Jørgensen, Thorvald

Biography in relation to Skagen

Jørgensen trained as a carpenter in Aarhus, then attended the Technical Society's school in Copenhagen, from which he graduated in 1885.

Works in Skagen:

• Grenens Badehotel, Skagen (1899-1900, extended 1910, partly burnt 1938 and demolished)

• Renovation of Villa Dagminne, painter Laurits Tuxen's house, Tuxens Allé 16, Skagen (1902)

• Skagen Pharmacy (1904)

• Villa Guldmaj, Åkandevej 10, Skagen (1911)

Thorvald Jørgensens største arbejde er Christansborg Slot 1906-1928, men han har også tegnet kakkelovne, blandt andet den der står i Skagen gamle rådhus (Tinghuset).

Lidt bonus info om det tredje Christiansborg (kilde: Wikipedia)

Det andet Christiansborg, som var tegnet af C.F.Hansen, brændte den 3. oktober 1884

Tiderne var nu meget anderledes end ved den sidste genopførelse i 1806. Der var indført demokrati og talrige partier og interessegrupper havde holdninger til, hvordan det næste Christiansborg skulle se ud.

Planer om genopbygning

Umiddelbart efter branden skulle der skaffes alternative hjemsteder til Christiansborgs institutioner, men man regnede med at det blev kortvarigt og midlertidigt, da der blev hurtigt sendt bud efter den danskfødte arkitekt Theophilus Hansen, som blev bedt om et forslag til et nyt slot.

Landstinget afviste imidlertid Hansens forslag, og på trods af, at han forsøgte at modificere det, blev han sat ud af spillet, da man i 1887 vedtog en lov om en åben konkurrence. Theophilus Hansen havde svært ved at acceptere dette afslag, og han indsendte de følgende år flere oplæg, som blev stadig mere urealistiske.

Der indløb dog ikke nogen tilfredsstillende forslag, og man prøvede derfor endnu en konkurrence med mindre stringente krav.

Et forslag af Ferdinand Meldahl og Albert Jensen var ganske lovende, men af forskellige praktiske og politiske årsager blev anlægsloven ikke vedtaget før systemskiftet i 1901, hvor Venstre dannede regering. Nu stod genopbygningen højt på dagsordnen, og den 6. oktober 1903 vedtog Rigsdagen en lov, hvori det hed at Christiansborg Slot bliver at genopføre således, at der navnlig tilvejebringes, enten samlet eller adskilt, de fornødne bygninger dels til brug for kongen for repræsentation og lignende øjemed, dels til brug for Rigsdagen.

Der blev nedsat en kommission og iværksat endnu en konkurrence på trods af stadige diskussioner om, hvad Christiansborg egentlig skulle indeholde. Den store anstødssten var sammenblandingen af rigsdag og kongeslot, som mødte kraftig kritik både fra politisk hold, idet Rigsdagens medlemmer ikke ville bo som gæster i kongens slot, og dels fra artitekter, som fremførte, at de forskellige funktioner burde fordeles på forskellige bygninger med forskellige arkitektoniske udtryk.

Kommissionen havde 26 medlemmer, men kun få af disse – fem – var arkitekter. De fem arkitekter var professorerne Hans J. Holm,Ferdinand Meldahl og H.B. Storck, Ulrik Plesner samt Axel Berg.

Konkurrencen 1904-05

Trods kritikken blev konkurrencen gennemført 1904-05.

Deltagerne i konkurrencen deltog anonymt. Kommissionen præmierede tre projekter fra Martin Nyrop, Andreas Clemmensen og Thorvald Jørgensen.

Kun de tre arkitekter med bidrag præmieret blev inviteret til at gå videre med projekterne. De indsendte projekter kunne ifølge betingelserne ikke offentliggøres. Denne bestemmelse vakte stor kritik i offentligheden,

Med hensyn til projekterne, blev Brummer og Mørk-Hansens projekt sejrherre med 774 stemmer. Thorvald Jørgensens fik 366 stemmer, mens Andreas Clemmensen måtte nøjes med 78.

