Danish architect and lighting designer
Vilhelm Lauritzen (1894–1984) is one of the most important Danish architects and a pioneering exponent of functionalism in Denmark. He designed numerous well-known buildings, such as the Nørrebro Theatre, the Daells Varehus department store (now the Hotel Skt. Petri), the Radio House and the famous Terminal 39 at Copenhagen Airport in Denmark. Other important buildings by Vilhelm Lauritzen include the People's House (Vega), the Shell House and the Danish Embassy in Washington, D.C., in the USA. The listed Radio House and the terminal of Copenhagen's old airport in particular are regarded as outstanding monuments of modernism in European architecture.
Vilhelm Lauritzen was not only one of Denmark's greatest, best-known and most productive architects – he is also regarded as a master who sought to unite art, material and light. Throughout his life, he worked on developing and improving his lights, which harmonise perfectly with the buildings he designed. As early as the 1920s, he made an in-depth study of daylight. He arrived at the principles of his lighting technique by, among other things, contrasting warm, characterful sunlight with cooler, more diffuse skylight. He also explored in depth the effect of backlighting and how light falls, casts shadows and creates shading.
