The Bigger Picture: Henning Larsen's Signe Kongebro on Systems Thinking, Creative Boosts, and Expanding the Concept of Architecture

By Julia Gamolina

Signe Kongebro is the Global Design Director of Landscape and Urbanism and the founder of Henning Larsen’s sustainability department. She has been a member of Henning Larsen’s management since 2008 and is one of the driving forces behind the practice’s growing focus on sustainable construction. In 2015, she was appointed Adjunct Professor of Sustainable Architecture Studies at Sheffield University. She possesses extensive knowledge of sustainability in construction and resource-conscious design. Signe is a member of a number of boards and advisory boards, and a founding partner in initiatives such as REBUS Partnership and Sustainable Build. In her interview, Signe talks about a world of components, connections, and transitions, advising those just starting their careers to exercise empathy towards both their collaborators and the users of their designs.

Tell me about your foundational years – where did you grow up, what did you like to do as a kid, and what was the biggest challenge you faced growing up?

When I was a child, I won some prizes for drawing. It’s nice to think that it says something about my early visual sense, but it’s also because I'm quite competitive – not always seen as the most charming quality in a woman. We aren’t supposed to be competitive, but I am. I can’t play some games with my children because I get too upset!

But when I was very young, I was always interested in things that were ‘flowing’. I mean all kinds of flow: it could be water, things in transition, people. I was interested in infrastructure and how things were connected, before I knew about ‘architecture’ as an idea. I was less interested in shaping or designing things, and more into how things were built up, all the components that create a city. I think this is also where my interest in sustainability started, because suddenly I saw that that architecture was part of a bigger picture, and related to the concept of time in a city in a very different way.

Signe at the Henning Larsen studio with colleague, photography by Agnete Schlichtkrull.

What did you learn about yourself in studying architecture?

When I started at the Royal Academy in Copenhagen, I felt liberated. Suddenly I could create my own world. My time there was such an eyeopener and a creative boost! really liked creating a framework, a narrative, a product, a series of holistic actions; a world with all the components necessary to tell the right story. At the Academy, my main interest was the city scale, because you can apply systems thinking and make a bigger societal impact.

At that time, I preferred working in 1:500 models with zoomed-in 1:50 sections. I lived in the model shop. I did all sorts of modeling in wood, plastic, concrete casting, and I supported the 3D work with photography, hand sketches and stop-motion animation. This is where my interests in facades began. I looked at how the geometry, materials, and daylight reflector of this ‘weather boundary’ was important, for the environmental performance of the climate inside and outside. From early on, my focus has been on what architecture can do, instead of how it looks.

How did you get your start in the field?

Initially, I got a short hire at a small company just to get some money and experience. Then I started my own company with another woman focusing on restaurants, shops, high-end interiors. After three years, I wanted to try to have more of an impact on society through larger-scale building projects and I began at Henning Larsen. I was employee number 80, which gives you a sense of the studio at that time. Initially, I did competitions, but when I returned from maternity leave with my second child in 2007, I wanted to focus on sustainable architecture.

“...the story about daylight as a design parameter, and how daylight can inform very low impact buildings, was so powerful. Daylight is a very beautiful, sensitive medium for architects. We’ve always emphasized space, light, and materials as three core elements of architecture.”

— Signe Kongebro

Tell me how your work evolved, and you with it.

If I can choose one, I would say that daylight is the best design parameter to explain why sustainability matters in the design process. Since Henning was known as the ‘master of light’, it was an easy way to talk about sustainability. Daylight made sense with our legacy, with our aesthetics and identity. Suddenly, the amount of light coming into the building became crucial, not just from an aesthetic perspective, but for the performance of the building.

In 2008, when we started working with a much more dedicated focus on sustainability – setting up our R&D department, launching our PhD programme, broadcasting all our state-of-the-art research in books, papers and lectures around the world – things started to accelerate. People didn’t want ‘eco-buildings’, because they were worried about what they’d look like. But the story about daylight as a design parameter, and how daylight can inform very low impact buildings, was so powerful. Daylight is a very beautiful, sensitive medium for architects. We’ve always emphasized space, light, and materials as three core elements of architecture, so our sustainability team focused on one of these cornerstones to show how it can help to accomplish greater efficiency.

I wasn’t trying to dictate how a sustainable building should look. I was simply showing the value of sustainability as a design goal. Daylight is a free resource and working with it in an urban context, there are always so many layers of knowledge that need to be taken into account as a design evolves – in a sense, it is the medium where all types of professionals and stakeholders meet and co-create.

The 7,400m2 new headquarters for Copenhagen-based housing association KAB, is located on the axis of two major streets in Copenhagen, between one of the city’s oldest neighborhoods and one of its newest. Bridging Danish office culture with home life, within the atrium, nearly everything is clad in wood, giving the space a soft, ‘hyggeligt’ feeling and adding scent and texture not often associated with the workplace.

