Sophus Frederik Kühnel (11 May 1851 – 13 October 1930) was a Danish

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

best known for his design of Mejlborg and a number of other buildings in

Aarhus Aarhus (, , ; officially spelled Århus from 1948 until 1 January 2011) is the second-largest city in Denmark and the seat of Aarhus Municipality. It is located on the eastern shore of Jutland in the Kattegat sea and approximately northwes ...

Biography

Kühnel was born in Sæby, Denmark. He was the son of parish priest Theodor Sextus Kühnel and Betzy Larsen. He moved to

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 ...

to study at the

Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts ( da, Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi - Billedkunst Skolerne) has provided education in the arts for more than 250 years, playing its part in the development of the art of Denmark. History The Royal Dan ...

. Upon graduation he found employment with

Vilhelm Dahlerup Jens Vilhelm Dahlerup (4 August 1836 – 24 January 1907) was a Danish architect who specialized in the Historicist style. One of the most productive and noted Danish architects of the 19th century, he is behind many of the most known buildings a ...

and

Ferdinand Meldahl Ferdinand Meldahl (16 March 1827 – 3 February 1908) was a Danish architect best known for the reconstruction of Frederiksborg Castle after the fire in 1859. Meldahl was one of the leading proponents of historicism in Denmark. Biography He wa ...

in Copenhagen. In the 1880s Kühnel moved to Aarhus to work as inspector for

Vilhelm Theodor Walther Vilhelm Theodor Walther (13 November 1819 – 28 August 1892) was a Danish architect and Royal Building Inspector for Jutland. He was born in Kongens Lyngby, Denmark and died in Aarhus. He was twice awarded the Academy's Neuhausen Prize (''Neu ...

on the restoration of

Aarhus Cathedral Aarhus Cathedral ( da, Århus Domkirke) is a cathedral in Aarhus, Denmark. It is the longest and tallest church in the country, at in length and in height. The construction of Aarhus Cathedral began in the 12th century and it is the main edific ...

. Kühnel stayed in

and was responsible for a number of notable structures there. His work is

historicist Historicism is an approach to explaining the existence of phenomena, especially social and cultural practices (including ideas and beliefs), by studying their history, that is, by studying the process by which they came about. The term is widely u ...

often inspired by

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass id ...

and

Gothic Architecture Gothic architecture (or pointed architecture) is an architectural style that was prevalent in Europe from the late 12th to the 16th century, during the High and Late Middle Ages, surviving into the 17th and 18th centuries in some areas. I ...

. The Business- and Agricultural Bank of Jutland building utilizes a style inspired by Italian architecture and the richly decorated Mejlborg is a mix of Gothic and Renaissance architecture. Kühnel worked on the National Exhibition of 1909 where he helped move an old building from 1596 to the historic section of the exhibit. The old buildings displayed there became the later Old Town Museum partly on the initiative of Kühnel. He worked for the museum for many years and orchestrated the relocation of several old buildings to the museum.

Selected works

* Ny Munkegade's School (1894) * Langelandsgade Barracks (1889) * Mejlborg (1898) * Business- and Agricultural Bank of Jutland (1900) * Kasino-Teatret (1900) * Aarhus Fire Station (1904) * Villa Alba (1904), Chr. Filtenborgs Plads

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kuhnel, Sophus Frederik 1851 births 1930 deaths People from Frederikshavn Municipality Danish architects Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts alumni