Water is the first major Danish exhibition that conveys and debates water as an omnipresent, coherent, life-giving substance: a system that is the basis of all life and human civilization. A system whose balance is threatened!

Water is a wondrous element. It can be hard as ice and airy as a cloud. Rippling like the brook and rushing like rain. Quiet as a forest lake and roaring like a raging sea. Man has always been fascinated by WATER!

More than 70 percent of the earth’s surface consists of water! 95 percent of all water on earth is found in the world’s oceans. The rest is in the atmosphere, in the ice caps, in the soil, in plants, in animals – and in people!
Water is fundamental to all life on earth – we live in a world of WATER!

But water also has a destructive potential. Climate change has changed the behavior of water on the globe. The news is overflowing with images of melting ice caps, devastating floods, destructive storm surges and cloudbursts. Water in the basement has suddenly become something a lot of people can talk about. As 100-year events become more and more frequent, massive rainfall becomes part of everyday life. The same applies to sea level rise. In 2150, the sea at the Danish coasts may have risen by up to 180 cm. above 1990 levels if the world does not slow down and cut greenhouse gases.

Water shows what kind of reality we look into when the water comes. Should we pull away from the coast? Should we entrench ourselves or should we live with the water? How do we avoid devastating floods? How do we get the best out of the climate crisis with new, recreational urban spaces with space for the water? Can you extract quality of life and beauty from the boring climate protection? And what can we learn about building with water as a new condition when we go back in history or look out into the world?

At the exhibition, you can also experience elements from the Danish exhibition in the Architecture Biennale, Coastal Imaginaries, which conveys and debates the future coastal protection of the capital area.

Developed by

The exhibition is developed by Danish Architecture Center

Photos

Rasmus Hjortshøj