Metro In Five Minutes

Copenhagen is building a Metro that will link parts of the Danish capital in a new way. For the first time ever, the large urban areas to the east and west will be linked with the city centre acting as the hub.


The Route

First part of the Metro opens 19. October 2002. This part runs from Nørreport to Lergravsparken and from Nørreport to Ørestad.


In May 2003 phase 2A from Nørreport to Frederiksberg opens. Phase 2B from Frederiksberg to Vanløse opens later that year. The last part of the Metro, running to Copenhagen Airport, opens in 2007. The total distance of the route is 21 km. 10 km elevated or on embankment and the rest in tunnels.


There will be 22 stations. Nine below ground and 13 above ground stations. Metro's lowest point is 33 m below ground level. The tunnel stations are situated between 9 and 18 m below ground.


There is never more than 300 m to the nearest exit in the tunnels. Either to a station or a tunnel shaft (emergency exit).


The Train

There will be a total of 34 train sets on the tracks. In the initial phase, though, there will only be 19 sets. A Metro train consists of 3 cars. The length is 39 m and the width is 2,65 m. There is room for 300 passengers in each train set, corresponding to approx. 5 city buses. 96 passengers will have a seat and 204 may stand. Busses and trains in the capital region use the same ticket system as the Metro.


The Metro has a top speed of 80 km/h and the average travelling speed is 40 km/h, which is 3 times more than that of a city bus. Travel time from the terminus in Vanløse to terminus Vestamager is only 26 minutes.


There is no driver in the trains, as the trains are fully automatic. There is, however, a metro steward in every train set. His job is to check the tickets, provide information and help the passengers.


The trains are designed by Giugaro Design in Italy. Giugaro develops a range of industrial designs from Canon cameras to cars such as Bugatti and VW Golf. Graceful lines and elegant details combined with a high level of functionality characterize the trains.





Timetables

The Metro is designed to run around the clock with headways down to just 90 sec. In the first months of operation, rush hour intervals between trains will be 3 minutes on the main line and 6 minutes on the lines to Ørestad and Lergravsparken. Intervals will then decrease to 90 sec on the main line.


The trains run every 15 minutes throughout the night. During the first months, night service will be available during the weekends only.


Construction and Economy

The Comet consortium is the general contractor for the Metro tunnels, underground stations and elevated railway. Comet is an international joint venture of leading contractors from several fields.
Ansaldo is the railway supplier and has built the Metro trains. It is an Italian corporation with 37 subsidiaries around the World - and 6,000 employees. Ørestad Development Corporation has two assignments - to build Copenhagen's new Metro and to develop the new neighbourhood Ørestad at Amager. The ØDC is a partnership between Copenhagen City (55 %) and the State (45 %) represented by the Minister of transportation.


Metro Service A/S Runs and maintains the Metro during the first five years. The company is a sub contractor to Ansaldo.


The Metro’s budget for the 3 phases is DKK 12.3 billion (2006 price level). The construction is financed by loans that will be paid back in 25-30 years. The funds for the repayment come from the operation, sale of land in Ørestad and through contributions from Frederiksberg City and Copenhagen County.

Laura Baruel @ Kunstindustrimuseet

Wilderness

16 February - 8 April 2007

Past meets present in Laura Baruël’s dress sculptures.

Fashion and textile designer Laura Barüel takes her cue from the relation between modern man and nature and is inspired by the physical and geographical place – nature, landscape, climate, light and colours. Based on an interest in the Nordic, the idea is to further explore and visualise the relations between man, garment and place.

The exhibition revolves around the idea of primitive man’s basic need for protection of the body, and the subsequent desire to express oneself through bodily adornment. Laura Baruël has gathered organic material for the project that reflects Nordic nature with the changing of the seasons. The vegetable fibres have been ‘frozen’ in their present state using preservative liquids, which penetrate the cells and conserve the flexibility of the fibres. They are used as elements in the robes, and to Laura Baruël they symbolize a kind of primary language, coloured by the impenetrability of the forest as part of the pre-historic Nordic landscape.



