The Danish
Architecture Centre (DAC) zooms in on one of
Danish architecture's most successful and innovative
architectural companies, BIG – Bjarke Ingels
Group.
This exhibition forms part of a pilot project called 'Close
Up', in which DAC takes a long, hard look at
new tendencies, theories and challenges within Danish
architecture – using exhibitions, debates,
seminars and teaching sessions.
The exhibition sets op a platform for, and extends an
invitation to, a dialogue about a number of
Danish architectural companies that have forged striking,
ground-breaking concepts to create a kind
of holistic architecture quite out of the ordinary. In recent
years, building construction in Denmark
has been like a river in flood. Danish architects have
experimented, expanded and developed their
potentialities; and Danish architecture has taken great
strides in terms of design and visual form
language, new technologies, new skills,
professionalisation, internationalisation and sustainability –
to
such an extent that Danish architects have in so many
ways radically renewed and expanded the
Danish/Scandinavian architectural tradition.
Teetering as we are on the brink of a financial meltdown,
there are a number of relevant questions:
How have Danish architects renewed and developed Danish
architecture in recent years? How have
they broken new ground? And how can Danish architectural
companies carry their experience and
huge potential further onwards in this 21st century. 'Close
Up' is a platform for debate, zooming in on
innovative thinking, new opportunities and new challenges
within Danish architecture today.
A large, colourful series of cartoons
unfolds across the walls of the exhibition,
inviting visitors to step behind the projects to experience
the constant transformation of ideas into
projects. A collage of quotations and images illustrates the
evolutionary process that characterises
BIG – where differences and opposition along the way
become an inspiration to further development
and part of the final design. In the centre of the exhibition,
a large conglomeration of models rises
like a major city lit up at night, marking the transition
from a simple form to the more complex,
innovative structure of the final design. As an extension of
the exhibition there will be a number of
dialogue meetings to encourage architectural discussions
about the development and renewal of the
Danish/Scandinavian aesthetic tradition in our day.
