PLANETARY BOUNDARIES - rethinking Architecture and Design

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This week is your last opportunity to see this important exhibition because Planetary Boundaries at the Royal Danish Academy on Holmen will close on Friday 5 April 2024.

The concept of Planetary Boundaries is a method for assessing the environmental state of our planet within nine areas that regulate the Earth's stability and balance. Humans have been successful because, over thousands of years, we have adapted to survive in a remarkable range of habitats from frozen tundra to parched landscapes with barely any vegetation and we have done that through the ways we have learned to exploit a huge range of natural resources. However, there are limits to those resources and limits to how much we can pollute the land, and the water and the atmosphere of Earth with waste before that has a serious impact. Mining, the generation of power and the consequent production of waste from industrial processes are all pushing those boundaries close to and, in many environments, way beyond those limits.

Shown here, is work from 25 research protects, that have looked at new materials or at new approaches to design and manufacturing and at changes in our building methods and planning policies that could control our demands for energy and reduce global emissions of CO2 and pollutants from mining extraction and from large-scale agricultural and industrial processes ... processes that have had such a detrimental impact on our rivers and seas and our atmosphere.

Manufacturing is responsible for over 50% of global energy usage and is responsible for 20% of global CO2 emissions.

A UN report from 2022 showed that construction work is now responsible for 34% of global energy demands and 37% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

So now, as the impact of climate change is becoming a reality, if there are not major changes to what we build and how we build, current predictions for the release of CO2 indicate that emissions from the production of building materials alone are set to double by 2060.

We have to to be rational and look at the materials we use and change how we use materials in building construction and in manufacturing.

Some of the new materials shown in the exhibition - such as fungi - or suggestions about how to use raw materials more efficiently or ideas about how to reuse salvaged materials have been proposed before but here there is a clear move on from theory to practical applications that have been or are being tested at scale.

For policy makers - now focused on making changes before we reach irreversible tipping points in global warming - these ideas may well be obvious and, for them, it is about when and how these changes are implemented but they will only be successful if a large number of people - the customers who are buying and using the products and the citizens who are living in and working in what could be very different forms of building - understand the reasons and are on board with those changes.

One project in the exhibition has looked at experiments in communal living with reduced personal space but increased shared space for shared facilities in housing and another project looks at increasing the density of housing in the suburbs of Copenhagen by building new houses on back plots and between existing buildings but such major change can only proceed with wide-spread consent.

The exhibition presents what are still options so the next stage should be broader and informed debate about how we use materials; about what we manufacture and how and about how we build and what we build in our cities in the future.

PLANETARY BOUNDARIES
Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademis Skoler
for Arkitektur, Design og Konservering
Danneskiold-Samsøe Allé, 1435 København K
21 Sep 2023 - 5 Apr 2024 

Six of the projects will be shown at Form, the design center in Malmö. 

PLANETARY BOUNDARIES
Form Design Center
Lilla torg 9, Malmö, Sweden
13 April - 2 June 2024

AKUT #5 ... CARE & REPAIR

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AKUT is an umbrella title for a series of exhibitions at the design museum that address “topics where design and designers are at the center of major societal dilemmas and challenges.”

In the past, textiles and clothing were expensive and were carefully stored and, when necessary, were repaired.

In the homes of the middle classes and the wealthy, clothes and bed linens were kept carefully in presses (large cupboards) or in a chest or a chest of drawers and seamstresses and tailors could re-hem or alter clothes if they were handed down or had to be “let out” as a child grew.

Both my grandmothers and my mother knitted and sewed and I remember through my childhood, that expensive Christmas cakes and fancy chocolates often came in tins and these were repurposed so all three women had tins with phenomenal collections of threads and yarns, patches of fabric and every sort and size of button to repair and alter our clothes. All three made their own curtains and cushion covers and no one in the family considered these tasks exceptional but as necessary skills that were common in most households.

One of the information panels in the exhibition suggests that “historically, the task of maintaining household textiles has fallen mainly to women” but my grandfather - my mother’s father - reupholstered chairs, made rag rugs, had a hefty iron cobbler’s tree on his work bench so that he could put new heals on our shoes and he had a leather hole punch so he could adjust or alter belts and straps. He was also a passable knitter as he had grown up on the east coast where men in his family - North Sea fishermen - knitted.

