Kingo Houses Denmark by Jorn Utzon Architect, Helsingør homes photos, Danish buildings design
Kingo Houses – Modern Danish houses by Jorn Utzon
Sjælland Huse : Modern Helsingor Buildings by key Danish Architect
post updated 14 February 2024
Courtyard-Style Housing, Hilleroed, Denmark
Date built: 1956-58
Design: Jorn Utzon, Architect
Location: Helsingor (or Elsinore in English)
Danish Building images © Adrian Welch / Isabelle Lomholt, May 2010
page updated 7 Sep 2016
Kingo Houses Denmark
Preceding the Sydney Opera House were two housing developments in Denmark. The Kingo Houses are located in southwest Helsingør, close to the edge of town, away from the sea.
Sixty-three L-shaped houses were built in rows following the contours of the site, providing views for each house, and access to sunlight and shelter from the wind. The Kingo houses have a living room and study in one section, and the kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom in the other.
Walls of varying heights closed the remaining open sides. For many architects the Kingo Houses remain one of their favourite projects due to the scheme’s combination of simplicity and inventiveness.
More Kingo houses images online soon
Kingo Housing
Jørn Utzon’s first important breakthrough came in 1956 with the yellow brick and tile Kingo Housing development in Helsingor. It became well known throughout Europe as a model for subsidised housing, with its single-storey repetitive courts arranged freely on a grassy site and each unit carefully adjusted to respond to light, privacy and views some over a small pond.
The Mayor of Helsingor put an area of nine acres of land with rolling hills at his disposal for Utzon’s housing plan. Utzon commissioned a show house from a firm of builders. The house was a success and eventually 63 houses were built within cost restrictions set up by the government to keep the costs below a certain level for low income workers. The 63 houses were built in rows following the undulations of the site, providing a specific view for each house, as well as the best situation possible for sunlight and shelter from the wind.
Utzon liked to describe the arrangement of the houses “like flowers on the branch of cherry tree, each turning toward the sun.” The individual houses are L-shaped with a living room and study in one section, and the kitchen, bedroom and bathroom in the other. Walls of varying heights close the remaining open sides of the L.
Each unit occupies an area of 15×15 meters. The relatively small size of the units makes them not only economical, but also easily adaptable to the natural terrain. The size of the private area is compensated by the provision of large landscaped communal space.
Danish Courtyard Houses architect : Jørn Utzon
Location: Denmark
Architecture in Denmark
Danish Architecture Designs – chronological list
Key Danish Building
Bagsvaerd Church, north Copenhagen, Denmark
Jorn Utzon church
Denmark Architecture – Selection:
Utzon Center, Aalborg, Jylland
Design: Kim Utzon Architects
photo : Torben Eskerod Denmark
Lynetteholm København – New Copenhagen harbour island
Design: COWI, Arkitema and TREDJE NATUR
image courtesy of architects practice
Lynetteholm, New Copenhagen harbour island
IZUMI Frederiksberg
Design: PAN- PROJECTS
photograph : Yuta Sawamura
IZUMI Frederiksberg
Comments / photos for the Kingo Houses Denmark design by Jorn Utzon in Helsingor, Sjælland, page welcome.
