Flemming Lassen (1902–1984) was a Danish Modernist architect and designer who worked in the International Style idiom. Libraries and cultural centres are among his most well-known structures. He was the brother of Mogens Lassen, also an architect.
Biography
Flemming Lassen was born on February 23, 1902, in Copenhagen, to a family of artists. His mother, Ingeborg Winding, was a painter, and his father, Hans Vilhelm Lassen, was a decorative painter. Before completing his study at the Technical School, he worked as a mason. After working in various architecture firms, Lassen established his practice in the 1930s alongside Arne Jacobsen. He had won a Danish Architects Association competition in 1929 for creating the “House of the Future.” It was a spiral-shaped, flat-roofed house in glass and concrete, containing a private garage, a boathouse, and a helicopter pad, and it was recreated full scale during the subsequent display in Copenhagen’s Forum. Other notable features included windows that folded down like automobile windows, a mail conveyor tube, and a kitchen with ready-to-eat meals.
Architecture
He designed Sllerd Town Hall with Jacobsen, which was finished in 1942 in a classical modernistic style inspired by Gunnar Asplund’s enlargement of Gothenburg’s city hall. He created the Nyborg Library (1940) with Erik Moller, for which he was awarded the Eckersberg Medal.
Lassen built several cultural centres and libraries in the 1960s, including the Randers Cultural Centre in 1969, which had a museum, a library, and conference rooms. The three-story reinforced concrete building is lit from a central courtyard, although the walls along the streets are devoid of windows. He designed a number of libraries in the 1970s, including the public library in Lund, Sweden, the central library in Herning, the library and community centre in Hvidovre, and the municipal library in Hobro, with his son Per Lassen. All have strong Cubist lines, with rough exteriors yet well-formed, inviting interiors.
Furniture
Lassen contributed to the development of the Danish modern style in the 1930s and early 1940s with his unique curving shapes. He also designed lamps and tableware, always striving for clean, uncomplicated forms.
Sources
Wikipedia contributors. (2021, April 26). Flemming Lassen. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 23:47, October 31, 2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Flemming_Lassen&oldid=1019965911
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