In the 1950s and through the 1960s and 1970s, most department stores had large haberdasheries and most towns had wool shops (for knitters) and fabric shops for dress makers and for curtains and upholstery.

Today, does anyone replace a zip or darn a sock or sew a leather patch on the arm of a jacket or a jumper? Surely now we have to repair and recycle for environmental reasons and this exhibition is a timely reminder that looks at techniques used to repair and reuse textiles.

AKUT #5 CARE & REPAIR / AKUT #5 CARE & REPAIR
Designmuseum Danmark / Design Museum Danmark
Bredgade 68, 1260 København K

from 3 November 2023 through to 8 September 2024

 
 

detail of a Danish “sampler” where a young girl practiced her skills in darning and needlework

RESET MATERIALS towards sustainable architecture

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Construction work around the World accounts for nearly 40% of global emissions of CO2 so we have to question not only how we build but also reassess the materials we use for building in order to reduce that impact.

This exhibition shows the results of research by ten interdisciplinary teams of architects, artists and manufacturers who have looked at innovative materials for building - like mycelium - or looked at how we could use existing materials in new ways or, even, at how to bring back into use materials, like hemp or straw, that were used widely, at least in vernacular and agricultural buildings, until a century or so ago. We must even consider using ancient construction techniques so, for instance, earth and mud, dried in the sun, to build up walls, as an alternative to using energy-intensive materials like fired bricks or concrete.

 

 

RESET MATERIALS towards sustainable architecture
30 June 2023 . 28 September 2023
Copenhagen Contemporary Art Center
Refshalevej 173A
1432 København K

 
 
 

new design & architecture - graduate projects at the Royal Academy

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Shown here are more than 250 projects by new graduates from Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi - the Royal Academy of Architecture, Design and Conservation.

Set out through three tightly-packed spaces, the exhibition is arranged around the framework of the many and specific study programmes for architecture and design at the academy.

Since 2016, the UN Sustainable Development Goals have been a focal point for research and events at the royal academy and in their teaching programme and it’s graduation projects.

NEW DESIGN & ARCHITECTURE
23 June - 17 August 2023
note: closed 10-30 July

Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi
Skoler for Arkitektur, Design og Konservering
Danneskiold-Samsøe Allé
1435 København K

Sikke et spild / What a waste

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When we talk about waste and recycling, we tend to think about items that have come to the end of their first use and that are then collected, sorted and either found a new owner where they are reused or they are broken down or processed to produce reusable materials … so glass from a bottle bank or newspapers and magazines used to make new paper.

But this exhibition is about the material left over from the manufacturing process after the factory has cut out or cut off what it needs.

In this age of carefully-calculated profit margins, something like, for instance, metal tubing from the steel mills will come in a standard length and anything shorter will actually cost more for less as that processing adds to the time and cost of production. Manufacturers will then cut what they need from a standard length and the off cut - still basically new material - can be sold on as “new waste” to a company that can make use of those smaller pieces.

This exhibition has been developed with THE UPCYCL - an association with bases in Aarhus and Copenhagen - that puts together manufacturers with new waste and companies that can use that waste.

Det Kongelige Akademi / the Royal Academy, now has a Materialebutikken or Materials Shop where students can select New Waste material supplied by members of THE UPCYCL for design projects.

The exhibition includes stools from Anno Studio that are made from off-cuts of steel tubing that are left over from the manufacture of industrial trolleys by Ravendo A/S; the Rhomeparket flooring system from WhyNature made from the waste from the primary production from Wiking Gulve and a shelving system from Studio Mathias Falkenstrøm based on leftover materials from JEVI, Ravendo & VTI.

It is easy to miss the exhibition as it is in the City Gallery at the Architecture Center …. the exhibition space that is under the main staircase that takes visitors up from the bookshop to the main exhibition galleries.

Sikke st spild / What a waste
7 June 2023 - 29 October 2023

Dansk Arkitektur Center / Danish Architecture Center
Bryghuspladsen 10
1473 København K

THE UPCYCL
New Waste materialebørs / New Waste material exchange

 

materials from Materialsbutikken at Det Kongelige Akademi

Sustainability and reuse at Trends & Traditions 2023

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Sustainability is not just about which materials we use and how we use them but also about salvaging and reusing materials and about restoring or repurposing what we already have or, simply, making sure that what we buy has been made well so that it lasts.

