Henning Larsen

Extreme urban heat now affects 25% of the world's population, with low-income and marginalized communities disproportionately impacted. Addressing the challenges of rising urban heat, in the quest for a climate-resilient world, we must ensure climate justice; creating solutions that benefit everyone, especially those most vulnerable. Earlier this year, during #ClimateWeekNYC, our Global Head of Sustainability, Kritika Kharbanda, dove deeper into the topic, exploring the development of the KlimaKover prototype - a low-cost, accessible cooling solution - created in collaboration with Ramboll and the University of Pennsylvania as well as the research of our industrial PhD student, Gulin Yazicioglu. “To truly build a climate-resilient world, we must address climate justice, ensuring that solutions benefit everyone, especially those most vulnerable." Looking for something to read this holiday break? Find Kritika’s piece here https://hnglr.sn/4gCsGKO. Illustration by Pawel Floryn.

What would our urban spaces look like if we listened to girls and young women? We are revisiting one of your favorite posts from 2024. This past International Women's Day, we tuned in to the perspective of teenage girls. Urban Minded is a research project at Henning Larsen considering how urban design impacts the health and wellbeing of this chronically neglected group. There is a pressing need for the design industry to better accommodate the diverse needs of its users, providing spaces where everyone can thrive. The research project has set out to address these issues, envisioning a future that prioritizes the well-being and empowerment of young women. Urban Minded seeks to challenge and diversify the narratives about teenage girls. Rather than generalizing their needs, attention was turned to their rich and nuanced lived experiences. As a result, the team has created two open-source guides containing principles for design as well as methodology surrounding participation processes for designing urban spaces with the well-being of teenage girls in mind. A special thank you to our partners The National Institute of Public Health (Denmark), Syddansk Universitet - University of Southern Denmark, and our supporters the Ramboll Foundation. Find all the details here https://hnglr.sn/4ciYz9t. Illustrations by Paweł Floryn.

Moving an entire city three kilometers calls for a new, extraordinarily welcoming city center, a gathering point that fosters community and signals a new beginning. Located 95 miles north of the Arctic Circle, the Swedish town of Kiruna has relocated due to a century of mining operations that began to destabilize the earth around it. The town, which started resettling in 2007, was named the EU's European Capital of Culture for 2029—a significant achievement for a community preserving and rebuilding its cultural identity. Demolishing the old Kiruna and moving residents to a fresh city center uprooted generations of local heritage, interrupting tight-knit neighborhoods and erasing multigenerational family stores. The relocation was a challenge of identity, exposing the relationship between architecture and community. The citizens of Kiruna have embraced Kristallen, ‘The Crystal,’ as their new town hall, not only as a visual re-imagining of the town but a physical continuation of its history. The building draws inspiration from the city’s culture and history through the crystalline roof structure, while also implementing design features from Kiruna's former city hall ─ a unique work of architecture from 1958 designed by Artur von Schmalensee. The new city hall makes reference to the historical hall by incorporating its bell tower as well as selected materials and building components. The circular form symbolizes unity and solidarity: centrally located in the heart of new Kiruna, the building encourages equal access to all citizens. In the subarctic sunlight, Kristallen’s white exterior establishes it as a visible landmark for a resilient community. Completed in 2018, the project is in collaboration with Kiruna Municipality, LKAB, Temagruppen Sverige AB, WSP, and UiWE Culture Design. Read more here https://hnglr.sn/4gh4rkU. Photos by HuftonandCrow.

Our masterplan design for Gdańsk Imperial Shipyard is one step closer to realisation! After two award-winning revitalizations of historic buildings, embraced by the Gdańsk community, the Imperial Shipyard is beginning a new chapter rooted in the area's rich history. The first phase of residential development in the Stocznia Cesarska Development project, designed by Roark Studio, has secured investment. Creating a vibrant new neighborhood in a storied shipyard, our masterplan design for Gdańsk Imperial Shipyard includes a park, dock, and plaza area where historic and personal connection lays the groundwork for renewed life on the city's waterfront. Located in the Polish city of Gdańsk, the former industrial site was central to the nation’s economic growth as a key shipbuilding center on the Baltic Coast. Our winning design for the 40,000 m² project reimagines the shipyard as a vibrant, mixed-use neighborhood that continues the city’s rich timeline rather than creating a new one. The development is defined by three urban spaces: the plaza, the park, and the dock. Historic elements like dockworkers’ courtyard gardens, now small parks, and the industrial dock, repurposed as public waterfront access, blend into the new vision, ensuring the past remains an integral part of the neighborhood’s future. Together with the Ramboll foundation, CoopTech Hub, and Stocznia Cesarska Development, we are working to implement the Edible cities concept in the area. The initiative relies on the framework of Ecopolis – a vision of a resilient city built on local cooperative businesses, close-knit community, food sovereignty, and nature-based solutions. The masterplan was established in collaboration with A2P2 architecture & planning and BBGK Architekci. The owner of the project is Stocznia Cesarska Development, and an SPV was created jointly by Revive and Alides. Find all the details here https://hnglr.sn/3B3L9jR. Images by Vivid-Vision.

