Going to work with Daddy

Today we had a pretty exciting day. Jonathan was taking a group of 43 students on a field trip, and we were able to join the group for the whole day! 

Riding the big bus with Dada.

Our first stop was a church called Bagsværd Church on the northern outskirts of Copenhagen. The church was designed by Jørn Utzon (who is best known for designing the Sydney Opera House), and was built in 1976. It is considered to be a masterpiece of contemporary church architecture. The exterior, though I don't have a picture of it, looks rather industrial with white prefabricated concrete and white tiles, and you almost couldn't tell if it is a church. But when you are inside, it is totally different from what you would expect from the outside. It felt softer and more natural inside. In fact, the natural wood finish benches and the sliding doors even reminded me of the Japanese aesthetics. The white walls and the curvy ceiling control the natural light that comes into the church - direct sunlight, reflected light, defused light, and so forth... It was a pretty serene place. 

Our next stop was another church called Grundtvig's Church. This was a totally different type of church, built in the early 1900's. The church stands 50 meters high (!), and is built with all bricks. It is a powerful and stunning architecture. I had never seen anything like this.  Apparently, six million bricks were used to built this church, and it took twenty years to complete it. The interior of the church has a typical Gothic church configuration, but the yellow bricks and the lack of decoration such as stained glass create a very minimalist aesthetics, which is also quite beautiful. This was my favorite of the two...

The rest of the day included a visit to one of the oldest co-housing community in Denmark called Skråplanet and meeting with the actual residents. After that, we also visited the Louisiana Museum. Because the kids and I have just recently been to the museum, and the group's main purpose of the visit was to see the "New Nordic" architecture exhibition, we mostly hung out in the children's wing. This was my third visit to the museum, but I was still blown away by how beautiful the museum is. 

Believe it or not, I forgot to charge my camera on such an eventful day, and my camera was out of battery after only a couple hours into the trip (I borrowed Jonathan's iPhone to take some of the above photos). So unfortunately I don't have any photos from the latter part of the day! Alas!