But we are far from ‘back to the stone age’ because Laura Baruël is a contemporary fashion designer, and she herself perceives her dress sculptures as visions of the future. While being inspired by an understanding of the life styles and rites of a distant past, Laura Baruël utilizes modern textile and artificial fibres, and a mixture of classical and experimenting techniques to express her own very special feminine imaginary world. The plant fibres are sewn into a specific pattern on a polyester-net, larger or smaller areas are cut out and the different elements are draped directly onto the dressmaker’s dummy. The shapes of the fibres help determine the position and direction of the material.

The style mixes inspiration from ancient fertility sculptures and from the more experimental part of international fashion design, stimulated by an apprenticeship in Tokyo with the Japanese fashion designer Yoshiko Hishinuma, who works mainly with pleats and traditional Japanese printing techniques.

The exhibition is open from 16 February to 8 April 2007

Last updated 16.02.2007

Fascination of Transportation @ DDC

18 Nov 2006 - 18 Mar 2007, Danish Design Centre

Experience the eight cars that represent the last 50 years’ best international car design, when fascination of the car’s design, shape and aesthetics is in focus.

A jury of Danish car experts has selected eight different cars which, from a design viewpoint, constitute examples of the world’s best car design. The cars all represent design which is the result of a realization of a design concept. However, although the jury has spoken, the design and car interested have to be patient. The cars will not be revealed until the opening of the exhibition.

The reason why the Danish Design Centre has chosen to put focus on car design is that cars are very much exponent of design, new trends and innovation. Moreover, the car is probably currently the strongest symbol of personal freedom that there is, and at the same time, except for our homes, it is the most expensive design product that we invest in.

In addition to the eight cars, the exhibition will also show three varying cars, which put focus on customization of cars, safety, intelligent cars and Danish car designers’ influence on international car design.

The Jury

The jury is constituted by architect, writer and expert on car design Niels Kryger (president of the jury), the internationally renowned Danish car designer Henrik Fisker, responsible editor-in-chief for the Danish magazine “Bil Magasinet” Mikkel Thomsager and responsible editor-in-chief for the Danish magazine “Motor” Christian Koch.

The cars have been selected on the following criteria:

· The cars must be produced in the period from 1950 till today.

· The selection must happen on the basis of a professional design
motivation with focus on the cars’ appearance and aesthetics, rather than for example the cars’ technical equipment, driving properties, economy or environmental concern etc.

· The cars must all be, or have been, industrially produced.

Inside/Outside - furniture exhibition by Jakob Berg

Experience industrial designer Jakob Berg’s indoor and outdoor furniture staged with light and patterns by textile designer Dorte Østergaard Jakobsen. The exhibition ”Inside/Outside” shows at the Danish Design Centre from 13 January – 18 March 2007.

The exhibition presents different types of furniture produced worldwide: Dining chairs, deck chairs, outdoor chairs and rest chairs. Step into the design world of Jakob Berg and get to know his work process, sketches and models.

Jakob Berg’s introduction to the exhibition:
”The title 'Inside/Outside' refers to the fact that I work with both indoor and outdoor furniture and with manufacturers abroad. I make designs for companies in a number of countries, including Latvia, Portugal, Sweden, Estonia, Vietnam, Egypt and Bolivia. The latter through a Danida project with sustainable furniture design. For a number of years I have worked with design in third-world countries: In Egypt and Bolivia with furniture in wood and in Vietnam with furniture in laminated form-bent bamboo as an alternative to tropical hardwood.

With these projects I hope to highlight the new role that Danish furniture design might play on the global design scene. We may help to achieve sustainable production and fair trade for third-world countries, while also securing new markets and impulses for Danish designers. The golden age of Danish design was based on wooden furniture and the belief that design should be able to be bought and used by everyone. Now, these designs have become classics, available only to high-end buyers, because their production is so labour-intensive.

The production of wooden furniture is not particularly high-tech, so developing nations are capable of producing amazing furniture if we contribute design knowledge. This collaboration is benefitting both partners – This enables us to democratise the use of design."

