Dorte Mandrup: Can Architecture Heal Us?
Timber instead of tiles, curiosity instead of corridors, and a 15 meter–high atrium designed to make people feel safer, healthier, and more connected. Hear the story of the Center for Health from the architect behind it – Dorte Mandrup.
By Dansk Arkitektur Center
In this episode, Michael Booth meets architect Dorte Mandrup, widely regarded as one of Denmark’s greatest living architects, to explore how a complex and often contradictory brief – openness and privacy, care and community – has been translated into a warm, tactile, and quietly radical public building.
The Center for Health in Copenhagen proposes a new typology for public healthcare architecture. Together they discuss the centre’s boomerang-shaped footprint, full timber construction and soaring atrium, and how architecture can gently nudge behaviour, foster wellbeing and create spaces that feel inclusive without feeling exposed.
About Dorte Mandrup
Dorte Mandrup is a highly acclaimed Danish architect with a strong international presence. She graduated from the Aarhus School of Architecture in 1991 and has also studied sculpture, ceramics, and medicine – disciplines that have shaped her hands-on, form-driven approach to architecture. Her most well-known projects include the Wadden Sea Centre in Ribe, the Icefjord Centre in Ilulissat, Greenland, and the Exile Museum in Berlin.
She has received numerous prestigious awards and is a sought-after voice in the global architectural debate. She is the founder and creative director of Dorte Mandrup Architects, a practice known for creating site-specific architecture with a sharp and distinctive aesthetic.
About Let's Talk Architecture
Join us as we meet with some of the world’s leading architects, designers, planners, and engineers about their work and ideas. Let’s Talk Architecture introduces you to the creative and innovative minds behind the future of our buildings and cities.
Let’s Talk Architecture is a podcast by Danish Architecture Center. Behind the microphone is Michael Booth. Sound edits by Munck Studios.
