Place - A Symbiosis between Architecture and Context

The uniqueness of each site, each landscape, each terrain is what the Copenhagen-based architecture studio Dorte Mandrup capture in their designs. The exhibition PLACE presents the strong interrelation between place and architecture through five site-specific installations. While similar in their function as museums and visitor centres they are fundamentally different from each other in concept, materiality, form, and texture, as well as in architectural expression.

But still, they share the same vision, aspirations, and an ambition to give formal responses to the many challenges facing the world today. In addition to large-scale models illustrating the interplay between place and architecture from the marshes of the Wadden Sea, to the breathtaking vast scale of the Greenlandic landscape and the difficult memories of war, flight or expulsion imprinted in the ruins of the Anhalter Bahnhof in Berlin, a Wunderkammer displays an extensive collection of artefacts, materials, images, fragments, models and sketches that invite visitors to dive into the unique narratives that have informed the architecture. The exhibition focuses on the museum The Whale on 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 Wilhelmhaven, Germany, and Greenland’s Ilulissat Icefjord Centre.

PLACE gives insight into Dorte Mandrup’s work and explores the strong bond between place and architecture so evident in the studio’s body of work. The exhibition reveals the contextual potentials tied to finding sustainable solutions for the future and highlights that buildings never emerge in isolation. “Individually the projects might not seem directly connected. But together they express the contextual abundance that derives from allowing the place to inform the architecture – a richness in materiality, form, and function. In a time where we as humans have become a profound force of nature, it is increasingly important that architecture conveys something contextually unique and enhances the understanding and experience of each place. Not only when it comes to sensitive landscapes, but also the social, cultural, or economic framework,” says Dorte Mandrup, Founder and Creative Director.

PLACE invites visitors to explore the distinctive narrative of each place through two parts. In the Wunderkammer you step into a world of records, materials, artifacts, and sketches to unearth some of the stories and elements that have inspired the works of Dorte Mandrup. The Wunderkammer invites you to touch, discover, and connect with each place though this rich collection of fragments. From the creative chaos of the Wunderkammer, you step into the main exhibition, where five site-specific models illustrate the interplay between the characters of the places and the buildings that emerge from them. Each model is an artistic expression of the important connection between place and architecture.