Martin Nyrop

Martin Nyrop attended Søro Academy and completed his architecture studies at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in 1876. After studying abroad under a scholarship from 1881-1883, Nyrop was an assistant to professor Hans Jørgen Holm. In 1900, Nyrop was awarded the Grand Prix for design at the Exposition Universelle in Paris. In 1906, he became a professor at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture and served as director of the Academy of Fine Arts between 1908-1918.

Today Nyrop is recognized as the architect behind some of the most important architectural works in Denmark, which vary from private villas to churches, hospitals and government buildings. Among his main works are Østre Gasværk which opened in 1878 as Copenhagen’s second gasworks, and Copenhagen City Hall, which was completed in 1905. Nyrop took inspiration from the ancient classics and his travels to Italy and had a penchant for the National Romantic style and is known today as one of the main figures of National Romanticism in Danish architecture around 1900.

Nyrop’s background as a carpenter gave him an incredible sense of functionality, which can be seen in both his architecture and in his furniture design. In collaboration with Danish master cabinetmakers Rud Rasmussen, Thorvald Bindesbøll and Vilhelm Dahlerup, Nyrop designed furniture for the Copenhagen City Hall, resulting in a seamless aesthetic and atmosphere between the interior and the architecture itself. This unique furniture production was shaped in classic Nordic ‘almuestil’ and is only found in a limited production.