sedi­ments in the bedrock of my future pro­jects for clients.”

You’ve just spent holidays in birkedal yourself. Has this changed the way you look at the house?

“Living in the com­pleted house has brought with it a whole range of new expe­ri­ences, alt­hough in my capacity as “con­s­truction worker” I have lived in and used the unfi­nished building for several years. But now it has become more than a focal point, no longer merely a matter of seeing and pro­ducing, or car­rying out general tests.

Now we have lived in the house and its sur­roun­dings as a family and spent a lot of time on site. We have explored the area around the house, in tune with the sun and wind, and have tried out the best spots for breakfast and dinner in the sun and lunch in the shade. We have dis­co­vered that the house func­tions equally well for con­tem­plative rela­xation and for family life – both new uses to us.

Inte­res­t­ingly, it doesn’t feel like a house – not a mere pro­perty con­sisting of dif­ferent rooms made to receive fur­niture, not a pro­perty that is then popu­lated. It is more as though we have expe­ri­enced this house as a piece of fur­niture or a garment – imme­diate, all-encom­passing, tailor-made. Some­thing that works well. And both the children now like it better than the familiar black+bright house nearby… At the same time, our stay has given us new inspi­ration for the future deve­lo­pment of this location, as it was never intended as a com­plete site, but will be deve­loped further and “allowed to grow up” over the years. This is the oppor­tunity offered by the unique com­bi­nation of the per­sonal roles of owner, architect and builder. I intend to make the most of the oppor­tunity and ensure that it auto­ma­ti­cally influences all my future pro­jects for my clients.”

You have built three holiday homes on Møn: Lan­ge­linie, Black+Bright and Birkedal. Is there a common thread?

“At first glance, the three houses are so dif­ferent that architect col­le­agues have com­mented that they find it rather uncanny, as though there must be some kind of archi­tec­tural mul­tiple per­so­nality at play. But once you get to know the houses more closely and inhabit them, the details clearly reveal the uni­fying thread that binds these three houses despite all their dif­fe­rences. It’s not a matter of pro­ducing as many houses as pos­sible on some pro­duction line – pro­fes­sional tradesmen could do that much quicker. It was more a matter of exploring the new ter­ritory of expe­ri­menting at one’s own risk and expense. The suc­cessful aspects can then be incor­po­rated as tried-and-tested solu­tions into pro­jects for my clients. Or maybe those sharp-tongued observers who spoke of “building therapy” were right?”

Birkedal and Møn? How important is the desti­nation?

“The island is a very inte­resting place. After all, you don’t spend your whole holiday in the birkedal house, but “expe­rience the island”, alt­hough Urlaubs­ar­chi­tektur guests are special in my expe­rience – they travel the world house by house, always on the lookout for “safe havens” for people who feel that run-of-the-mill holiday pro­perties don’t give them a true holiday expe­rience. A large per­centage of my guests have never been to Denmark before, let alone the island of Møn, and it is fair to say they haven’t actually chosen it as a desti­nation. The country and the island are part of a package that comes with the house.

This means that most Urlaubs­ar­chi­tektur guests spend a lot of time in and around the house. But not because they are boring – on the con­trary. I find these visitors to be very active people with active inte­rests, who have tra­velled the world and also have very active everyday lives. It is as a necessary con­trast to this that these people seek out their “safe havens”. A cocoon where they can slow down, unwind and relax. And at the end of their stay, the broad, har­mo­nious but ulti­m­ately unspec­ta­cular views, with glimpses of deer, hares and foxes, are the most talked-about aspect in the visitors’ book. The house, the island and the local envi­ronment are ideal to meet their needs. There are few local sights that you abso­lutely have to see and “tick off”, but on the other hand, the island offers innu­me­rable oppor­tu­nities for lei­surely acti­vities to suit all ages. And if after a few days you’re ready to refresh your appetite for city life, many visitors take a day trip to nearby Copen­hagen – before returning to unwind back on Møn. This is what makes Møn one of Denmark’s favourite islands…”

Text: Britta Krämer, August 2016

Pic­tures: Jan Henrik Jansen, Lene K Foto­grafie

The houses

Holiday home Birkedal

Holiday home Birkedal

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The archi­tecture of house Birkedal is as poetic as its name. Inspired by child­ren’s fantasy worlds, the cottage on the Danish island of Møn con­sists exclu­sively of cir­cular spaces.

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Holiday home black+bright

Holiday home black+bright

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On the Danish island of Møn in the midst of wild meadows and pas­tures, the con­sis­t­ently modern house Black+Bright skillfully plays with con­trasts and rests above all in itself.

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