The REBUS (Renovating Buildings Sustainably) Façade Catalogue seeks to change the way we approach the renovation of underperforming housing with a versatile catalogue of facade renovation options, led by the principals of shortening construction time, using sustainable materials, and limiting nuisances for residents. No matter if residents choose a generous window opening, French balcony, or outdoor balcony, all improve quality of light, ventilation, acoustics, and energy performance.

Winner of the 2021 FastCompany World Changing Ideas Awards, Urban Design category. Fælledby, a design for an all-timber neighborhood in the center of Copenhagen, proposes a new model for collective living in which nature and urban life are tightly bound.

Where are you in your career today? What is on your mind most at the moment?

Sustainability. I’m even more passionate about it than I was in 2008. We still have a very long road ahead of us, but I’m hopeful. Right now, I'm moving into working at even larger scales with our urbanism and landscape projects. This is where the systems-thinking happens, for me. Buildings are important as components, but if we really want to accelerate the green transition, we need more focus on the early phases. These days, I am looking into how harvesting the right ‘big data’ can inform urban design, and vice versa – from community to design. I am really not a data scientist, but I am curious about how digitization can inform and develop livable and sustainable cities, and how it can strengthen our workflow and create design solutions. For instance, we are designing a neighbourhood for 6,000 people in Copenhagen, made almost entirely in wood. The way we are working with the computational models, the way we can assess CO2 emissions, biodiversity and the microclimate as we design, is new.

Looking back at it all, what have been the biggest challenges? How did you manage through a disappointment or a perceived setback?

The first years when I worked with sustainability were tough. We were developing our sustainable design approach based on new knowledge, and it was difficult to persuade clients, stakeholders, and authorities. After a while, I learned that with lots of knowledge-sharing, education, case studies, and a completely open-source attitude to the entire industry – inclusive of our competitors – could help to accelerate change. Suddenly, the tenders came because there was greater pressure from authorities and the top-tier real estate investors. We have had this front-runner position and market lead since.

“...you need to be constantly curious and present, as a human being, not just as an architect. You need empathy, not only for people and how they create, but also how they use buildings and the urban environment.”

— Signe Kongebro

What are you most excited about right now?

Innovation and how the concept of architecture is expanding. In industry terms, the market has really changed – I’m so excited to see other businesses, from investment funds to our collaborators in real estate, bringing a more research-driven focus to their organisations. Architects are no longer on the periphery in terms of research and development. This gives us the best chance to accelerate the green technologies and innovations that will make a difference to people’s lives and create the fairer, more sustainable world that we are all trying to achieve. I think projects like Moesgaard Museum, Faelledby and the Transformation of Gdansk Imperial Shipyard clearly indicate how we can unleash hidden potential in different contexts and decarbonise through design.

Who are you admiring now and why?

I would pay tribute to an important figure in my education, whom I greatly admired. Professor Anders Abraham from the Royal Danish Academy, who sadly passed away last year. When I was young, he inspired me to go outside Denmark, to travel. And so I went to Barcelona, I lived and worked there, and then I went to Cooper Union in New York to study. That time away from the Scandinavian tradition taught me about other ways of working. In New York, architecture was not just a series of classes and hand-drawing for ten hours a week. It was about the history of art, structure, it was multi-disciplinary – thanks to his influence and that time, I became very interested in the collaborative nature of architecture and urbanism, which remains central to my approach today.

What is the impact you’d like to have in the world? What is your core mission? And, what does success in that look like to you?

In the past, there has been a disconnect between ‘architecture’ and ‘sustainability’. One team designed a project, then it would go to another team, who would say that environmentally, it didn’t work, and it would go around in circles. I want to inspire architects to draw with a knowledge of sustainability – to have these principles in mind from the outset. I hope that my impact at Henning Larsen has been in bringing these different ways of working together; in our studio, the creative process and environmental design are always developed in collaboration, they support each other. For me, success is seeing this translate into the built environment and experiencing a place that works – that is inspiring, creative, well used by the people that it is designed for and does not pollute or drain precious resources.

Finally, what advice do you have for those starting their career? Would your advice be any different for women?

My advice is for anyone wanting to pursue a career in design, whatever their gender – you need to be constantly curious and present, as a human being, not just as an architect. You need empathy, not only for people and how they create, but also how they use buildings and the urban environment. If not, you cannot create projects that are relevant and sustainable – places need to be used to be sustainable. This touches on so many other aspects of life. You need to understand culture, behaviour, different lifestyles, and you need to create trust. Finally, perhaps most importantly, empathy is more than something you read about – it comes through genuine dialogue and reflection.