DAMPA_75_years_of_quiet_design_ENG - Flipbook - Page 16
From the buildings of the classical world to those of the
Modern Movement, architects have concerned themselves
with the ordering of space and structure. Modern architects
sought to evolve buildings that would be responsive to the
complexities of modern-day technological, operational and
social requirements. This meant superseding the design of
symmetrical facades with the content fitted behind as best
possible with an abstract formalism through which the
structure, walls and floors would be dissociated and would
be read as a series of vertical and horizontal planes.
Notwithstanding this great development, many observers of
buildings over the course of the ensuing century have continued to privilege their external facades in the hierarchy of
importance. For the occupiers and users of large modern
buildings with open-plan spaces, however, it is the horizontal planes created by floors and ceilings that often make the
most significant visual and acoustic impressions.
Grids and modules enable the built environment to be
ordered and in modern buildings, it is the proportioning,
delineation, materiality and detailing of the surfaces and
joints that usually make the greatest perceptual difference,
separating edifices that have achieved critical acclaim from
those that are considered unexceptional.
For three quarters of a century, the installation of DAMPA
ceilings has assisted in lending dignity to workaday spaces
and extra aura to prestigious public and commercial premises alike. Fitted within the accommodation of ferries, cruise
ships and cargo vessels, DAMPA ceilings have brought
crispness and elegance to marine interiors, enabling easy
maintenance access to hidden servicing and contributing to
safe, fireproof travel environments.
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As with the early products of another global Danish brand,
LEGO, the initial concept for what would become DAMPA
acoustic ceilings originated in experiments using wood
before different and more suitable materials were substituted. Timber was among Denmark’s small palette of readily
available natural resources for building and making – others
being clay for bricks and tiles and straw for thatch.
Consequently, in practically every village and town, there
were skilled craft joinery workshops. The pioneering Danish
modern architect and educator Kay Fisker – who in his role
of Professor at the Royal Academy’s School of Architecture
taught the generation of Danish architects who became
internationally acclaimed in the post-war decades – wrote of
there being a ‘functional tradition’ in Danish building, linking
the vernacular with the modern. Indeed, architecture old
and new was a process through which, according to Fisker,
nature was transformed into culture.
The ceiling soffits in timber-framed vernacular buildings
were often finished with wooden panels set in strapwork, or
with slim strips of match-boarding attached to the underside of the beams, resulting in neatly ribbed finishes that
could be varnished or painted. DAMPA’s ceiling panels
serve a similar purpose and result in comparable effects in
modern-day buildings and ship interiors.
