Peder Vilhelm Jensen-Klint
Peder Vilhelm Jensen-Klint was an engineer and painter before he became an architect. His Grundtvig’s Church in Copenhagen turns the Danish village church into a monument in yellow brick, and he founded a family of designers.
Peder Vilhelm Jensen was born in 1853 in Holbæk and later took the name Jensen-Klint. He trained as an engineer at the Polytechnic in Copenhagen and worked on roads and bridges. At the same time he studied painting, and he devoted himself to art and design. Only in his forties did he begin working in architecture. He was influenced by the Danish architect Martin Nyrop and by the English Arts and Crafts movement, and he advocated an architecture based on craftsmanship and local traditions.
Jensen-Klint designed villas and smaller buildings before winning the competition for Grundtvig’s Church at Bispebjerg in Copenhagen in 1913. The church was built in 1921–1940 entirely of yellow brick, with a west front that resembles an organ. Around the church he also designed a housing area in the same brick. He also designed churches in other Danish towns and a lamp of folded paper that is still made by the family firm Le Klint.
Jensen-Klint died in 1930, and his son Kaare Klint completed Grundtvig’s Church. Kaare Klint became one of the founders of modern Danish furniture design and a teacher at the Academy, and the family has continued in design for several generations. Grundtvig’s Church is regarded as one of the foremost works of 20th-century Danish architecture and shows how an architecture of simple material and craftsmanship can reach a monumental scale.