Svend and Wai Ling Hvass lived in Swaziland when we were younger (possibly left late 80s?). Their son Hans was a best friend of sorts: his grandfather in Denmark sent Danish Donald Duck (Anders And) comics every week, and I got to share the stash, not to mention the strange delight of my friend peppering his speech with the equivalent of Kapow! or Whoopsie! as if everyone spoke like that. Hans played the piano at my father’s funeral. Keith Jarrett. Not many people can do that.
Learned over lunch:
- The Hilton Garden Inn in Mbabane, which many say is intended to look like a boat, was immediately recognisable to SH (who also used to initial with a $) as an homage to a well-known Persian (I think?) architect. I thought it was just hideous, but it’s apparently a little piece of art with heart.
- Arne Jacobsen – perhaps the most famous Danish architect/designer – designed not only the building but also everything inside (lamps, furniture etc.) the SAS Radisson hotel by Hovedbanegården. They have maintained a single room as a time capsule. Room 606. There are three ways that “normal” people can see the room, the first of which being to rent it, which ChatGPT does advise can be more costly than simply arranging a professional or educational tour (availability depending, naturally). But that does allow people to enjoy the space without the prying eyes of others. Makes sense. The structure has a curtain wall, which turns out to be kind of an important architectural safety feature.
- Steen Eiler Rasmussen was the original architect of Tjingberg (the previous “ghetto suburb” in CPH where my mother now resides, and which has become a model of gentrification – celebrated as recently as last week, when the Mayor himself paid the block a visit, starting in my mother’s flat. She was (correctly) complimented on its “homeliness”).
- One view from said flat (where I write this) is of five large blocks of flats called Høje Gladsaxe (HG), and where the light is often lovely. Built as a modern solution to a growing (largely immigrant) population, they have largely gone the way of what this area had a bad reputation for. SH told of a study between HG and single story housing in Albertslund which provided the same number of family homes. Rough conclusion: families on the ground were happier because you miss out on children playing if you live on the eighth floor.
- SH is what he calls a “Japan nerd”. He was president of Dansk-Japansk Selskab/Danish-Japanese Society for many years. The treasurer of that Society, MH, is employed by Maersk. More than a decade ago SH suggested to his Maersk contact that maybe they should think of some kind of forward sail on the boxships so there would be less friction against the wind, less energy wastage etc. (think more snowpiercer, less brick of wall heading into the wind). MH shrugged it off and said that if that really was a good idea, someone probably would have thought of it already. Sounds like the tossing of a good idea.