Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

Alternative Christmas Tree

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

12. december 2016

Photo: Allan Toft (All photographs courtesy of SOM)

Step right into the middle of this year’s Christmas tree at Utzon Center and get an experience out of the ordinary, designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM), the architects behind the current Utzon Center exhibition, Sky’s the Limit.

From December 1st, the Utzon Center is displaying the result of a collaborative effort between some of the world’s best architects, engineers and lighting designers: a 7-meter (23-foot) tall Christmas tree in the Utzon Center courtyard built from the famous Peter Lassen GRID.

Photo: Allan Toft

One thousand square GRID elements and ever-changing illumination from colorful lights, the most alternative version of a Christmas tree in Aalborg rises from the courtyard.

Photo: Allan Toft

"Stepping into the middle of a Christmas tree and getting that different and, in some ways, mind-bending experience of space and design, is not something you can experience elsewhere in Denmark," says Lasse Andersson, creative director at Utzon Center.

Photo: Allan Toft

The process has indeed been a collaborative process. In just three weeks, SOM designed the shape of the tree and Steensen Warming supplied the lighting design. GRID Montana and Peter Lassen are sponsoring the grid and Martin Harman the lights. The Christmas tree is a part of the exhibition, Sky’s the Limit, which is on display at Utzon Center until January 15, 2017.

The Christmas tree is on display until the end of January.