New experimental exhibition explores sustainable building materials of the future at the intersection of art and architecture

Will our buildings in the future be constructed out of fungi, nettles, and recycled plastic? Can we cultivate bricks like we do crops? And how will sustainable materials change our understanding of architectural beauty and values? This summer Copenhagen Contemporary (CC) proudly open the doors to a large experimental exhibition: Reset Materials - Towards Sustainable Architecture.

The exhibition explores the future of architecture and allows guests to discover a multitude of potential building materials created in collaborations among architects, artists, and material producers. Reset Materials - Towards Sustainable Architecture is the result of a unique collaboration between CC and the Danish Association of Architects celebrating Copenhagen’s designation as the World Capital of Architecture 2023.

Reset Materials
Towards Sustainable Architecture
30.06 - 28.09.2023

Construction represents one of the most polluting human activities on the planet today accounting for nearly 40% of the global CO2 footprint. Much of this comes from the production and waste of materials. It is therefore urgent for architects and the building industry, and for society in general, to transform radically how we source, construct, and inhabit our built environments.

The exhibition Reset Materials - Towards Sustainable Architecture invites guests to explore a universe of trailblazing, experimental building materials and their crucial collaborations. Ten interdisciplinary teams, each consisting of architects, artists, and material producers, join creative forces to present their compelling visions towards a post-carbon architecture. The focus of the show is sample and full-scale studies of newly developed or rediscovered local materials - from recycled plastics or silicon to growing organisms and biogenic materials such as mycelium, nettle, clay and hemp - all collected, cultivated, recycled, de-constructed and re-composed by the teams. The final works are exhibited as material fragments that allow the visitor to encounter individually the process and architectural, functional and aesthetic potential of the materials.

Copenhagen, a Window to Danish Architecture during 2023
“As a society, we need the creative power of artists to develop new solutions to future challenges. Creativity is fundamentally about thinking new - inventing, creating, and developing something that does not exist already. At CC we are proud to present this innovative and visionary project which will hopefully inspire a new and more sustainable take on architecture," says Marie Laurberg, director of Copenhagen Contemporary.

"In order to allow ourselves to continue to build in the future, it's essential that we prioritize experimentation with new materials, recycling, and innovative architectural approaches that promote sustainability. The World Capital of Architecture and the UIA World Congress of Architects this summer in Copenhagen is a unique occasion to show how Danish architects are currently working with local materials and a new sustainable aesthetic that can inspire globally. And we are thrilled to present the material exhibition in collaboration with Scandinavia's largest institution for contemporary art, Copenhagen Contemporary," says Lars Autrup, director of the Danish Association of Architects.

Future Cultivated and Recycled Materials
The exhibition presents, among others, the architect Anders Lendager and the artist Honey Biba Beckerlee, who experiment with waste from the extraction of silicon. Silicon is found everywhere in nature. It is in sand, rock, soil and clay - even in the leaves of plants and the skin, hair and nails of humans. Among other things, it is extracted for use in the production of microchips and solar cells - and in that process a large part is wasted. Lendager and Beckerlee investigate how silicon can be used in dust form to create new aesthetic expressions such as ceramics - here they have succeeded in creating a brightly colored glaze from a combination of waste materials from industry - and how the substance can solve technical challenges in construction, such as compressed building blocks and screeds.

Another team explores the fungal material mycelium. The inhomogeneous, fast-growing network structure of this material holds enormous design potential and can be used for, among other things, sustainable acoustic solutions. The material is presented by architects, engineers and artists from the Royal Danish Academy, Henning Larsen Architects, the design studio nikolova/aarsø and the manufacturer Naturpladen ApS.

Thorough Studies and Continuous Process
The ten teams of the exhibition were selected by an Open Call and worked together in a one-year grant as part of the #MATERIALER project, initiated by the Dreyers Foundation. Since then, the teams consisting of established as well as upcoming architects, artists, and material producers, have investigated and experimented on the aesthetic, constructive and ecological potential of the materials. The results will be presented for the first time in the exhibition Reset Materials - Towards Sustainable Architecture.

The exhibition is curated in collaboration with the external curator and architect Chrissie Muhr, and created in a collaboration between CC and the Danish Association of Architects (Akademisk Arkitektforening). The exhibition is supported by the Dreyers Foundation and stems from the project #MATERIALER.

See overview of the teams below.

DOWNLOAD PRESS MATERIAL HERE:https://copenhagencontemporary.org/en/press/

For more information:
Marie Laurberg, Director
Copenhagen Contemporary
marielaurberg@cphco.org
+45 3017 1404

Ida Maj Ludvigsen, Head of Communication & PR
Copenhagen Contemporary
ida@cphco.org
+45 6021 9321

Sussi Heimburger, Head of Communication & PR
The Danish Association of Architects
sh@arkitektforeningen.dk
+45 2446 8161

List of participating teams:
Tree
Kim Lenschow and Anders Wilhelmsen (Office Kim Lenschow, architect)
Natural Material Studio (Material researcher and designer),
Hans Peter Dinesen (Dinesen, Producer)

Plastics
Vicki Thake (Architect),
Grethe Wittrock (Textile artist),
Torben Eskerod (Photografer)

Clay
Simeon Østerlund Bamford and Mathias Ørum Nørgård (Reværk Architects),
Kasper Kjeldgaard (Artist)

Hempcrete
Søren Thirup Pihlmann and Jakob Rabe Petersen (pihlmann architects),
Rhoda Ting and Mikkel Dahlin Bojesen (Studio ThinkingHand),
Christian Vædele-Larson (HempCrete.dk ApS)

Nettle, hemp, flax & eel grass
Frans Drewniak (Architect),
Sara Martinsen (Artist)

Silicon
Anders Lendager, Nikolaj Callisen Friis,
Daga Karlsson (Lendager, Architecture and Consultancy),
Honey Biba Beckerlee (Artist),
én jord (Producer),
Eco Silicate (Producer)

Monoblock
Lynge Lynge Architects,
Jakob Steen (Artist),
Mikael Martlev (Master Mason),
Xella (Manufacturer)

Straw
Anne Beim, Line Kjær Frederiksen and Lykke Arnfred (CINARK - Center for Industriel Arkitektur, Det Kongelige Akademi)
Tove Storch (Artist),
Laura Feline Ebbesen, Thomas Gerner (Straatagets Kontor, tækkere)

Biocement
Lasse Lind, Aleksander Kongshaug, Tandia Hardcastle, Johannes Dickmeiss, Amaya Steensman (GXN/3XN, Architects)
Silas Inoue (Artist)
Jan Vandersander (BioMason, producent)

Mycelium
lsak Worre Foged (Det Kongelige Akademi, Architect),
Jon Strunge and Jørgen Strunge (Naturpladen ApS),
Jonas Aarsø (nikolova/aarsø),
Magnus Reffs Kramhøft (Henning Larsen Architects)