Halldor Gunnløgsson
The architect Halldor Gunnløgsson's own house from 1958, is one the period's most refined and consistent expressions of a modern single-family house.
Distilled to its essence, the house is built on an beachfront property in Northern Zealand Denmark. The Japanese-inspired simplicity, functionality and aesthetics is displayed to its
full extent, with no superfluous ornamentation or decoration.
Trained in the late 1930s at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, Halldor Gunnløgsson became one of the most respected Danish mid-century architects.
Gunnløgsson was known for his great intellectual endeavors and eagerly participated in current academic debates. In his early years, he was very inspired by his Swedish colleague Erik Gunnar Asplund's works with rigorous lines and high quality materials. In 1942 and a few years later he worked with Jørn Utzon in Stockholm for the architect Hakon Ahlberg.
His own house is simplified to perfection in both construction and interior design. It is a consistent and refined expression of Gunnløgsson's talent and at the same time reflects the architect's position and inspiration from both Japan and the North America.
The house is constructed as a wood house having only the end walls made as a masonry wall. The purity of the architecture and the interaction between the outside and the inside, that the building's transparent glass walls create, was enough in itself. All materials have been selected and handled beautifully, including the black-stained finely sanded mahogany walls, pine ceilings and a translucent gray-blue marble floor. The woodwork in the house is painted black with the exception of the two sliding walls, that can open or close to the kitchen and bedroom, which are kept in a bluish hue to emphasize their function. Gunnløgsson lets the spaces flow together and gives the function free play. Only the front door and the bathroom door are allowed to determine a degree of privacy.
The house is spartan decorated and contains only very little furniture, all designed by their friend and famous designer Poul Kjaerholm. The large windows let the surroundings interact unobtrusively with the house. The everchanging ocean forms a scenic backdrop to one side of the house, while a lush garden of grass and shrubs characterizes the other. The light and atmosphere of the house changes with the weather, the seasons and times of the day. Halldor Gunnløgsson designed and builded the house with the intention that it should form the basis of him and his wife’s life for the next several years. They got 25 years together in the house. Halldor died in 1985, but Lillemor Gunnløgsson continues til live in the beautiful house that emanate the spirit of her husband and this timeless architectural style.
