Original use
Transportation and infrastructure/water reservoir
Current use
Transportation and infrastructure/water reservoir
Architects
Ib Lunding
Concrete by reinforcement
Concrete is a relatively brittle material that is strong in compression but less so in tension.
To increase its overall strength, steel rods, wires, mesh or cables may be embedded in concrete before it sets. This reinforcement, often known as rebar, resists tensile forces. By forming a strong bond, the two materials are able to resist a variety of applied forces, effectively acting as a single structural element .
Construction method
In this case, the concrete can be made by mixing the components directly on site, or it may be transported from a production plant in concrete-mixer trucks.
This method has the disadvantage of leaving the concrete exposed to the elements while it is setting. Whereas, with other methods, the environmental conditions can be controlled during setting, providing greater control over the outcome, with cast-in-place concrete a series of tests and protocols are necessary to verify its final strength.
Architectural concrete
- textured walls
- wooden formwork finish
- stamped concrete
- exposed aggregate concrete, colored concrete, etc.
Structural types
State of Conservation
Description
The Danish architect Ib Lunding was remarkable for his extraordinary versatility. He was a jewelery and furniture designer and developed a well-known urban streetcar system. He published a number of books and worked as a municipal architect for the city of Copenhagen for more than 40 years. From the city council, he defended modernization and the identification of public architecture and design with functionalism and rationalism.
In the early 1930s, Lunding drew up the plans for the underground reservoir system that supplies water to the city of Copenhagen. Construction went on for several decades until the ten reservoirs that still exist today were completed.
Although this urban infrastructure was largely underground, Lunding approached the project with care, both globally and in the details, in the visible aspects and in the parts that would remain hidden. The design drawings are precise in their attention to the architectural details but also in the design of valves and pipe systems, and they stand out as a beautiful example of functionalism.
When construction on the reservoir began, the use of reinforced concrete in Denmark was restricted by law to industrial architecture. Lunding took advantage of the situation as an opportunity to exhibit the material’s expressive possibilities. A beautiful example of the refinement in the details can be seen in the access points: small parabolic domes that combine concrete, steel and copper, which periodically dot the enormous surface of the Tinghøj reservoir.
Denmark
Vandtårnsvej
Hovedstaden (Region) Gladsaxe (Municipality) 2860 Gladsaxe
Commission
1930
Completion
1957