For millennia people have built to meet requirements not afforded to them by the natural environment. However, for the past century, the process of providing these buildings has become more and more disparate.
The qualities of a building are of commodity, firmness and delight – a definition given by Henry Wooton and taken from Vitruvius. The danger lies in valuing them and therefore dealing with them separately - they are interdependent, inextricably linked. The main instrument in building design is not a computer but a balance.
A building is a machine, a body, a system - the team must understand and embrace the whole - closer collaboration and interaction are the real drivers towards value and sustainability, enhanced by a pursuit of excellence, integrity, responsibility and making the process enjoyable. Education and indeed co-education is the key to future success.
Building services is an art, as well as a science, there are passive and active initiatives available that need to satisfy both subjective issues, such as aesthetics and comfort, as well as the functional requirements, ranging from basic needs to fundamental impacts on society and the environment.
Total Architecture naturally culminates in elegant and sustainable solutions that embody Detail, Technical Accuracy, Functionality, Maintainability, Efficiency, Effectiveness, Endurance, Neatness, Order, Integration, Comfort, Simplicity and Excellence. Steensen Varming promote and advocate the pursuit of Total Architecture.
Steensen Varming’s approach to design is quite unique with a philosophy that is deeply engrained and passed on through each generation.
We maintain the Danish approach to excellence that was reinforced in our formative years by a combination of the most demanding contemporary architectural designs and the need to break new ground to satisfy the technical requirements to support those such as Niels Bohr the renowned Nobel Prize winning physicist.
Our enjoyment comes from mutual respect and inclusion especially from an early stage. Arne Jacobsen once told Jørgen Varming “When asked to build a house for someone, the worst thing which can happen is that the client presents me with a sketch of what he wants. Usually such sketches are fairly sensible, the plan will work - but the flame has gone” - we too can feel the same.
We have a pre-occupation with establishing intensive, fruitful, happy, long-term relationships with good clients and architects. Steensen Varming aims to be a building services engineering consultancy of the highest integrity and calibre. Commercial gains are secondary in our pursuit of excellence.
The firm has always taken a long term view of the provision of quality service and best practice, wishing to enjoy the products of its collaborative work far beyond project completion dates. Steensen Varming seek to provide solutions to the built environment which not only function effectively but also give pleasure and, on occasions, delight to the occupants.
Our further aim is to contribute to education, the advancement of the profession and projects which increase public awareness and raise their aspirations environmentally, functionally and aesthetically.