Nearly ten years ago, for an early post, I wrote about Artek 2nd Cycle in Helsinki where the Finnish design company takes back it’s furniture for resale if it comes with it’s back story. I have just checked and I’m glad to say that 2nd Cycle is still going strong.

It was interesting at Trends & Traditions to see that Fritz Hansen, to its credit, is now offering a service to supply new shells for some of its chairs and also offers a service on it’s web site where you can buy spare parts for chairs including spacing blocks and new castors or wheel sets.

Too often, a small break or damage to one part of a chair or table has, in the past, meant that the whole thing has to be replaced …. it is inevitable that in day-to-day use parts like handles or hinges get broken but for too many large, international companies, keeping and selling spare parts has not been to their advantage …. why sell a small rubber block and tell a customer how to replace it if you can either sell a complete replacement piece of furniture or save yourself the hassle and cost of maintaining a stock of spare parts.

One of the clear selling points for Danish design is the quality of production - with the presumption therefore that the furniture will have a long life - but also Danish furniture companies have a strong sense of continuity …. Chair 7 has been in the Fritz Hansen catalogue continuously since 1955 so that is a lot of chairs that might simply need a new set of plastic caps for the legs. 

Sometimes, restoring or upgrading furniture needs specialists or the work requires equipment or specialist tools so there has to be work for a workshop in a city like Copenhagen where, for instance, the metal frames of chairs or tables could be professionally cleaned and then repainted to a high standard to be reunited with an original shell or high-quality top in ‘real’ wood or where a new colour or new upholstery can give furniture a new and equally long second life. 

Fritz Hansen SPARE PARTS

Art Pavilions - architecture and biodiversity at the Danish Architecture Center

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Four sustainable and biodiverse pavilions and a sensory garden have been constructed at the Danish Architecture Center in Copenhagen.

Three of the pavilions were shown at Chart 22 at Charlottenborg in the Autumn.

  • Biosack - winner Chart 2022 Bryghuspladsen - 15 March to 16 July

  • Eliza And The Eleven Swans Bryghuspladsen - 15 March to 15 July

  • Re-inhabiting Ecologies Harbour Passage - 15 March to 15 July

  • Biocenter Waterfront - 15 May to 15 October

note:
“The projects will be developed into learning material for free use by all, so that
teaching can be scaled out to more cities and projects across the country.”

Art Pavilions
15 March 2023 to 15 October 2023
Dansk Arkitektur Center / Danish Architecture Center
Bryghuspladsen 10, 1473 København

 

sustainability through sharing

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One way to reverse our over consumption of products and our excessive demand on world resources is to share - rather than own - expensive equipment and particularly if that means we invest in more robust commercial-quality equipment that lasts longer before it has to be replaced. It’s the relatively rapid churn of buying and replacing and dumping that is so greedy on materials.

It could mean that families or buildings share equipment like electric drills or lawn mowers that spend much of their life in the shed or garage unused.

If you use a commercial launderette now then you already share washing machines but many of the launderettes in Copenhagen are long gone so there is certainly scope for more of us to share this expensive and material greedy ‘essential’.

In Copenhagen, in the early decades of the 20th century, the better apartment blocks in the city had communal laundries in a courtyard or in the basement of the building and, although most washing was dried down in the courtyards, some apartments even had drying rooms in the attic. Presumably they made use of the reality that, on sunny days, the space under the roof tiles can reach stiflingly hot temperatures.

Apparently, the first coin-operated laundry in Copenhagen was opened in 1950 but by 1970, at their peek, there were 400 launderettes in the city.

However, in that same period after the war, in the 1950s and 1960s, ordinary families could afford to buy washing machines, although many older buildings had limited space, with relatively small kitchens, or buildings with older pipework for water or narrow pipes for drainage that could not cope with the demands from washing machines so communal laundries survived or families continued to use local coin-operated laundries.

Now, most families living in modern apartments in the city expect to have their own washing machine. The most common arrangement here is to have a machine stacked up with a tumble drier in the corner of the bathroom.

 
 

 The first apartments I rented in Copenhagen had their own washing machines and driers but, recently, I moved to a studio apartment where there is a communal laundry room.

