14-08-2018

2018 Biennale Architecture, the Denmark pavilion

Natalie Mossin,

Rasmus Hjortshoij,

Venice, Italy,

Pavilions, Biennale di Venezia,

We continue our discovery tour of national representations at the Arsenale and the Giardini of the Venice Biennale.



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2018 Biennale Architecture, the Denmark pavilion We continue our discovery tour of national representations at the Arsenale and the Giardini of the Venice Biennale. Natalie Mossin is the curator of Possible Spaces – Sustainable Development through Collaborative Innovations, Denmark's contribution to the 16th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia.


Possible Spaces – Sustainable Development through Collaborative Innovations: this is the title of Denmark's Pavilion, presented through four projects selected by the curator Natalie Mossin. This showcases the Danish approach to the innovation of sustainable architecture where BLOX, the new headquarters of the Danish Architecture Centre DAC (link),acts as the backdrop and at the same time virtuous example of a generous Freespace, which was the intention of Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara, the curators of this year's Architecture Biennale.
The exhibition of the Denmark pavilion responds to this over-arching theme and focuses on the number of opportunities that come up when we address modern challenges - environmental sustainability, social viability and economic feasibility - in the passage between coming up with brilliant ideas and actually putting them into practice. We have new opportunities to create solutions, or in other words to construct possible spaces through collaborative innovations, as the title of Denmark's Pavilion specifies. Because new input for the world of architecture, as well as the world at large, can be facilitated by designers working side-by-side with professionals from other areas.
This formed the basis for the four projects exhibited. Mobility: Hyperloop One addresses the question of how infrastructure can alter spatial relationships on a grand scale. Hyperloop is a visionary development project created in a collaboration between BIG and several international stakeholders, who are jointly rethinking mobility to demonstrate a radical, new perception of space, landscape, time and distance. Then again, 
New tools: K2 by CITA explores the potentials of developing new digital interdisciplinary design and construction methods, while Cultural identity: Svinkløv Badehotel uses the rebuilding of a famous, all-wood hotel that was lost to fire in 2016 to explore how architecture can recreate a sense of identity and ownership, by using a collaborative approach to the project involving developer, visitors, contractor and the general public and spearheaded by the architecture firm, Praksis Arkitekter. Conversely, 
Sustainable transformation: Albertslund South showcases the conversion of the present real estate into modern, sustainable housing since in Denmark, like elsewhere in Europe, existing suburbs are characterised by the large-scale suburban planning of the 1960s and 1970s but the residential estates lack a human scale and are unsuited to today’s family types. One example of this is the Albertslund South renovation project by Vandkunsten Architects that demonstrates how architects in collaboration with housing societies, contractors, a local authority and residents can redevelop existing housing to modernise it and enhance its environmental performance.
The thing that ties all four projects together is the fact that each and every one of them represents authentically local solutions, at the same time showing their potential in relation to the global development agendas that they address. 

Christiane Bürklein

Denmark pavilion
Possible Spaces – Sustainable Development through Collaborative Innovations
curated by Natalie Mossin
26 May to 25 November 2018
Giardini della Biennale, Venice
Images: Courtesy of DAC - © R. Hjortshøj
Find out more: https://dac.dk/en/exhibitions/possible-spaces/

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