DAMPA_75_years_of_quiet_design_ENG - Flipbook - Page 56
In the meantime, acquaintances made there led to a lucrative contract in 1955 to supply Dæmpa hardboard panels to
clad the many square metres of ceilings within a large seven-storey extension to the Copenhagen Military Hospital. Its
planning had begun in 1950, but there then were several
changes of architect, presumably because the hierarchical
and bureaucratic culture within the armed forces made
them very challenging clients. The initial planning was by
Jean Deleuran, who was briefly superseded by Arne Jacobsen before he too withdrew, leaving a youthful architect
recently employed in Forsvarets Bygningstjeneste, Jørgen
Selchau, to carry out most of the designing and oversee the
hospital’s completion.
Selchau was concerned that, as patients would be lying in
bed looking upward at the ceilings, the perforation in the
panels should be of a very subtle grade to avoid the temptation of counting them and becoming mesmerised. As it
proved challenging to meet the desired specification, this
became another argument in favour of the development of
metal panels, into which a very precise pattern of tiny holes
could be drilled. Selchau thereafter went on to specialise in
designing large hospitals for civilian use.
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In combination with the Dæmpa panels, lightweight and
demountable partition walls of a remarkably soundproof
design were to be installed between the wards. Made by
Dansk Gipsindustri, they comprised two layers of timber
cement with a gypsum core and, notwithstanding these
cheap and simple ingredients, were able to deaden sounds
of up to 48 decibels. Det Fyenske Trælastkompagni’s directors were sufficiently impressed by the product that they
decided to purchase Dansk Gipsindustri, thereafter promoting the partitions it made as ‘Dæmpa Færdigvægge’ (Dæmpa Finished-walls).
Soon, a contract for their supply was negotiated with the
Danish conglomerate F.L. Smidth, which was having a new
headquarters built in Valby in Copenhagen to a design by
the prominent Danish modern architect and architectural
educator, Palle Suenson. Dæmpa’s salesman, Harry
Schrøder, persuaded Suenson that it would be advantageous for F.L. Smidth to have the possibility of reconfiguring
their office spaces as future requirements arose and so he
included the demountable walls in the building specification.
Unfortunately, being hand-made, they were less profitable
than had been hoped and so production was ended after
only two years in 1957.
