CHART Architecture announces pavilion competition finalists
CHART Architecture, an offshoot of the Copenhagen based art fair, has announced the finalists for its pavilion competition. Inspired by the theme ‘materiality’, the challenge was to rethink how materials could be used in different or new ways to build a sustainable future.
The international jury (including Wallpaper* design editor Rosa Bertoli) sorted through 54 proposals of experimental approaches submitted by a wide range of inter-disciplinary practitioners across the Nordic region. The five creative finalists selected approach topics such as consumerism, recycling and biology through their maverick and playful designs that combine materials such as foam, latex and salt crystals in unexpected ways.
Each design challenges how we perceive materials, and asks how we could rethink what we already know about a material to allow it to be used in a new way. ‘Sultan’ repurposes the materials of an IKEA mattress, and in its new formation the mattress is totally unrecognisable. ‘Rock Paper CNC’ takes recycled paper to make it look like stone, and in the ‘Cell pavilion’ latex cells come alive mimicking the shape of a living organism.
The aim of the competition is to provide a space for young architects think outside the box – and build into the real world: ‘At most art schools, one works with their art form in 1:1, at the film school, the visual arts school, the theatre school, and the design school, it is simply at the core of the learning process. At architecture schools, on the other hand, students do not have the opportunity to work with materials at such a scale, and as a newly graduated architect, few students get to work with projects that are particularly experimental,’ says David Zahle, partner at Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) and chair of the CHART Architecture jury.
More than just an experimental installation, the pavilions have a serious responsibility – they will be hosting CHART’s bars and restaurants during the fair (which runs 30 August – 1 September). A few other functions were squeezed in too – the ‘Salaria Pavilion’ hopes to draw attention to the importance of salt and ‘Snug as a bug in a rug’ seeks to provide a comfortable place for visitors to rest their weary art-fair-fatigued legs. Aesthetically, the finalists are all distinct, and a visit to the Charlottenborg courtyards is promised to be a fun-filled affair of experimental architecture. And – if your don't catch them there – CHART is collaborating with the Copenhagen Architecture Festival so the pavilions will be shown again in 2020.
INFORMATION
For more information, visit the CHART website
Wallpaper* Newsletter + Free Download
For a free digital copy of August Wallpaper*, celebrating Creative America, sign up today to receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories
Harriet Thorpe is a writer, journalist and editor covering architecture, design and culture, with particular interest in sustainability, 20th-century architecture and community. After studying History of Art at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and Journalism at City University in London, she developed her interest in architecture working at Wallpaper* magazine and today contributes to Wallpaper*, The World of Interiors and Icon magazine, amongst other titles. She is author of The Sustainable City (2022, Hoxton Mini Press), a book about sustainable architecture in London, and the Modern Cambridge Map (2023, Blue Crow Media), a map of 20th-century architecture in Cambridge, the city where she grew up.
-
Commune’s sustainable personal care products look ‘quite unlike anything else’
Commune’s Somerset-made products stand out in the sustainable skincare crowd. Madeleine Rothery speaks with the brand’s co-founders Kate Neal and Rémi Paringaux
By Madeleine Rothery Published
-
‘Hedonistic and avant-garde’: Rabanne’s Julian Dossena on the legacy of the chainmail 1969 bag
Paco Rabanne’s 1969 chainmail handbag encapsulates the late designer’s futuristic, space-age style. Current creative director Julien Dossena tells Wallpaper* about the bag’s particular pleasures
By Jack Moss Published
-
Postcard from Paris: Olympic fever takes over the streets
On the eve of the opening ceremony of Paris 2024, our correspondent shares her views from the streets of the capital about how the event is impacting the urban landscape.
By Minako Norimatsu Published
-
A redesigned Aarhus showroom reinterprets Danish history through modern context
Danish architecture studio Djernes & Bell transforms the Aarhus showroom for Dinesen and Garde Hvalsøe by blending old and new
By Tianna Williams Published
-
Minimalist Heatherhill Beach house was conceived with an 'essentialist mindset'
Heatherhill Beach house by Norm Architects in Denmark's Vejby is designed as a minimalist retreat conceived with an 'essentialist mindset'
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
3XN exhibition in Copenhagen discusses architecture through our senses
3XN exhibition 'Aware: Architecture and Senses' opens its doors at the Danish Architecture Center in Copenhagen
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
The Opera Park in Copenhagen is an urban green island where ‘nature comes first’
The Opera Park creates a new urban green lung near Copenhagen's fast-developing Paper Island district, courtesy of Danish architecture studio Cobe
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Cave Bureau uses geology to refocus and understand the relationship between architecture and nature
Cave Bureau’s exhibition at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art opens in Denmark, marking the latest – and last – entry in the gallery's The Architecture Studio series
By Marwa El Mubark Published
-
Nordic architecture explored in Share, a book about contemporary building
Discussions about Nordic architecture and contemporary practice meet in a new book by Artifice, Share: Conversations about Contemporary Architecture – The Nordic Countries
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
BIG’s Refugee Museum of Denmark addresses ‘one of the world’s greatest challenges’
BIG has converted and extended buildings at a Second World War Danish refugee camp to create the new Refugee Museum of Denmark
By Hannah Silver Last updated
-
Aalborg’s Utzon Center exhibition celebrates the Danish holiday home
A new exhibition at the Utzon Center in Aalborg, Denmark, titled ‘Holiday Home’, focuses on the iconic Danish sommerhus
By Jonathan Bell Last updated