Feb 4–Mar 22, 2023

Changing Our Footprint

A dialogue with Henning Larsen, Copenhagen
Address
Christinenstrasse 18-19, 10119 Berlin
Hours
Tue-Fri 11 am–6:30 pm, Sun-Mon 1–5 pm

As one of the leading Danish architecture, landscape and urban design offices Henning Larsen challenges conventional ways of working to co-create, innovate and cultivate desirable futures through design. The office is well known for their iconic international projects such as: Harpa Concert Hall and Conference Center in Reykjavik (2011) (in cooperation with Olafur Eliasson), Moesgaard Museum in Aarhus (2014), Siemens Global Headquarters in Munich (2016), Eystur Town Hall in Eystur (2018), Malmö City Library (1999) and Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Riyadh (1984). The exhibition will give visitors a peek into Henning Larsen's working methods, where decarbonization and outstanding architecture go hand in hand and inspire future generations of clients, manufactures, builders, and architects to shape a more responsible building industry and future. The focus is to initiate a discussion about an aesthetic of the built environment where everybody is more open to new spatial expressions, surfaces, textures and a willingness to explore and be curious on how to avoid waste material and built sustainably.

Architecture today is not limited to designing and building – it encompasses a far extended scope, in which creativity, research, and knowledge are fundamental. By actively co-creating with all parties involved at the early phases of the design process, Henning Larsen continually advance the quality of their projects, from the start through to completion. The goal is to create generous spaces in which the unexpected can occur. The landscape department focusses on natural and urban spaces in a resilient context to increase biodiversity and create nature experiences. Incorporating nature into the fabric of our communities creates lasting socioeconomic and environmental impacts. These are the places where people enjoy living, working, and spending their time. The design approach focuses on the physical and cultural context of a site to adapt to naturally occurring cycles. Natural regeneration and restoration, as well as urban and in-building planting is addressed by transforming the existing landscape and context. Biophilic design, ecosystems, water management, and re-wilding all play a part. As cities and populations grow, designing for healthy living and resiliency at an urban scale is more important than ever. Henning Larsen works to create communities from the ground up, to regenerate urban spaces that formerly served different functions and to revitalize polluted areas. The ambition lies not in creating isolated destinations, but in crafting journeys of sensory experience across the urban grain. The potential of spaces is maximized through intelligent, data-driven, scenario planning to create a buffer against the consequences of climate change. By analyzing the large-scale factors that affect urban districts from infrastructure to investigating microbial impacts, holistic insights are gathered to create high-impact solutions for cities and communities around the world.

EXHIBITION
The exhibition at Aedes presents an inspiring journey of how to change our footprint – in small but scalable steps – through built projects, ongoing research, testing, learning from mistakes, and inviting to a dialogue. The goal is not to provide the final solution, but rather a response to the questions that arise at this moment in time – while new answers are developed as new approaches are tested continuously. Topics like transformation, design for disassembly, 3D printing, engineering, acoustics and indoor climate will be explained and invite visitors to make new discoveries and learn about forward-looking ideas. SHARE is the theme of the first exhibition space, dedicated to carbon. A long table offers visitors the possibility to explore various materials used in the industry. On a podium, some of these materials can be rediscovered as floor, wall and ceiling materials ranging from good to less good. Events, lectures and panel discussions will take place there during the exhibition period, inviting stakeholders within and around the building industry to debate and frame the challenges Henning Larsen face and the ways in which they work to solve and innovate around them. The purpose of SHARE is to exchange information and develop new innovative ideas. The second space titled EXPLORE is dedicated to different bio-based materials such as wood, straw, eelgrass, mycelium, reused bricks, low-carbon concrete and clay, which are explored on the example of selected projects. The presentation is based on the idea of literally spreading out the sketch paper to provide insight into Henning Larsen's processes and current situation, and to invite the audience to engage in a dialogue about where they stand as architects and planners, and as an industry.