Initially I was concerned ... I felt I could do without the hassle of having to book a machine and go down to load it and then back later to unload. What a skewed sense of inconvenience we have in the so-called  first world.

In the laundry here, there are three washing machines with three tumble driers and as there are 138 apartments in the building, simple maths suggests that means saving the cost and the materials for 135 washers and 135 driers. Some of the studios are occupied by couples so the laundry serves 170 people or more.

Machines are booked through an app and as the laundry is open from 6am through to midnight - with nine time slots of two hours for each machine - and, as they are in constant use, they each do around 63 washes a week. You have to think a day ahead but that is a small price to pay. If you look on the app then all slots today have been booked but tomorrow almost any time is available.

The machines dispense washing liquid and fabric softener so there is also a sustainability gain there as they come in containers of 25 litres that are returned for refilling so no plastic waste and presumably a reduction in the CO2 impact from more efficient transport costs .... at the very least I appreciate not having to lug washing liquid from the supermarket.

But an expansion of a sharing culture will requires a major rethink on the part of manufacturers and a change of attitude from consumers.

 

 

Thinking about washing machines, it seems strange to be able to look back to key stages of my life as marked by the evolution of washing-machine design. My grandmother had a splendid and ever steaming  "copper" in the corner of her kitchen that bubbled and boiled away with tablets of bright blue crumbled in for brilliant-white sheets and table clothes.

The boiler was plumbed in - in that it had a brass tap on the wall above for filling it with water and a plug at the bottom so dirty water emptied out into a drain - but wooden tongs were used to transfer dripping washing into a small metal drum - a spin drier on wheels - that was waltzed into the kitchen from the garden shed for the last stage of the wash.

My mother was much more up to date and we had a "twin-tub" so a heavy tangle of "soggy wet" washing was dragged from one half to the other to be spun.

Then we got a Hoover keymatic - when they first came out in the early 1960s - and it was a brute of a machine with a sloping front that stuck out into the kitchen. It was programmed using a thick plastic beer mat with a notched edge that was twisted around or flipped over and dropped into a slot in the top for different combinations of temperatures and options for spinning. The machine was loaded down with concrete in the base but with the spin dry, if badly loaded, it marched it's way across the kitchen floor until held back, though only just, by the hoses at full stretch. I gave it the respect it deserved and always gave it a wide berth.

 

Renover Prisen / The Renovation Award 2022

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Banegaarden and the Museum of Copenhagen are contenders for the Renover Prisen 2022

This year, 144 renovation projects were nominated for the prestigious Renover Award.

If this was a golf tournament, then the nomination committee has just announced the list of 21 projects that 'made the cut'.

This is the tenth year of the award so, rather than a single award, there will be awards in three separate categories for renovation projects for Bolig or Housing; Erhverv meaning business or possibly commercial projects, and the third award will be for institutional or public buildings.

Also, this year, the sustainability of the project will be judged along with quality of use and contribution to the environment; quality of execution including craftsmanship; the extent to which the completed renovation will be an inspiration or a good example to others and finally - and perhaps the most interesting criteria - the project should mark a successful collaboration across professional disciplines so it should be seen as the successful collaboration of cliens, consultants, architects and contractors.

By the end of June, for the next stage, a list of nine projects will be selected and it is from those nine projects that an electoral college of 70 judges will chose the three projects that will receive an award for 2022.

Renover Prisen 2022

From this list of 21 projects, nine finalists will be selected by the end of June

Bolig / Housing:

  • Det gamle posthus, Brædstrup

  • Fabers Fabrikker, Ryslinge

  • Roskilde Højskole, Roskilde

  • Moldeparken, Vejle

  • Ellebo Garden Room Blok 3, Ballerup

  • Mineralvandsfabrikken, København V

  • Living in Light, Valby

Erhverv / Commercial:

  • NH Collection, København K

  • Retten i Aarhus – ombygning af erhvervsarkivet, Aarhus

  • Fælleskontor i Willemoesgade, Aarhus

  • Banegaarden, København SV

  • Nortvig Firmadomicil, Horsens

  • My Garage, Vejle

  • Siljangade, København S

Institution:

  • Fængslet i Horsens, Horsens

  • Viborg Teater, Viborg

  • Stationen, Frederiksberg

  • Københavns Museum, København V

  • DTU Auditoriebygning, Kgs. Lyngby

  • Børnehuset Paletten, Søborg

  • Friluftsskolen, København S

 

a last chance to see the exhibition Living Better Lives

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This weekend is the last chance to see the important and controversial exhibition Living Better Lives about the work of the Danish architectural studio Vandkunsten.

