LTH-fontänen, Lund
s_p_o_c has added a photo to the pool:
Architect: Klas Anshelm
Built in: 1970
Client: Statens konstråd
In the center area of The Faculty of Engineering was originally an old Brickyard and there remained two water-filled clay pits. Klas Anshelm got the idea for the LTH-fountain, in collaboration with sculptor Arne Jones, as an integrated part of the Faculty of Engineering, as he designed the LTH area in the early 1960′s. Anshelm idea was to connect the two ponds with a fountain. The earliest sketches are from January 1963, and the final drawings to the fountain are dated 15 November 1966.
Anshelm undertook a number fountain projects, but the LTH-fountain is by far the most spectacular. The client was the National Public Art Council, developer Byggnadsstyrelsen and designer tech. Dr. Åke Holmberg. The LTH-fountain is a symbiosis of art and technology, an artistic-technological cathedral of steel, glass and water without parallel in the world.
There have been problems with the LTH-fountain since the beginning. Leakage, difficulties for the glass to withstand compressive loads sideways in strong winds and even sabotage. The political situation was a bit sensitive Anshelm could say: "… It was about 1968th It was not so damn merciful, many thought, how many day care centers, could not have been built for that fountain that nobody cares about … "
Anyone who has had the privilege of seeing the enormous fountain running and felt its power and charisma will not forget it. When the LTH-fountain was new, the students were extremely negative. Today the opinion has totally turned. Against all odds the Student Association establish a final run of the fountain in 1996.
This is an architectural model of the LTH-fountain from an exhibition about Klas Anshelm’s work, Collected Objects, at The Swedish Museum of Architecture .
The Faculty of Engineering at Lund University, Lunds Tekniska Högskola or “LTH” in Swedish , is among the leading engineering faculties in Europe, with more than 7000 undergraduates and 800 postgraduates. Founded in 1961, as an independent institute, it today belongs to Lund University, which is one of Scandinavia’s largest institutions for education and research with about 35 000 students and 6000 employees.
