bien (the bee), tramway waiting-room and newsstand, 1904-1907. architect: p.v. jensen-klint (1853-1930).

trained as an engineer and later as a painter at the royal academy in copenhagen, jensen-klint was a latecomer to architecture - and what is more, largely self-taught. the tramway waiting-room is an early work in the sense that he had only completed a few houses previous to this, yet he was in his fifties when the project commenced.

klint's entry into architecture was polemical, he didn't care for the prevailing historicism and its stucco detailing and argued in writing in favour of craft and national identity. a Danish ruskinian, you could say, and very quickly a whole generation of young architects rallyed around him, making him honoury member of their break-away "free institute of architects", a rebellion against the power and values of the royal academy.

the bee is an odd work, a masonry oval in a busy traffic junction in central copenhagen, but as striking as his buildings often are - and high on the list of structures I remember from childhood visits to the capital.