A number of young Danish architects have been awarded grants. And in 2007, 2008, 2012, 2015, and 2017, the Foundation has additionally organized international competitions in the fields of architectural photography, architectural drawing, writing about architecture, architecture and film, as well as architecture and music.

The objective of the non-profit, charitable Foundation is to support Danish architecture – through further training, traveling grants, exhibition activities, publication of architecture books, and development and implementation of information technology for architectural purposes. The Foundation awards grants in acknowledgement of architects who have developed significant buildings or demonstrated other achievements of high quality.

The Foundation is a natural extension of Henning Larsen’s personal interest in communicating and advancing architecture in parallel to his work as an architect and his professorship at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture. This interest is also reflected in his establishment of SKALA architecture gallery and SKALA architecture magazine in the eighties.

The Board consists of: 

  Troels Troelsen, architect (Chairman)
  Kent Martinussen, architect, CEO, Danish Architecture Centre
  Ingela Larsson, Architect
  Simon Ingvartsen, Architect  
  Bente Scavenius, Mag.art.
  Lone Backe, MA, BA in Art History
  Niels Bang, Lawyer

Oscar Wilde: “A map of the world that does not include Utopia is not worth even glancing at, for it leaves out the one country at which Humanity is always landing. And when Humanity lands there, it looks out, and, seeing a better country, sets sail. Progress is the realization of Utopias. ” 

Henning Larsen was a curious architect. He was eager and ambitious, though not always explicit what he striving for. He probably did not know. Had he known, the attraction and magic would be missed.  
The exciting thing about working in his design studio was precisely this openness to the unknown. Henning let things unfold in their own way, and was willing to pursue skewed paths to keep the process open. To him, architecture was a magic seed whose secrets were to be unraveled.  Even when we achieved something unique, he desired other possibilities. Henning's curiosity was reflected in his numerous initiatives, such as the SKALA Gallery and SKALA Magazine and, most recently, in the annual Henning Larsen's Foundation prize.
It was as if Henning was dreaming of a Utopia.  

The escalating progress of our time, more than ever, challenges our understanding of the world. On one hand, advances of science promise overwhelming possibilities that could inspire adventurous utopias with unexpected perspectives. On the other, automated design through algorithms and artificial intelligence (combined with the challenges and trend towards home workplaces and virtual collaboration) curbs both our professional presence and our universal vision. At the same time, acquisitions and unifications between architectural firms, contractors, and engineering firms are on the rise. Here, recent demands tend to require documentation of all the technical, scientific, sociological and environmental aspects of architecture - as if we were aiming for an architecture of spreadsheets.
How do we today maintain Architecture as an art not flooded with economic thinking, but developed through new ideas and experiments?

The aim of this competition is to revitalize the notion of “Utopia” in architecture. Modernism was, in some ways utopic, born from and driven by visions for a future not yet possible. It was also a future that mostly turned out differently, with countless new and overwhelming potentials both promising and frightening. One can miss the magnificent, utopian reveries of the 18th century and the modernist visions of early Soviet architecture. They held dreams of adventurous futures, things that could not yet and might never take place. Things that would change our lives and our worldview.

This competition calls for architectural, utopian visions. Ideas that, with artistic and poetic power, can inspire a new dimension and a new quality in architecture are sought.

The task: Describe in sketches and words a Utopia, a dream or mood with descents in spatial, architectural particulars

Contributions are to be made in drawing / photo with short explanatory texts in either Danish or English (submissions in other languages will not be considered.)
Analyses and theses are not asked for.
Entries must be submitted anonymously as a JPG or PDF, max. 4 low-format A3 pages or 1 low-format A1 poster.
Texts are limited to 1500 characters in total.

Previously published material will not be accepted.
The jury is comprised of Carsten Thau (philosopher), Jytte Rex (artist), Kathrin Susanna Gimmel (architect), Sebastian de la Cour (Ben & Sebastian artists) and Troels Troelsen (architect).
Proposals will be exhibited at the Danish Architecture Center at BLOX in Copenhagen.