Tegnestuen Vandkunsten - an architecture firm based in Copenhagen - were founded in 1970 and the exhibition has been an opportunity to see and to assess their work over the last 50 years as their buildings have been seen to challenge and set the tone of “climate and social agendas in Danish architecture and urban planning.”

Here, in the exhibition, they suggest alternative and more sustainable, designs for homes with ideas for housing that would have much smaller areas of personal space but more shared or communal areas and would use sustainable or reused materials in construction.

The exhibition ends on the 18th April.

Living Better Lives
Vandkunsten
Danish Architecture Center
Bryghuspladsen 10,
1473 København K

 

‘TAKE THE JUMP AND LET'S DO THIS TOGETHER’

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Yesterday, there was an interesting article in The Guardian about a new movement that has just been launched in Britain to encourage people to make key changes in the way that they live to help combat climate change.

"From using smartphones for longer to ending car ownership, research shows 'less stuff and more joy' is the way forward."

TAKE THE JUMP suggests six changes we can all make to the way we live - or what they call six ‘shifts’ - to protect our earth.

These are to:

  •  keep products, particularly electrical goods, for seven years or more

  • get rid of personal motor vehicles

  • eat a mostly plant-based diet and reduce food waste

  • buy only three new items of clothing each year and buy second hand and to repair rather than discard clothes

  • fly only once every three years or once every eight years if it's a long haul flight

  • move to green investments and pensions to force institutions to change "the system"

There is also the recommendation that families should move to green energy and insulate homes to help energy efficiency. Curiously, this is not one of the six shifts although, surely, this is crucial in every country in Europe if we are to meet a target to reduce energy consumption by two thirds by 2030.

The article highlights obvious problems with our current attitudes to consumption or, rather, our addiction to over consumption, in a society that replaces rather than repairs.

For an iPhone, 13% of emissions are from when it is used and 86% from production, transport and end of life processing.

Clothing and textile industries together produce more greenhouse gas than international aviation.

Transport is responsible for 25% of all greenhouse gas emissions and two-thirds of that is from the engines of road vehicles but the article also makes the important point that:

“…. although there is a lot of emphasis on the role of electric vehicles (EVs) in tackling climate change, a bigger effort needs to go towards reducing the number of cars on the road overall as a significant source of emissions is in the manufacture of vehicles – even EVs.”

The Jump campaign was co-founded by Tom Bailey and it's conclusions are based on extensive research from Leeds University, research by the C40 group of world cities and research undertaken by ARUP under Ben Smith, their director of climate change.

But, curiously, TAKE THE JUMP only goes as far as to suggest that people, for now, try these changes for a month or possibly for three months or 6 months although it concludes that everyone has to make these changes in the next ten years.

Big changes can start with small steps. 

Six promises you can make to help carbon emissions
by Matthew Taylor, The Guardian, 7 March 2022

TAKE THE JUMP

 
 
 

“Changing our behaviours around food is the most impactful of all the shifts. And it’s not just about climate change; if you look at biodiversity loss, land use change, fertilisers in the ocean creating dead zones and the massive extinction and loss of insects due to pesticides, these problems are all driven by food.”

Tom Bailey

 

is the growth of tourism in the city a threat?

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In a number of posts on this blog, I have written that I feel that the rapid rise in the number of tourists visiting Copenhagen and the construction of a large number of new and very large hotels over the last decade could be a serious threat to the character of the city and one that is barely discussed by politicians.

Arguments for the growth of the tourist industry in Copenhagen that are usually put forward include the creation of jobs, the suggestion that the tourist industry attracts inward investment and that money spent by tourists in the city, in shops and at tourist destinations, is crucial for the local economy.

Arguments against what appears to be uncontrolled growth, is that the huge number of tourists with, of course, the astounding number of passengers from the cruise ships that come to the harbour - just under a million in 2019 in the year before the pandemic - are swamping Copenhagen and changing the character of the city. There is a certain irony in this because the visitors, by their sheer numbers, are damaging and changing what they have come to see.