På grund af den vedvarende kritik at konkurrencens resultater afholdt Akademisk Arkitektforening et møde om emnet, hvor også P.V. Jensen Klint meldte sig i koret af kritikere og gav sin tilslutning til Brummer-Mørk-Hansen-projektet.

Det endte dog med, at man i april 1906 vedtog Thorvald Jørgensens forslag på trods af mange højlydte protester mod både bygningens udseende og indhold.

Resultatet var, at slottet skulle indeholde de samme funktioner som før branden: Rigsdagen, Højesteret og de omdiskuterede repræsentationslokaler for kongen. Kongens lokaler var først tænkt udelukkende til repræsentative formål, men det ændrede sig da Christian X efter sin tiltræden i 1912 meddelte, at han gerne ville have bolig på slottet og flytte ind. I 1922, da opførelsen var i gang, ændrede kongen dog mening og besluttede nu, at han alligevel ville blive boende på Amalienborg.

Thorvald Jørgensen's greatest work is Christansborg Castle 1906-1928, but he also designed tiled stoves, including the one in Skagen's old town hall (Tinghuset).

Some bonus info about the third Christiansborg (source: Wikipedia)

The second Christiansborg, designed by C.F.Hansen, burnt down on 3 October 1884

Times were now very different from the last reconstruction in 1806. Democracy had been introduced and numerous parties and interest groups had opinions on what the next Christiansborg should look like.

Plans for reconstruction

Immediately after the fire, alternative homes for Christiansborg's institutions had to be found, but this was expected to be short-lived and temporary, as bids were quickly sent to the Danish-born architect Theophilus Hansen, who was asked to come up with a proposal for a new palace.

However, the Landsting rejected Hansen's proposal, and despite his attempts to modify it, he was sidelined when a law was passed in 1887 for an open competition. Theophilus Hansen had difficulty accepting this rejection, and in the following years he submitted several proposals that became increasingly unrealistic.

However, no satisfactory proposals were received and a second competition with less stringent requirements was tried.

A proposal by Ferdinand Meldahl and Albert Jensen was quite promising, but for various practical and political reasons the Construction Act was not passed until the change of system in 1901, when the Left formed the government. Reconstruction was now high on the agenda, and on 6 October 1903 the Riksdag passed a law stating that Christiansborg Palace was to be reconstructed in such a way that, in particular, the necessary buildings would be provided, either together or separately, partly for the use of the King for representation and similar purposes, and partly for the use of the Riksdag.

A commission was set up and another competition launched, despite constant discussions about what Christiansborg should actually contain. The major stumbling block was the conflation of the Parliament and the Royal Palace, which met with strong criticism both from the political side, as the members of the Parliament did not want to stay as guests in the King's Palace, and from the artistic side, which argued that the different functions should be divided between different buildings with different architectural expressions.

The commission had 26 members, but few of them - five - were architects. The five architects were Professors Hans J. Holm,Ferdinand Meldahl and H.B. Storck, Ulrik Plesner and Axel Berg.

The 1904-05 competition

Despite the criticism, the competition went ahead in 1904-05.

Participants in the competition were anonymous. The commission awarded prizes to three projects from Martin Nyrop, Andreas Clemmensen and Thorvald Jørgensen.

Only the three architects with winning entries were invited to proceed with the projects. The submitted projects could not be published according to the conditions. This provision was widely criticised by the public,

As for the projects, Brummer and Mørk-Hansen's project was the winner with 774 votes. Thorvald Jørgensen received 366 votes, while Andreas Clemmensen had to settle for 78.

Due to the persistent criticism of the competition results, the Academic Architects' Association held a meeting on the subject, at which P.V. Jensen Klint joined the chorus of critics and gave his support to the Brummer-Mørk-Hansen project.

In the end, however, Thorvald Jørgensen's proposal was adopted in April 1906, despite many vocal protests against both the building's appearance and its contents.

The result was that the palace would contain the same functions as before the fire: the Riksdag, the Supreme Court and the controversial representation rooms for the King. The King's rooms were initially intended solely for representative purposes, but this changed when Christian X announced after his accession in 1912 that he would like to live in the palace and move in. However, in 1922, when construction was under way, the King changed his mind and now decided that he would stay at Amalienborg after all.