DAMPA_75_years_of_quiet_design_ENG - Flipbook - Page 8
Prologue
Upon arriving in a foreign country from overseas, observant
visitors take note of the details that make the place distinct
and different. Thanks in large part to the genius of Denmark’s twentieth century architects, artists, designers and
planners, public spaces there have particularly recognisable
characteristics. These result from their felicitous combinations of well-chosen surface finishes, elegantly-resolved
details and the incorporation of items of furniture and lighting that have become national and international icons – for
instance, the Poul Henningsen ‘PH’ lamps, which appear in
different sizes equally in grand public and commercial spaces and private homes, and the Arne Jacobsen ‘Egg’, ‘Swan’
and ‘Ant’ chairs that are just as prevalent and immediately
connotative of high style.
Looking upward in many of the same spaces, the most
observant might also identify much more discreet background architectural elements – distinctive types of steel or
aluminium ceilings with very subtle perforation. Walking
through Copenhagen Airport, one finds these finishes
enclosing many of the circulation spaces. When one goes to
take a train, they are also to be seen in some of the stations.
If one then enters an office or hotel in the city centre, they
might also be there too – and if one were to continue to the
port, upon boarding a ferry or cruise ship, one could find the
same make of ceiling installed throughout its interiors.
DAMPA acoustic ceilings – so often used in combination
with celebrated examples of Danish lighting and furniture –
are themselves Danish design icons, but ones that are quiet
in every sense. Such ceilings generate subtle aesthetic
order in the spaces in which they are installed and, most
importantly, they are famously effective at absorbing ambient noise, resulting in environments that are much calmer
and more soothing to occupy than they would otherwise
have been.
As we shall see, DAMPA ceilings have contributed to the
elegant atmospheres found within some of Denmark’s most
prominent and critically acclaimed modern buildings – for
example, the SAS Royal Hotel and the National Bank in
Copenhagen, both masterworks of Arne Jacobsen.
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