Jobs are certainly created by the hotels but how many of those jobs are short term rather than long-term careers and where do hotel workers live? In the big hotels in the past, chamber maids and porters might well have lived in the hotel, in garrets and dormitories. That's hardly a positive thing but do short-term workers in the modern hotel industry add to serious problems caused by the shortage of affordable housing in the city?

Those jobs fuelled by tourism are not just those working directly for hotels and the tourism service industry such as guides but there are also jobs in supplying food, cleaning and servicing the hotels and restaurants and, of course, in general retail - many of the stores in the city have departments that are deliberately geared up to dealing with foreign visitors. Popular destinations for tourists including the city museums and galleries now depend on tourists coming through the doors and not only paying for entrance but spending in cafes or restaurants and souvenir shops. The argument then is that tourism subsidises facilities for local people that could not be supported on local spending alone.

When Coronavirus-19 struck the city, museums and galleries had to close and even when the lockdown was eased, the number of visitors has been slow to recover.

Designmuseum Danmark had serious financial problems as a consequence and they revealed that 90% of their income came from tourists. However, that should not be an argument for returning as quickly as possible to the pre pandemic numbers of tourists but a warning that the government and the city have left the museum vulnerable with a funding model that may well continue to be unreliable if coronavirus returns or if people are concerned about the possible and ongoing dangers of travel.

The tourist sector generates work for architects, engineers and interior designers who build and refurbish hotels and restaurants and there is an argument for soft-power influence for Danish design and manufacturing with tourists who visit hotels and design stores and see and use furniture and so on that they admire and they are then more likely to buy Danish designs when they return home.

Are there statistics to back this up?

There is certainly a strong market in high-quality Danish furniture that is purchased here in antique shops and second-hand stores and flea markets and then exported by the container load but that is not directly a byproduct of tourism.

Even foreign investment might not always be positive .... investment money coming into the country may well be offset by profits going out and many investors may well be blind to local issues and not susceptible to local pressure however well founded.

Even the amount of money spent by tourists may not actually be as much as assumed - how many passengers from a cruise ship buy little more than ice cream and a post card - and is there also a sort of escalator here? Successful tourist shops or successful restaurants aimed at visitors rather than local people can be profitable and then attract more businesses to jump on the band wagon. In recent criticism of the state of the Walking Street, local people commented that is now full of shops that sell tourist tat and that they avoided the area as much as possible.

Airbnb is a specific facet of tourism that has to be addressed at a political and planning level and stricter legal controls have to be introduced. The initial concept - with people using a spare bedroom to earn a little extra income and gain from entertaining visitors and proudly showing them their city - is fine and if people have to or want to move abroad for a short period and need to retain their home but have it work for them then Airbnb is one possible solution. The problem is when properties are bought to let as a portfolio investment because that is removing far too many homes from the normal rental market. Looking at maps of the distribution of Airbnb properties across the city then there are over 20,000 complete properties to let - rather than single rooms. If those homes were returned to the rental market then that would be close to the total of new homes that will be built on Lynetteholm - the contentious new island that will be constructed across the entrance to the harbour that is being promoted as a place to build housing for 35,000 people. One possible solution for the Airbnb problem would be to levy an additional tax based on profit that would be ring fenced for funding the construction of more social housing.

the distribution of Airbnb properties across the city

Copenhagen has always been a city that welcomed visitors but an important part of the appeal of the city is that so many people actually live in the historic centre. Large new hotels have taken over buildings or plots of land that could have been used for student accommodation or for social housing. There is a danger that if the number of tourists grows without more controls then the city will change from a place where people live who welcome visitors to a city that is a tourist destination where people live.

 

Bo bedre bæredytigt / Living Better Lives

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”Lad Os” (Let’s) - the Vandkunsten Manifesto

Lad os bo mindre og bedre!
    Let's live smaller and better!

Lad os dele mere!
    Let's share more!

Lad naturen flytte ind!
    Let nature move in!

Lad os gøre det selv, sammen!
    Let's DIY, together!

Lad det være og se skønheden!
    Let it be and enjoy its beauty!

This is an important exhibition to celebrates the 50th anniversary of the architectural studio Vandkunsten. It looks at some of their major projects from those decades - but also asks crucial questions about how we can construct more sustainable buildings in the future by using materials in new ways or by giving old materials a second life.

