Dorte Mandrup exhibition, Copenhagen PLACE Aedes Architecture Forum

Looking at the overall photographs, what is striking about the designs of the Copenhagen-based Dorte Mandrup architectural practice is without doubt their ability to capturethe uniqueness of each site and landscape, translating them into architecture designed for those places and only for them. The "PLACE" exhibition, which opened on 8 July at the Aedes Architecture Forum in Berlin, brings to the public's attention precisely the profound relationship that Dorte Mandrup's architectures form with the places for which they are designed. The exhibition is divided into two main parts.
The public is first welcomed into a “ Wunderkammer” where an extensive collection of images, sketches, artefacts, fragments and materials is displayed. They are objects to be touched, looked at, read, to also connect emotionally with places. This is an important step in discovering and understanding what inspired the architects when designing the works.

The second part of the exhibition consists of five site-specific installations, one for each of the projects presented: the The Whale museum in the Lofoten Islands in northern Norway, the Exile Museum in Berlin, Germany, the Wadden Sea Centre near Esbjerg, Denmark, the Trilateral World Heritage Wadden Sea Partnership Centre in Wilhelmshaven, Germany, and the Ilulissat Icefjord Centre for the glacier of the same name in Greenland.
The site-specific installations present large-scale models that show the interaction between a specific location and the building constructed there. Through these, visitors can understand how the Dorte Mandrup studio has transformed the wonderful creative chaos of the Wunderkammer into architecture, and how the location is a determining and fundamental element of architectural design. Dorte Mandrup's architectural designs become a significant and clear example of this concept. Those on display are, in fact, buildings that serve similar functions, museums and visitor centres, and that share a common vision in terms of sustainability and challenges to be faced, but they are marvellously and completely different in terms of materiality, form and structure, precisely because they are designed for the uniqueness of each place. Through architecture, as Dorte Mandrup, the firm's founder, maintains, something contextually unique is conveyed, and the understanding and experience of each place is enhanced.

(Agnese Bifulco)

Images courtesy of Aedes Architecture Forum and Dorte Mandrup

Exhibition Title:
Dorte Mandrup, Copenhagen
PLACE
A Symbiosis Between Architecture and Context

Exhibition: 9 July – 17 August 2022
Opening: Friday, 8 July 2022, 6.30pm
Venue: Aedes Architecture Forum, Christinenstr. 18–19, 10119 Berlin
Opening hours: Tue–Fri 11–6.30pm, Sun–Mon 1–5pm, Sat 9 July 2022, 1–5pm
Photos and Render: Tuala Hjarnø, MIR, Adam Mørk

Captions & Credits
02 Dorte Mandrup portrait credit Tuala Hjarnø
01,03-07 Ilulissat Icefjord Centre credit Adam Mørk
08-10 Exile Museum credit MIR
11-16 The Whale credit MIR
17-23 Wadden Sea Centre credit Adam Mørk
24-25 Wilhelmshaven credit MIR

---

GALLERY