Robin Boyd visited Denmark in September 1950 with a list of contacts from Rae Featherstone, a University of Melbourne colleague. Featherstone had recently returned from visiting 38 schools of architecture in the latter part of 1949 till February 1950, producing a report ‘Architectural Education in Scandinavia, Western Europe, The United Kingdom, The United States of America’. One of these contacts was Tage Gorm Hansen, who at that time was at the Royal Danish Academy in Copenhagen. His name appears in a letter from September and November 1950 to Professor Brian Lewis, the inaugural Chair of Architecture at the University of Melbourne.

Tage Gorm Hansen tells Boyd about an international architectural student project run out of  The Royal Academy and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The idea is that “ advanced students at the leading architectural schools throughout the world are to be set the same problem”. The resulting solutions would form a travelling exhibition. The International Student project is of particular interest to Robin especially as the first project set is for a single family home - a typology he believes Australian students could excel in. Boyd suggested the participation of University of Melbourne to Hansen, which was well received. Boyd relates all this to Lewis and wonders if it is possible to implement at University of Melbourne within the tight timelines. 

The September letter also reflects on the nature of Scandinavian architecture.  He notes two outstanding buildings: Malmo Concert Hall and Aarhus Town Hall and remarks on the sound consistency of the great bulk of buildings. He goes on to discuss the teaching focus of Functionalism in Sweden and Denmark as a speculation for the high quality work en masse (pdf). 

A letter two months later relates his frustration with Hansen - Boyd has not received the expected details on the International student project from Hansen, which he had wanted to relay urgently to Lewis. However he notes a delightful meal he shared with Hansen at his “vine-bowerd flat for fried eel dinner” (pdf).