Bagsværd Church is a

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...

church in

Bagsværd Bagsværd () is a middle-class suburb located approximately 12 km northwest of central Copenhagen, in the Gladsaxe Municipality. The town center is recognizable by the Bagsværd Towers, two high-rise apartment blocks. The suburb is connected to t ...

on the northern outskirts of

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

, Denmark. Designed in 1968 by

Jørn Utzon Jørn Oberg Utzon, , Hon. FAIA (; 9 April 191829 November 2008) was a Danish architect. He was most notable for designing the Sydney Opera House in Australia, completed in 1973. When it was declared a World Heritage Site on 28 June 2007, Utzo ...

, it was completed in 1976.Balters , Sofia . "AD Classics: Bagsværd Church / Jørn Utzon" in ArchDaily, 12 Sep 2011
retrieved 15 September 2011 The building is considered to be a masterpiece of contemporary church architecture, especially its bright, naturally illuminated interior and its ceiling straddled with softly rounded vaulting."Bagsværd Kirke (1976)"
, ''Dansk Arkitektur Center''. Retrieved 15 September 2011.

History

In 1538, the church in Bagsværd was pulled down on the orders of the king so that the stones could be used to repair the old Catholic bishop's palace which, after the

Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

, was to be used as a

seminary A seminary, school of theology, theological seminary, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called ''seminarians'') in scripture, theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as clergy, ...

for the new

Lutheran Church Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...

. Thereafter, the parishioners had to use the church in

Gladsaxe Gladsaxe Kommune is a municipality (Danish, ''Commune (subnational entity), kommune'') near Copenhagen in Region Hovedstaden on the island of Zealand (Denmark), Zealand (''Sjælland'') in eastern Denmark. The municipality covers an area of , and ...

though there was increasing interest in building a new church in Bagsværd. It therefore came as no surprise that the congregational council took special interest in the church Utzon had included in a competition exhibit for the town centre in

Farum Farum is a town on the northeast of the island of Zealand in eastern Denmark, 20 km northwest of Copenhagen. The town has a population of 20,312 (1 January 2022).

when it was displayed in Gladsaxe at an architectural exhibition in 1967. When he was asked whether he would like to submit a proposal for a church at Bagsværd, Utzon was elated: "There I stood, and was offered the finest task an architect can have — a magnificent time when it was the light from above that showed us the way." The proposal he submitted the following year included four sketches: the first one showed a group of people under the clouds on a beach, the last one depicted the same people as a congregation in a church where the clouds had become the sculptural roof. They were intended to illustrate Utzon's understanding of the overall concept.There were a series of difficulties over the funding of the building which finally cost DKK 10 million after Utzon had reduced its size by 10 percent and the Gladsaxe municipality had contributed DKK 1 million. A building permit was granted in 1973 but, experiencing financial difficulties, the church ministry quickly attempted to halt construction. However, before their ruling came into force, the contractors

Christiani & Nielsen Christiani & Nielsen (Thai) Public Company Limited is a construction contractor with major operations in Thailand and Southeast Asia. Originally a Danish company, it is today a listed company majority owned by the GP Group. The company provides ...

established a presence on the site allowing work to begin. The new church was consecrated on 15 August 1976.Michael Asgaard Andersen, "Revisiting Utzon’s Bagsværd Church"
''Nordisk Arkitekturforskning''. 2005: 2, p. 95 et seq. Retrieved 16 September 2011.

Architecture

Located on a narrow plot in a suburban setting, the building itself is narrow, and has an austere façade which encloses the various rooms and a number of small courtyards. Surrounded by birch trees, the exterior walls are faced with white prefabricated concrete panels and white glazed tiles. The aluminium roof gives the church a rather industrial look. Glass sections provide lighting over the connecting corridors. Covering an area of 1,700 square meters, the tight geometrical plan consists of three sections and a courtyard between two parallel corridors.
''ArcSpace.com''. Retrieved 17 September 2011. The rectilinear, modular structure of the building and its integrated courtyards, as well as the connecting corridors, are said to be inspired by the design of

Buddhist temples A Buddhist temple or Buddhist monastery is the place of worship for Buddhists, the followers of Buddhism. They include the structures called vihara, chaitya, stupa, wat and pagoda in different regions and languages. Temples in Buddhism represent ...

in China.

The interior

The interior includes the nave and sacristy, offices, rooms for confirmation classes, a meeting room, and a whole section for youth activities. They are all linked by wide corridors which run both through the building and along the external walls where they are illuminated by skylights. The vaulted ceiling is made of reinforced

concrete shell A concrete shell, also commonly called thin shell concrete structure, is a structure composed of a relatively thin shell or shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses. The shells are most commonly monolithic dome ...

s, only 12 centimetres thick and spanning 17 metres.Bagsværd Church
, retrieved 15 September 2011 The curved cylindrical shells rest on flanges supported by rows of double columns which act as

flying buttress The flying buttress (''arc-boutant'', arch buttress) is a specific form of buttress composed of an arch that extends from the upper portion of a wall to a pier of great mass, in order to convey lateral forces to the ground that are necessary to pu ...

es.

