Erik Reitzel
Erik Reitzel was a Danish civil engineer who started work in 1964 and was for many years a professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and the Technical University of Denmark, in the disciplines of bearing structures and structural design.
His research enabled him to discover the fundamental correlation between fracture, minimal structures and growth. This discovery makes it possible to obtain considerable savings in construction materials. Erik Reitzel is the author of books and articles on the outcomes of his research and their practical application.
Several prizes have been awarded to Erik Reitzel in Denmark and abroad for his research and work on architectural minimal structures, as well as for interesting and original solutions to major engineering projects. It was for this reason that he was awarded the Légion d’honneur at the request of French President François Mitterrand. In 1988 he was awarded the Nykredit Architecture Prize.
Since 1971, Erik Reitzel, in partnership with his wife Inge Reitzel, has been a consultant engineer.
First prize projects
With various architects, he has participated in competitions and won several prizes, for example:- The New Parliament in Stockholm, 1972
- Grande Arche in Paris, 1983; originally planned as an International Communications Centre
- The urban plan for Husarviken, in Stockholm, 1988
- The Danish Pavilion at Expo 92 in Seville, 1989
- Copenhagen Business School, Frederiksberg, Denmark
- Västra City in Stockholm, 1997
Realised projects
He has designed constructions in collaboration with various companies, cf. for example:- Grande Arche in Paris
- The lift tower for Grande Arche
- An exhibition platform in the Louvre, Paris
- The lattice dome for Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre
- Church at Gammel Holte
- The glass pyramid for the House of Industry in Copenhagen
- A spiral-shaped bridge in the Sophienholm Park, at Kongens Lyngby
- A greenhouse built like a meccano system at Virum
- The quasi crystal structure for the Technical University of Denmark
- The Symbolic Globe at UNESCO, Paris
- The royal bridge on Esrum Lake
- The transport over 2 kilometres of the Terminal VL 39 building from Copenhagen Airport to Maglebylille