PRESS RELEASE August 20, 2025
Lene Tranberg receives the Henning Larsen Foundation Honorary Grant
On the occasion of architect Henning Larsen’s 100th birthday, the Henning Larsen Foundation awards ten honorary grants to architect Lene Tranberg and nine graduates from Aarhus School of Architecture and the Royal Danish Academy’s School of Architecture.
Henning Larsen was born on 20 August 1925. In 1958, he became a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts’ School of Architecture, and in 1959 he founded Henning Larsen Architects, which under his leadership over the next 50 years grew into an internationally renowned architectural practice with major projects both in Denmark and abroad.
For his buildings, Henning Larsen received the highest Danish and international honors. In the 1980s, he established SKALA, an architecture gallery and magazine, focusing on international developments in architecture. At the age of 88, Henning Larsen passed away in 2013. The studio continues today in new ownership and employs more than 600 people across 8 countries.
Celebrating the Centenary
In 2001, Henning Larsen established a non-profit foundation bearing his name. The foundation’s purpose is to support Danish architecture, including through honorary awards to architects who have distinguished themselves through the creation of works of exceptional quality. For nearly 25 years, the Henning Larsen Foundation has presented its honorary grants on Henning Larsen’s birthday, 20 August.
On the 100th anniversary of his birth, the foundation’s board has chosen to honor both the creation of architectural works of the highest quality and to look forward by recognizing the next generation. Nine newly graduated architects from Denmark’s two schools of architecture are therefore being awarded alongside Lene Tranberg. The centenary of Henning Larsen’s birth is being marked with TV broadcasts, debates, and publications.
One of the Greatest
Architect Lene Tranberg is among Denmark’s foremost architects. She graduated from the Royal Danish Academy’s School of Architecture in 1984, and the following year co-founded the architectural practice Lundgaard & Tranberg with Boje Lundgaard.
“Lene Tranberg is honored for her focused, persistent, and extensive body of work spanning four decades. Her architectural works have not only upheld but also contributed exceptional, inspiring, and thus significant advancements to the high artistic, technical, and social standards of Danish architecture. Her buildings radiate an authentic atmosphere and artistic mastery at the highest level, enriching us all with aesthetic well-being,” says architect Kent Martinussen, chairman of the foundation’s board.
New Talents
The foundation also honors nine young architects who have just graduated from the country’s two schools of architecture in Aarhus and Copenhagen. Common to the six graduation projects created by the nine graduates is an exceptional understanding of the profession’s many new agendas, including the use of new materials and tools in their exploration of architecture’s essence and potential future.
Alberte Goldenbeck Hansen (Aarhus School of Architecture) receives the grant for her graduation project House for Dan – a building dedicated to the life and authorship of writer Dan Turèll.
Ida Fine Bøtker-Rasmussen and Oliver Arndal Jensen (Aarhus School of Architecture) receive grants for their project Utilizing what we have and realizing what we need – a radical regeneration of the DSB Maintenance area.
Magnus Lynge Damgaard and Karoline Bonde Larsen (Aarhus School of Architecture) receive grants for their project Assemblage 8000 – A Catalyst for Deconstruction.
Clara Mandrup-Poulsen Lundgaard (Royal Danish Academy, School of Architecture) receives a grant for her project Reproduction – an agricultural laboratory.
Ryan Anthony O’Connor (Royal Danish Academy, School of Architecture) receives a grant for his project Valorising Waste Streams – Reimagining Glass Reuse.
Sarah Aarhus and Julie Hansen Abrahamsen (Royal Danish Academy, School of Architecture) receive grants for their project The Stock Exchange, Copenhagen, which writes a new chapter in the history of the iconic Børsen.