Industrial Designer Jakob Berg graduated from the School of Architecture in Copenhagen in 1987. Berg has created furniture designs for a range of companies in Denmark and abroad, including Trip Trap Furniture A/S, SC-Møbler, Schou Andersen Møbler (all in Denmark) and furniture factories in Vietnam, Portugal, Bolivia, Latvia, Egypt and Sweden. Berg has won a number of design awards, including the Scandinavian Furniture Award 1991, CSMD's award in 1995 and the Danish magazine Bo Bedre's Special Award 1996; he has also received a working grant from The Danish Arts Foundation.

Textile Designer Dorte Østergaard Jakobsen graduated from the Danish School of Art and Design in 1984 and has since had a large design production, with an emphasis on textile design. In particular, Østergaard Jakobsen is known for her decoration projects in Denmark and abroad, and she has held a number of exhibitions in Danish museums, mostly in the form of installations with printed fabrics and furniture, designed in collaboration with Jakob Berg.

LIGHT OF TOMORROW @ DAC

LIGHT OF TOMORROW
February 8th to April 9th 2007

With this exhibition DAC and VELUX examines the role of the daylight in the architecture of the future. For the second time VELUX has sponsored the competition International VELUX Award for students of architecture. Louise Grønlund from Denmark won with a project entitled ‘A museum of photography’. The winning project is exhibited along with runners-up and honourable mentions.

Mikael Kvium @ Ordrupgaard

19 January 07 - 15 July 07

SILENT EYE
New works by Michael Kvium

In recent years, Kvium's art has taken a turn in an entirely new direction. Birch trunks, sheep, sky and landscape are among his new motifs. Kvium probes the very meaning of nature and landscape painting.

It is new paintings made especially for Ordrupgaard. None of the paintings have been shown to the public. At Ordrupgaard, they enter into an installational dialogue with the architecture of Zaha Hadid's innovative extension to the museum.

The exhibition is supported by the Danish Arts Counsil's Committee for Visual Arts and Jensen's Bøfhus.

PAUL McCARTHY @ ARoS

McCARTHY ART ARoS


The first large exhibition at ARoS in 2007 is in the hands of the American artist Paul McCarthy (born 1945). In a large-scale installation of 2000 m2 staged by the artist he will present the main works of his 40 years’ career as an artist. The exhibition is thus a totally unique opportunity to view the development in the production of one of the greatest and most influential artists of our time from the mid 1960’s up to the present time.

With his large and complex installations this world famous provocateur raises a severe criticism against the American dream as well as the conventions and taboos of the western culture. Even though McCarthy in many ways gets his inspiration from the dream factories of Hollywood and Disney, his film and works represent an alternative dream factory. His works are obtrusive, scary and often seem like ”sheer madness” without purpose. It is fierce humour, horror and lust.

Duane Hanson @ Arken

Sculptures of the American Dream

"Why not look at this guy sitting right next to me, what’s going on, what I see on the TV and in the newspaper," Duane Hanson said of his work. And that is exactly what he did: Throughout more than thirty years he created art which in a very tangible and concrete manner shows ‘the guy next to him’ and the America surrounding him.

With satire, humour and compassion Duane Hanson puts a human face on the American Dream: that of the bodybuilder, the cowboy, the pensioner, etc.

He was especially fascinated by old people, big people and workmen; by wrinkles, furrows and scars who speak of the life that has been lived. He explored the stories written in the body.

All of spring 2007 ARKEN presents 22 of Hanson’s lifelike sculptures and nine sculpture parts.

In connection with the exhibition Hatje Cantz has put out a fully illustrated book. The book is on sale in the museum shop at DKK 199 and in ARKEN's museum shop online.

Cindy Sherman @ Louisiana

Cindy Sherman-30 years of staged photography 16.2.-20.5.2007

Self-dramatization is a key concept in the American artist Cindy Sherman’s production. She uses herself as model and photographs herself in changing disguises. By manipulating her own body by means of make-up, clothes and artificial body parts, she appears in different forms and figures that range from the amusing and humorous to the provocative and violent. The exhibition has been organized by the Jeu de paume, Paris, and co-produced with the Kunsthaus Bregenz, the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark, and the Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin.