When 3daysofdesign, June 10–12, gathers design fans and professionals from around the world in Copenhagen, Danish Architecture Center (DAC) will be hosting a program exploring how materials become architecture, and how design can be a multisensory experience.
Admission to the installation in DAC Welcome is free. Entry to DAC’s other exhibitions requires a ticket.
From Wood to Architecture: New Design Installation at DAC
During 3daysofdesign, DAC will be opening the installation This is Not a Forest, which follows the journey of wood all the way from raw resource to finished construction.
Guests go from a felled tree trunk at Bryghuspladsen through processed lumber, and onward into a digital forest at DAC, where each step in the process alters both the material and, not least, our perception of it. By revealing the production process, this installation invites reflection on how materials are produced, utilized, and valued, and how we can work more intentionally with them in tomorrow’s architecture and design.
The installation was created by the design practice Archival in collaboration with DAC and Dinesen Lab, a part of Dinesen, makers of bespoke wood flooring.
Other partners: Studio Atlant, Studio Pneuma, MSSR Works, Dinesen, and the sawmill Herskind Savværk.
Read more about This is Not a Forest https://dac.dk/en/exhibitions/this-is-not-a-forest
Verner Panton Turns 100: Design as a Spatial Experience
DAC also celebrates a century of Verner Panton with a new installation in the exhibition So Danish!, The installation brings together iconic works and stories exploring why Danish architecture and design continue to inspire audiences around the world.
Panton is regarded as one of the most visionary figures in 20th-century Danish design and architecture. The installation brings together several of his iconic designs and highlights how Panton approached design as a complete spatial experience.
Among the highlights is an installation of 81 Flowerpot pendants suspended in a chandelier-like formation, forming a sculptural, suspended luminaire arrangement. Together with the exhibited furniture, the installation becomes an homage to Panton’s total-design shaping spaces through light, form, and color.
With thanks to &Tradition, Vitra, VERPAN and Verner Panton Design AG for their collaboration.
Read more about So Danish!
Get Close to Architecture at BLOX
Every day during 3daysofdesign, DAC will be offering guided tours of BLOX, giving guests insights into the architectural concepts and features behind the building on Copenhagen’s waterfront. The tours are conducted in English and aimed at an international audience with an interest in architecture and urban renewal.
Opening with Talks on Senses and Materials
On June 11, DAC will mark the opening of This is Not a Forest with an informal, free-admission, evening event from 5:00 to 9:00 p.m. The evening will feature opening talks, DJ, cider, popcorn, and an AfterDAC talk on sensory architecture.
In a panel discussion with DACs senior curator Pernille Stockmarr, representatives of Archival, Dinesen Lab, and Studio Pneuma will be talking about the installation and their work with wood, scents, and sensory architecture.
Practical Details
During 3daysofdesign, admission is free of charge to This is Not a Forest and the 100 Years of Verner Panton installation. DAC’s other exhibitions require an admission ticket.
For more information about 3daysofdesign on the DAC program, visit:
https://dac.dk/3daysofdesign
Read more about the exhibition premiere at: Exhibition Opening: This is Not a Forest – Danish Architecture Center – DAC
A 20-meter long fir tree and a forest of scrap wood is due to move into DAC for 3daysofdesign
During 3daysofdesign, Danish Architecture Center (DAC) will be premiering the exhi-bition This is Not a Forest – a venue-specific installation created by the design prac-tice Archival in collaboration with DAC and Dinesen Lab. Through an architectural in-stallation featuring sound, light and scent, the exhibition follows the journey of wood from raw resource to architecture, and questions how we value natural resources to-day.
The felled Douglas Fir lying in front of DAC is no longer part of the forest. But it hasn’t been transformed into design or architecture yet either. From Bryghuspladsen, the ex-hibition continues down through DAC, where wood planks are drying in front of the entrance, and an indoor “forest” of six 4-meter tall columns constructed out of scrap wood towers inside DAC.
The Wood That Normally Goes Unseen
Today, only a small proportion of cut lumber is turned into what we normally regard as the valuable finished wood. In much of the lumber and construction industry, the rest is rejected, down-graded, or incinerated as scrap wood.
This is Not a Forest explores what happens when off-cuts from production are given a new lease on life instead. In collaboration with Dinesen Lab, which focuses on use of the whole tree, off-cuts from production of Dinesen’s plank flooring have been turned into pillars and seating in DAC’s welcome area.
The four bespoke seats were designed by Archival and clad in Tiles from Dinesen, made of off-cuts from production. Here, the distal ends of the wood face outward, so the tree rings, structures, and irregularities stand out as intentional design features. The organic shapes and varying heights of the furniture invite different ways of en-gaging with, and interacting in, a space.
In this way, the exhibition signals a major shift in building design, where the focus is not only on which materials we use, but also on how we use them, and what we see as having value.
“With This is Not a Forest”, we’re aiming to challenge prevailing views of what has value, and demonstrate how what we usually overlook can be transformed into archi-tecture and design. Equally, the exhibition points to a shift in our field, where it’s not just about choosing the right materials, but about using and repurposing them far more,” says Kent Martinussen, architect and CEO, Danish Architecture Center.
Wood As a Living Material
At the same time, the installation stages wood as a living material that continues to dry, crack, and change over time. The exhibition shows lumber that has not been kiln-dried, but air-dried, which is a slower process that reduces energy consumption, and
makes it possible to use more of the tree trunk. Meanwhile, tiny fir tree shoots signal a very different time scale: In theory, they will not be transformed into floor boards un-til 2106.
“Wood is a living material that continues to dry, crack, and change over time. Instead of hiding its variations, we aim to make them visible and make them part of the archi-tecture. Maybe biomaterials should be used for the same length of time it took them to grow,” says Emil Roman Frøge, architect and founder of Archival, which operates at the interface of architecture, artisanry, and materials research.”
Can a Forest be Smelled and Heard?
At the exhibition, the soundscape is inspired by the deep roots and tall tree canopies of the forest, while the light filters through the space like in a real forest. Meanwhile, a video brings the forests into DAC, connecting the installation with the locations where the trees were growing before they were harvested for design and architecture.
The scents in the exhibition were developed by Studio Pneuma in collaboration with Dinesen and Sissel Tolass, olfaction (smell sense) researcher. By analyzing airborne scent molecules, the atmosphere and memories of the forest are interpreted as sen-sory perceptions in the space.
In this way, the exhibition explores not only how we build with wood, but also how our senses detect and relate to it.
From Installation to Interior
DAC’s Welcome lobby has been transformed with bespoke seating, and a new recep-tion desk made of wood repurposed from DAC’s previous units. The interior furnish-ings were designed and made by Archival in collaboration with MSSR Works as what are now permanent features of DAC.
Green textiles from Kvadrat cover the walls behind the reception desk, while a green floor draws forest colors into the space, blurring the divide between installation, fur-nishings, and architecture.
When the exhibition closes in September, the wood columns will be dismantled and repurposed as stools at DAC.
In this way, the Welcome lobby will exemplify how scrap materials can be incorpo-rated as permanent interior design and architecture.
Opening with Talk on Senses and Materials
On June 11, DAC will mark the opening of This is Not a Forest with an informal, free-admission, evening event from 5:00 to 9:00 p.m. The event will host opening speeches, cider and popcorn, and an AfterDAC talk.
In a panel discussion with DAC’s senior curator Pernille Stockmarr, representatives of Archival, Dinesen Lab, and Studio Pneuma will talk about the installation and their work with wood, scents, and sensory architecture.