Scandinavia Design

VL56 – Louis Poulsen

Vilhelm Lauritzen, 1956 

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Louis Poulsen, Danish Design Lighting
VL56 Pendant Louis Poulsen – Vilhelm Lauritzen, 1956
VL56 Pendant Louis Poulsen – Vilhelm Lauritzen, 1956

Vilhelm Lauritzen was a very politically engaged functionalist architect. He designed the VL 56 pendant light for the Folkets Hus (“People’s House”), in Vesterbro Copenhagen. Designed to house a Danish union, the building was inaugurated in 1956 before being transformed a few years later into a concert hall and renamed Vega.

The building is a “gesamtkunstwerk”: a “total work”, where Lauritzen designed absolutely everything, from the building to the door knobs, stairs, electrical outlets, furniture and lamps.

The VL 56 pendant light is one of these lamps and it still hangs above the wooden paneled bar, next to the concert hall.

The pendant light emits glare-free light directed downwards. The radial perforation pattern around the opening creates a smooth transition between light and dark and projects a beautiful pattern onto surrounding surfaces.

VL56 Pendant Louis Poulsen – Vilhelm Lauritzen, 1956
VL56 Pendant Louis Poulsen – Vilhelm Lauritzen, 1956

Dimensions Ø17,7 x H36,3 cm 

Materials Untreated polished brass or chrome-plated aluminum – 4 m white textile cord
Light source 1 x E27


VL56 Pendant Louis Poulsen – Vilhelm Lauritzen, 1956
VL56 Pendant Louis Poulsen – Vilhelm Lauritzen, 1956

Brass 

Chrome 

VL56 Pendant Louis Poulsen – Vilhelm Lauritzen, 1956
VL56 Pendant Louis Poulsen – Vilhelm Lauritzen, 1956
VL56 Pendant Louis Poulsen – Vilhelm Lauritzen, 1956
VL56 Pendant Louis Poulsen – Vilhelm Lauritzen, 1956
VL56 Pendant Louis Poulsen – Vilhelm Lauritzen, 1956
VL56 Pendant Louis Poulsen – Vilhelm Lauritzen, 1956

Vilhelm Lauritzen

Vilhelm Lauritzen

Vilhelm Lauritzen (1894-1984) is one of the most important architects in Danish history, he was notably the emblematic figure of Danish functionalism. A number of its buildings, the NĂžrrebro Theater (1931-1932), the Daells Varehus department store (1928-1935), the Radio House (Radiohuset, 1936-1941) and the first airport built in Kastrup (1937- 1939), represented a concentrate of contemporary life. Folkets Hus (1953-1956), better known today as the Vega Concert Hall, the Shellhuset Building (1950-1951), and the Danish Embassy in Washington (1958-1960), are also important buildings from Vilhelm Lauritzen's drawing board The Radio House and the first version of Kastrup Airport, which are today listed, are considered leading monuments of the modernist trend in European architecture.

Throughout his life, Vilhelm Lauritzen remained faithful to the principle that architecture is an applied art, giving as much importance to the “artistic” aspect as to the “applied” aspect. “No life without aesthetics” was another of his precepts.

Vilhelm Lauritzen mastered both natural and artificial lighting. He systematically used natural light in his architectural projects, including large openings facing south and west to intelligently mix warm sunlight with colder light coming from openings facing north and east. . This approach distracted from the fact that there is limited wall space in the room. People, furniture and appliances are highlighted and nuanced in this sculptural light.

  Lauritzen’s lighting fixtures embody the same idea. They combine a powerful directional beam producing sharp shadows, and a more diffused light which softens and shades the rooms.

The first light fixture designed by Vilhelm Lauritzen was created between 1926 and 1929 for Fritzsches Glashandel, under the name of the Universal pendant light. As a pure functionalist, Vilhelm Lauritzen dedicated his life to the development and improvement of his lighting fixtures. Vilhelm Lauritzen's first lighting fixtures, designed for the Copenhagen Radio House, appeared in Louis Poulsen catalogs in the mid-1940s. In the 1950s, while his major construction projects were in full swing, the Lauritzen range expands to include a wide selection of devices.