THE ROAD

TOWARDS

INFORMAL

DEMOCRACY

In 1939, Flemming Lassen, in collaboration with Arne Jacobsen, won an architectural

competition to design Søllerød Town Hall, outside Copenhagen. The two friends

beat Flemming’s own brother Mogens Lassen and the renowned architect Jørn Utzon.

Their proposal was chosen for its genius planning of the driveway and accessibility

as well as its usage of light and sun and the already-thought-out room for expansion.

The city hall is the epitome of ‘soft, Nordic functionalism’, a style of architecture that

especially Flemming Lassen refined throughout his career. Consisting of two crossing

buildings, it constitutes one of Denmarks most solid cast public buildings since the

middle of the 20th century.