Natural lighting

A notable feature of the church is the natural lighting, facilitated by the all-white interior. It is achieved by means of high lateral windows across the entire width of the nave or, in the case of the smaller rooms, through sidelights bringing daylight in from the courtyards. In addition, there are extensive skylights which, in Utzon's words, result from "the inspiration that I derived from the drifting clouds above the sea and the shore orminga wondrous space in which the light fell through the ceiling — the clouds — down on to the floor represented by the shore and the sea." Indeed, Utzon was inspired to design the church when he was lying on a Hawaii beach, shortly after his premature departure from Australia as a result of disagreements over the

Sydney Opera House The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in Sydney. Located on the foreshore of Sydney Harbour, it is widely regarded as one of the world's most famous and distinctive buildings and a masterpiece of 20th-century architec ...

. Contemplating a regular succession of cylindrical clouds, he concluded that they provided a perfect basis for modelling a church ceiling.

Inventory

Utzon himself designed the altar wall which consists of an airy triangular grid of thin white tiles, known as Flensborg bricks, while the church's colourful textiles, carpeting and ceramic decorations were designed by his daughter,

Lin Utzon Lin Utzon (born 21 May 1946) is a Danish designer who has created a wide variety of abstract decorative works from textiles to ceramics both in Denmark and abroad. Personal life and education Born on 21 May 1946 in the Frederiksberg district of C ...

. The organ, also designed by Jørn Utzon, was constructed in 1979 by Poul-Gerhard Andersen, with woodwork by Kurt Kærsgaard. The light pine pews as well as the church's concert piano, built by

Steingraeber & Söhne The Steingraeber Piano Manufactory (until 2022 Steingraeber & Söhne) is a major German manufacturer of Grand Piano, grand and Piano, upright pianos. The family business was founded 1852 in Bayreuth, where the instruments are still manufactured to ...

Bayreuth Bayreuth (, ; bar, Bareid) is a town in northern Bavaria, Germany, on the Red Main river in a valley between the Franconian Jura and the Fichtelgebirge Mountains. The town's roots date back to 1194. In the 21st century, it is the capital of U ...

, were also designed by Utzon."Koncerter"
, ''Bagsværd Krike''. Retrieved 17 September 2011. The church's four bells were designed by Thubalka in

Vejle Vejle () is a city in Denmark, in the southeast of the Jutland Peninsula at the head of Vejle Fjord, where the Vejle River and Grejs River and their valleys converge. It is the site of the councils of Vejle Municipality ('' kommune'') and the R ...

and cast at the

Royal Eijsbouts bell foundry Royal Eijsbouts ( nl, Koninklijke Eijsbouts) is a bell foundry located in Asten, Netherlands. The workshop was founded in 1872 by Bonaventura Eijsbouts as a "factory for tower clocks." In 1893 Eijsbouts was joined by his 15-year-old son, Johan ...

at Asten in the Netherlands.

Assessments

The architectural critic

Kenneth Frampton Kenneth Brian Frampton (born 20 November 1930) is a British architect, critic and historian. He is the Ware Professor of Architecture at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation at Columbia University, New York. He has be ...

considers Bagsværd Church an outstanding example of

critical regionalism Critical regionalism is an approach to architecture that strives to counter the placelessness and lack of identity of the International Style, but also rejects the whimsical individualism and ornamentation of Postmodern architecture. The stylings ...

owing to the synthesis it achieves between universal and regional cultures. He believes the design of the highly configurated concrete shell vault, unique in Western religious architecture, was inspired by the Chinese pagoda roof cited by Utzon in his essay "Platforms and Plateaus" (1963). Furthermore, the plan arrangement of the church's interior is reminiscent of Chinese Buddhist monasteries as described in a book by Johannes Prip-Møller. From the outside, constructed in reinforced concrete and aluminium with glass-covered sections, the building looks more like a factory than a traditional church but inside it offers an impressive combination of soft, rounded shapes and sharp edges. Writing in

Berlingske Tidende ''Berlingske'', previously known as ''Berlingske Tidende'' (, ''Berling's Times''), is a Danish national daily newspaper based in Copenhagen. It is considered a newspaper of record for Denmark. First published on 3 January 1749, ''Berlingske'' ...

on the occasion of the church's consecration, architectural correspondent Martin Hartung commented: "Bagsværd Church has turned into an architectonic attraction, an example of how Jørn Utzon can combine the technique and the art of building to form something transcending them both."

The church today

The church forms an active part of the local community. In addition to regular church services, there are frequent concerts thanks to the choirs (including a Gregorian male choir and various children's choirs), the organ and the concert piano. Some of the concerts are free, thanks to contributions from the church council, others with visiting musicians require tickets for entry. The church also hosts exhibitions of paintings and artwork."Udstillinger"
, ''Bagsværd Kirke''. Retrieved 17 September 2011. Bagsværd Church is open for tourist visits Tuesday to Friday at 10 to 14 o'clock and Sundays and public holidays at 12 to 16 o’clock. From April 1 to September 30 the church is also open on Saturdays from 12 to 16 o’clock - however, not during church services. The church is not open for tourist visits: Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Eve, New Year's Day and Good Friday , ''Bagsværd Kirke''. Retrieved 17 September 2011. File:Bagsværd Church.12.jpg, Austere outer walls File:Bagsværd Church interior July 2007.jpg, Church interior from ground level File:Bagsværd Church.10.jpg, Corridor with skylights File:Bagsværd.Kirke.jpg, Sacristy

References

External links

Official website

Michael Asgaard Andersen, "Revisiting Utzon’s Bagsværd Church"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bagsvaerd Church Churches in Gladsaxe Municipality Churches in the Diocese of Helsingør Concrete shell structures Churches completed in 1976 Jørn Utzon buildings in Denmark