The architects and designers from Vandkunsten have built their reputation on coming at problems with a less conventional approach and here they not only propose a “manifesto” for the design of homes but also suggest that, in the future, homes have to be smaller - much smaller: we should share facilities with our neighbours with the trade off that there would be to more communal areas but less private space.

Here, a home built at the the centre of the exhibition has a floor area of just 37 square metres that is not a holiday home or a temporary home but what could be a model for permanent living space for two or three people.

Recently, it has been suggested that building standards for homes in Copenhagen should be modified - for modified read downgraded - but is that really the only or the right way forward?

Living Better Lives is an opportunity to consider the implications of having less space and to think about alternative ways of building when most of us do accept that the way we live really does have to be sustainable.

Bo bedre bæredygtigt / Living Better Lives
20 November 2021 - 18 April 2022
Dansk Arkitektur Center / Danish Architecture Center
Bryghuspladsen 10, 1473 København K

Vandkunsten

 
 

70% LESS CO2 - Conversion to a Viable Age

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An important exhibition has just opened at the Royal Academy schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation.

Students and teaching departments were asked to submit their projects for inclusion and 31 were chosen for the exhibition to illustrate how new ideas, new materials and new methods of construction or manufacturing will help to reduce global emissions of CO2 by at least 70%.

Significant levels of CO2 are produced by the fashion industries from the production of the raw materials through manufacturing and through high levels of waste and around 10% of the global emissions of CO2 are from the ubiquitous use of concrete in all forms of construction so several projects here suggest major changes to what we make and build and how we use materials.

But there are also projects on using new materials from algae, lichen and mycelium and even one project that uses pine needles for insulation.

There are short assessments of all the projects on the academy site.

70% LESS CO2
Det Kongelige Akademi
Arketektur Design Konservering
Danneskiold-Samsøes Allé 53, København K
7 October 2021 - 14 January 2022

3daysofdesign - eelgrass panels from Søuld

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Søuld have developed and now produce building materials made from eelgrass ... an abundant, renewable and locally harvested sea plant.

Eelgrass has been used for centuries for thatching homes and farm buildings in some coastal regions of Denmark and for the exhibition at the Sabsay Gallery Store in Strandstræde there was a demonstration of the technique by a master thatcher.

The panels that Søuld make replace synthetic materials with a natural material that holds carbon that can absorbs toxins in the air but also absorbs moisture to balance the climate in the room. Salt, naturally found  in the eelgrass, deters insects.

For the exhibition, the architect David Thulstrup, produced tables and plinths and room screens that are made from the panels combined with glass and steel in a collection called MOMENTUM.

Søuld
Studio David Thulstrup
The MOMENTUM Collection

eelgrass ready for a demonstration of thatching

 
 

Too Good To Go - posters against food waste

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A third of food produced in the World is wasted and, to compound the problem, that waste is responsible for 8% of greenhouse gas emissions.

These posters were launched on World Environment Day to make people more aware of the problem and are from a group of European illustrators and designers .

They have been printed in limited editions and can be purchased on line. The price covers printing, handling, packaging and delivery with the remainder going to the UN World Food Programme.

the exhibition continues on Bryghuspladsen until 27 June 2021


www.posters.toogoodtogo.com

The Nordic Report 03

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This week, the Nordic Council launched the third edition of The Nordic Report on decision making for sustainable consumption and production in Iceland, Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Norway.

It follows the format of the first two reports, retaining section headings from last year, and each section has what is described as ongoing assessments …. examples of people or companies and their work or projects that are an inspiration to show the practical application of the UN Sustainable Development Goal for Sustainable Production and Consumption.

The report has been published at the end of a year when a global pandemic has forced major changes on the labour market and on the global economy and to our manner of producing, consuming and socialising.

Ignoring climate change or attempts, post pandemic, to return to business as usual - quite literally business as usual - is not and cannot be an option.

 

01 Nordic Values
02 Knowledge Sharing
03 Partnerships
04 Sustainable Methods and Models
05 Circular Economy
06 Reduced Waste
07 Sharing Economy
08 Robot Love
09 Responsible Procurement
10 Nudging
11 Transparency
12 Future Generations

SUSTAINORDIC

order copies of the report or read the Nordic Reports on line

 

telling you where to put it

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Graphics for waste.jpeg

The amount of rubbish and the types of rubbish we recycle has changed over the years.

