Get Sust! Issue 37

Dare to be different — give your clients the Bruce Parry treatment!

Established Danish architectural practice Arkitema has been creating environmentally sound projects since the 1960s, but it’s not afraid to try something new - most recently, it’s been dipping a tentative toe into the world of anthropology...

“As long as man has needed shelter, architecture and anthropology have been linked,” says Arkitema. “To become an architect, a student has to study many disciplines; history, physics, maths, geography, urban planning and so on. For all this, rarely are they asked to think about the way man behaves and why.” Except, according to Arkitema, in Denmark.

And that’s why Arkitema decided to call in the anthropologists when it designed a new head office and R&D facilities for Vestas, the Danish wind power company. The anthropologists worked closely with Vestas’ employees, talking to them about their work and observing the way they went about their day-to-day tasks.

“What they noticed, in particular, was that the engineers were at their happiest and most engrossed when they were creating prototypes and testing them in the workshops,” saysArchitect Mette Rødtnes. “However, in their old headquarters, to get to these facilities they had to leave their desks and go to an entirely different part of the building.” The anthropologists realised that separating off the workshops had created an artificial divide between managing and manufacturing, which was totally at odds with the ethos of the company.

Arkitema’s resulting design for Vestas is a low-rise, triangular building, mirroring the shape of the company’s wind turbines. Workshops are now integrated with other managerial features, which not only gives an important psychological message, it also means engineers can spend more time doing what they feel most comfortable with, without the need to go constantly back and forth to opposite sides of the site.

Not quite the totally embedded gonzo style of BBC 2’s “Tribe” - where anthropologist Bruce Parry lives through the gruelling initiation ceremonies of some of the world’s ‘lost’ tribes - but nevertheless, a new way to assess your client’s needs?

Learn more:

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www.arkitema.com