The Danish submission to the 16th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia presents a Danish approach to innovation through four projects selected by curator Natalie Mossin.

The challenges posed by the built environment call for new practices, and the selected projects propose four highly differentiated solutions to sustainable development. As a framework for the narrative of experience-exchange and collaboration as prerequisites of genuine innovation, the Danish program presents BLOX – Denmark’s new Freespace for architecture, design and sustainable development.

Photo by: Sofie Stilling
Curator Natalie Mossin.

Every other year, architecture enthusiasts flock to Venice to see architects from all over the world present their challenging and inspiring ideas and projects at the legendary Biennale Architettura. The Ministry of Culture Denmark has appointed the Danish Architecture Center as commissioner of the Danish submission, and the submission is funded by the Ministry itself, the Realdania non-profit society and the Danish Arts Foundation Committee for Architecture.

“The four Danish projects showcase some of the specific strengths of the Danish architectural tradition; of interdisciplinary collaboration, and a very keen focus on sustainability. I greatly look forward to attending the Biennale Architettura 2018 and to discovering the synergies of the Danish exhibits at the opening of the exhibition in the Pavilion of Denmark,” said Minister for Culture Mette Bock.

The Danish exhibitors

Natalie Mossin’s four selected projects are: tthe new Svinkløv Badehotel seaside hotel by Praksis Arkitekter, Virgin Hyperloop One by BIG, Material Based Method K2 by CITA og Albertslund Syd by Vandkunsten.

Together with a video installation on the vision behind the newly opened BLOX, the four cases will be championing innovation and collaboration from their individual perspectives, and with a focus on their respective development agendas:

Mobilitet: Hyperloop One. How to change a world engaged in a new connectivity

How can infrastructure alter spatial relationships on a grand scale? The exhibition illustrates travel in tomorrow’s world through hyperloop, a visionary development project mounted 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.

Cultural identity: Svinkløv Badehotel. How can architecture recreate a sense of identity and ownership?

How do we use memory in architecture? In Denmark, everyone knows the story of Svinkløv Badehotel, the historic all-wood seaside hotel that was lost to a fire in 2016. The architectural firm of Praksis Arkitekter is now spearheading the rebuilding of the hotel in close consultation with Realdania, hotel visitors and contractors. In the Danish pavilion, the public will be invited to step inside the architectural development process behind the new hotel.