OLD PEOPLE LIVE LONGER IN HOUSES INSPIRED BY CHINA

STORY

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The architect behind the Sydney Opera House in Australia is Jørn Utzon from Denmark.
He designed things in small varying boxes that overall became a beautiful place.

Jørn Utzon also made a village for old retired people that now have proven to make people live longer.

The village for old people is called the Fredensborghusene, north of Copenhagen.

Inspiration actually comes from China. Jørn Utzon visited China and visited the Wang’s Family Compound (Wang Jia Dayuan) – “Imperial Palace” of Civilians. He liked that you had your own space and a yard, but lived in a community with others. The individual houses looked the same at first, but all got small variations.

The same goes for Fredensborghusene in Copenhagen, Denmark, where Inger Stricker Pedersen from Denmark, now 79 says:
“I find it impressive that when Jørn Utzon built this place that he managed to connect everything. Well, you go from this complex through the little forest right behind me, which is a public little forest, but it connects us to nature”.

When Inger walks out her door with her dog, she can walk straight into the local forest without any fences and even join the golf course or sit and look at all, if she likes.

In China the average age is 77. Inger Stricker Pedersen is now 79 and the average age in Denmark is 82 and for women, even up to 86. However in Fredensborghusene the average age for men is 84 and for women 88. So Inger Stricker Pedersen has 11 more years to live than the average age in China is today.

Inger Stricker Pedersen says about the place Jørn Utzon made: “ It’s just gorgeous and it’s fantastic the way he created this connection, I think.”

There are 73 units, 9 guestrooms, and also a restaurant. You have to eat in the restaurant 12 times per month, which is creating a good social life says Svend Hald Kristensen, 83:
“I think the social life that is organized around our center building is the thing that prolongs our lives because we meet each other, neighbors and so on…”

Inger Stricker Pedersen says the same sitting enjoying her little garden filled with flowers:
”Everybody has an interesting story to tell. Everybody has an interesting background. Everybody has had good experiences”.

The Fredensborghusene allows for many good experiences: In the center, many things are organized:  In Denmark singing is very popular among the people around 80, so groups gather and sing the old Danish folk songs. Concerts and more are also arranged. 

Jørn Uzon traveled the world and was inspired by similar houses built in Morocco with local materials. Marocco is built with rocks, mud and wood. In China with bricks and wood. IN Denmark with yellow bricks from the underground with mud and grass, as well as wood.

Jørn Utzon visited China for the first time in 1957, while he was designing Fredensborghusene and got inspired as well by The Forbidden City in Beijing. 

He actually finished the drawings for the Fredensborghusene after the visit to China and finished all the building 5 years later. In 1987, Fredensborghusene were saved by the government, so they never can be changed or taken down.
Fredensborghusene is yet another example of the respect and inspiration Denmark have for China and the Chinese culture, and handcraft. 

Jørn Utzon himself became 90 years of age, and died in died in 2008. A year after the Sydney Opera House was declared a World Heritage Site.

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