in drawing. The course covered both freehand drawing and drawing for building projects. Once I had completed the course, I knew that that’s what I wanted to do. At Aarhus School of Archi- tecture it was all about Karl Marx. I found it very strange and disappointing. Some of us formed our own group, focusing on architecture, and we organised our own study trips. Just like Jørn, I always carry a sketchbook with me too. I always have a reason to draw and sketch. In short, Jørn and I met around 1985 through the architectural community in Aarhus. Jørn was at Arkitema, I was employed at DAI. In 1995, we became partners at the same firm, Almvig & Partnere. The whole industry was having to adapt at that time to EU tenders and competi- tions. The next twelve years saw us switching companies a few times owing to several acqui- sitions, some more turbulent than others. This inevitably led to the decision to set up on our own. And on 1 March 2006, Luplau & Poulsen Arkitekter became a reality. What is your design process at Luplau & Poulsen Arkitekter? Residential building projects have often given Luplau & Poulsen the opportunity to devise great lighting concepts for both indoors and out. This is true, for example, of PIN L305, PIN L304 and COVER L303 from the 1990s, which were developed in connection with planning large residential developments and urban spaces. The focus was on providing optimal, glare-free illumination with a distinctive and stylish look. Our first light, DOT, was created as an alter- native to the cheap plastic lights that were appearing on the market at that time. It provides so much illumination that the number of lamps can be reduced instead. We initially offered it to another lighting company, but their set-up meant a very slow process. So we went to Lampas instead. One thing that has always characterised Lampas is the fact that the de- cision-making process is short. And that is how PIN and COVER L303 came into production. How do you work as a team? We are very different. The key is that we respect one another for that. If we’d been two identical architects, who tried to follow the same path, it would never have worked. People don’t really understand how close we are. We spend holidays together with our families, and people ask how can we stand to be together all the time? But in fact it’s the other way around. We can’t do without one another. In practical terms, Jørn starts up projects, develops ideas and does the designing, while Erik takes care of contracts and the finance side of things. So we have a division of roles, with one of us being the creative one and the other being the administrative one. We constantly discuss things and act as a sounding board for one another. We share an office, and our em- ployees drop in, developers and partners come to meetings, and in this way we share know- ledge and bounce ideas around all the time. 208
Download PDF file