And not just what and how much is recycled has changed: the colour of bin you put the waste in and the sort of label or symbol on the bin has changed at different times in different places so now varies from city to city. Even within Copenhagen, the what and the where is different from one part of the city to the next. Some people would claim that you get a better sort of rubbish in Frederiksberg or Hellerup to the rubbish people throw away in Christianshavn but I'm not convinced.

But now, throughout Denmark, all this is to be rationalised and with standard graphics so, hopefully, you will no longer have to stand in front of a line of bins trying to work out what the symbol really means.

Now there will be ten different bins for ten types of waste.

…. but even here they seem to have forgotten batteries and is anyone completely sure when paper is too thick to be paper and becomes cardboard or at what point a pamphlet becomes a book?

All we do know for certain is that gone are the days when everything simply went into one bin and ended up at the district heating incinerator.

 

The Nordic Report 02

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The first Sustainordic report - The Nordic Report 01 - was published by SUSTAINORDIC at the end of 2018 and now a second report - The Nordic Report 02 - has just been released and is available through bookshops and as a pdf version available on line.

This is an important publication that should be seen to mark a point where it is possible to claim that the principles of sustainability in design and production are bedding in … moving on from lobbying to mainstream implementation.

It is no longer acceptable for governments simply to produce lists of aims and targets and platitudes … a wish list that they hope will get them through to at least the next election.

This publication has the support of the Nordic Council of Ministers and is produced through a partnership of six major design bodies from each of the Nordic countries - so from Iceland, Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Norway - with Iceland Design Centre, Danish Architecture Centre, Design Forum Finland, Form Design Center and Ark Des, and DOGA. SUSTAINORDIC was established in 2015.

As with the first report, this report takes as its starting point Responsible Consumption and Production - Goal 12 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals - but with twelve points of action to form a manifesto “which resonates with Nordic values.”

It is interesting to see that the order of the action points in the updated manifesto for Report 2 have been rearranged, implying that priorities have been reassessed, and the impact of these manifesto points have also been sharpened up with stronger and more memorable headings. It is also clear that, in the year between the publications, some terms or definitions have entered a wider public usage so do not need to be explained in quite the same way.

In the 2018 manifesto, item 08 was to ….

Promote circular economy by improving the overall performance of products throughout their life cycle.
We inspire greater awareness of the urgency of products and environments being manufactured to be reused with high quality in technical or biological cycles.

…. but in this new report, at the beginning of 2020, the circular economy has risen up the order and has been given more punch. So now ….

05 CIRCULAR ECONOMY
Promote a circular economy by improving the overall performance of products throughout their life cycle. We encourage a circular approach to minimise waste and to make optimal use of resources in production, in contrast to the "take, make & dispose" model of the traditional linear economy.

The report makes full use of a strong layout design with good graphics, distinct colours and attractive line-work illustrations - although, of course, anything other than good design would have been roundly criticised with so many design organisations involved.

That it is not a stuffy government or public information paper - with bullet points, foot notes and pages of references to sources - shows that SUSTAINORDIC and the Council of Ministers understand that climate change can only be tackled and sustainability only achieved by political action that involves and engages people to gain their support and will be achieved through radical changes in the approach and the work of architects, engineers, planners, designers, food producers and manufacturers.

Some points set out here might seem obvious … so Film, literature, music and art can be powerful weapons … but maybe even now, even in our digital and online World, that still needs to be said and other comments seem obvious when set out here but I have never heard many of these arguments made so simply and so forcefully so ….

Around 80 per cent of a product’s environmental impact is determined already in the planning phase. Using the design process as a method – to think twice in the early stages, work against norms and involve the users – is an effective way to take sustainable action.

Again, in this second report, there are, within each section, profiles and inspiring interviews about companies and products and, again, this reinforces that, for the Nordic countries, sustainability is not about concerns and  committees and initial policies but about work and projects that are already in hand and moving forward.

Nordic Council of Ministers
SUSTAINORDIC

 
Nordic Report 2.jpeg

The Nordic Report 02 can be ordered on line from Form Design Centre or read online at the same site or the report can be read or downloaded from the SUSTAINORDIC site