Tune in to the first edition of our newsletter, Future Forms! As we wrap up the year, we're reflecting on the insights we have gained and what we aim to carry with us into the year ahead. It has been a significant year for many, and as global challenges continue to mount, we are keeping optimism close, focusing on tangible solutions. We are not driven by trends; instead, we are committed to long-term, data-driven processes that create meaningful and localized impact. Here are some interviews, op-eds, and research projects published in 2024 that we think are worth revisiting. Be sure to subscribe to Future Forms, our curated roundup of recent insights that explore how design can not only anticipate the future but actively shape it.

Changing our Footprint has made its way to World of Volvo in Gothenburg, Sweden. Designed to spark conversation around the building industry’s environmental impact, this edition of Changing our Footprint is rooted in our partnership with Volvo, a brand synonymous with innovation. Previously in Berlin, Hamburg and Copenhagen, the exhibition addresses the construction industry’s responsibility to improve practices, meeting the needs of people while keeping the environment at the core of our design principles. Showcased at the World of Volvo, the exhibition highlights our collaboration on the design of the experience center, emphasizing the use of wood and the scaling up of alternative materials. The projects, materials, and exhibits represent the efforts of our studio and the steps we’ve taken with our clients towards a desirable future through research, testing, and continuous learning. World of Volvo spans 22,000 m2 featuring timber as the main structural element, reflecting the local landscape. The structure is designed around the Swedish concept of “Allemansrätten”, the right to roam and experience the outdoors. Changing our Footprint will be on display at World of Volvo from December 6th, 2024, to February 28th, 2025. Learn more here https://hnglr.sn/3VDjA7N. Photos by World of Volvo and Rasmus Hjortshøj.

Are ancient building materials making a comeback? Fast Company thinks so, and so do we. The magazine recently highlighted Feldballe School for our use of biogenic elements as a low-carbon construction alternative. We turned to a seemingly unlikely choice of materials—wood, seagrass, and straw—that have been used for centuries. Locally sourced, natural, and bio-based, they have proven themselves viable alternatives to conventional options like concrete, bricks, and steel. In selecting materials that naturally absorb and store CO2 in the carbon cycle we successfully designed a structure composed of carbon sequestering elements. Partnering with EcoCocon, a small business headquartered in Slovakia, we integrated their pioneering panel system of compressed straw in wooden cassettes as the primary element within our design for the Danish school. Special thanks to Realdania and EcoCocon for the support and partnership on this project. Read Fast Company's full article here https://hnglr.sn/3BphUrH. For all the details on Feldballe School https://hnglr.sn/4bK7znm. Images by Rasmus Hjortshøj.

How can the design of academic spaces contribute to the wellbeing of students, teachers, and the larger community? Through in-depth fieldwork, interviews, and workshops, we engaged a diverse range of perspectives to guide the design of the University of the Faroe Islands' new community building. To accomplish this, we took Urban Minded - our social research project - to the campus setting, adapting the framework on campus to establish a process-driven and impact-focused process. This approach began with defining key challenges and desired user experiences, then identifying ways to create meaningful impact through spatial recommendations as well as recommendations that look at the future culture and activation of the building. Read more about the project here https://hnglr.sn/3VmD3d2. Illustration by Paweł Floryn.

As Copenhagen’s Refshaleøen district evolves into a dynamic cultural hub, a critical question arises: How can we propel development without compromising the area's distinctive creative spirit? In response to this challenge, we embarked on a journey into the realm of big data to shape a new urban design methodology. Our proposal celebrates the district’s character, uniting urban nature and local communities, by unlocking the potential of big data and AI technology to inform and qualify the design drivers for developing the district without losing its creative edge. Collaborating with Aalborg Universitet and Ramboll Management Consulting on the Ideas Competition for Refshaleøen, we gathered evidence from various sources, including big data, geo-social insights, biodiversity metrics, existing building stock, and calculations derived from our Urban Decarb tool. Our rich and multifaceted dataset included 35,000 Instagram posts posted on Refshaleøen between 2012 and 2023, over 300,000 Facebook posts, 150,000 events in Copenhagen, and engagement from 600,000 unique, anonymous Facebook users. Through this analysis, our Urban Impact team have identified a range of new design drivers to shape the future development of Refshaleøen. “When it comes to AI, we have to be curious and we have to take the time to understand it. You can only do that by really delving into the complexity and ethics behind the technology,” Jakob Strømann-Andersen, Director of Innovation and Sustainability, recently told Byrummonitor. Thank you to By & Havn and Refshaleøens Ejendomsselskab for the opportunity to envision what's next for Refshaleøen. In collaboration with ADEPT, Ramboll, Atelier Loidl Landschaftsarchitekten Berlin GmbH, VOLCANO, BC architects & studies, and PlanScape. Delve into all the details: https://hnglr.sn/3VxpKH4 Find the full interview: https://hnglr.sn/4intdkJ. Visuals generated from our insights using Midjourney to show what the proposed future could look like.

Meet Senior Project Manager, Lillian Lotsberg. Lillian is an architect and project manager. Over the course of many years, she’s contributed to the design of the city she both works and lives in, Bergen, on the breathtaking western fjords of Norway. "It’s exciting and invigorating to work at a studio where innovation thrives and where we strive to create spaces that shape experiences and influence lives." Learn more about Lillian's journey here https://hnglr.sn/3CWCoZk.