Henning Larsen Architects
Henning Larsen founded his practice in Copenhagen in 1959. The practice is known for its work with daylight, from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Riyadh to the Harpa concert hall in Reykjavik and Moesgaard Museum.
Henning Larsen was born in 1925 in Opsund in Jutland and studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, in London and at MIT. He worked for Arne Jacobsen and Jørn Utzon before founding his own practice in Copenhagen in 1959. For many years he was a professor at the Academy. His early works included university buildings, such as the Dragvoll campus in Trondheim.
The practice’s international breakthrough was the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Riyadh, opened in 1984, where light is filtered in through narrow openings and courtyards, and which received the Aga Khan Award. In Denmark the practice designed the Copenhagen Opera House, opened in 2005. The Harpa concert hall in Reykjavik, opened in 2011, has a glass façade designed together with the artist Olafur Eliasson. Moesgaard Museum outside Aarhus opened in 2014. The practice has also designed buildings in Sweden and Norway.
Henning Larsen died in 2013. The practice, Henning Larsen Architects, has continued with offices in several countries and is one of the largest in the Nordic countries. It works extensively with daylight and sustainability, a legacy of its founder, who was called the master of light. The practice has helped build the international reputation of Scandinavian architecture.