Architecture, Sustainability, and Transformation
Type: Cultural
Area: 80 m2
Year: 2024
Location: Slivsø, Denmark
In 1957, Jørn Utzon won the world’s largest architecture competition with his design for the Sydney Opera House. That same year, the natural Slivsø was drained to be used as farmland. These two events may seem coincidental, but they represent two classic Danish stories that this competition entry explores.
1. Wilderness does not exist in Denmark. As a country with limited territory and a challenging winter climate, Denmark has been dependent on agriculture and the creation of arable land. Lammefjørd, Limfjørd and Amager are all landfill projects that were initiated to increase agricultural production, but that development has contributed to the lack of biodiversity and the destruction of the seabed. Fortunately, times have changed. With global climate change, there has been a renewed focus on biodiversity, and globalization has reduced our dependence on locally produced agriculture. This means that there are ‘large’ areas of Denmark, like Slivsø, that can be restored to provide better nature experiences for humans and better habitats for native plants and wildlife.
2. Danes, especially Danish architects, look to the world for their great architectural breakthroughs. Jørn Utzon, Johan Otto von Spreckelsen, and Bjarke Ingels are just a few of the Danish architects who achieved fame with major international projects. Even today, architects apply for travel grants to visit great Danish architecture abroad, for example Utzon’s summer house on Mallorca. This replica of Can Lis is more accessible to all Danes, and reappropriates the geometry of that famous building to frame views to the beautifully reclaimed Danish landscape.