Build of Site. Danish Pavilion
19th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia
How can we build upon the world without building anew? Denmark’s contribution to the 19th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia answers this question with a sensory and thought-provoking response. The curator of the pavilion, architect Søren Pihlmann of renowned practice pihlmann architects, presents an exhibition that transforms the pavilion into a hybrid exhibition space and renovation site. Build of Site takes on a novel approach, renewing the pavilion building while at the same time showcasing innovative methods to reuse surplus materials uncovered during the construction process. Rather than utilising new resources to build a temporary installation, the exhibition itself is a permanent improvement to the pavilion.
Valuable Waste
The Danish Pavilion requires renovation due to recurring flooding, dated functionality, and indoor climate issues, calling for upgrades to elements such as floors, doors, and windows. Therefore, the pavilion is simultaneously being upgraded while exploring unconventional ways to repurpose surplus construction materials. Renovation of the building began in December 2024, as part of the exhibition concept, and will be completed following the Biennale Architettura 2025. During the exhibition period, the pavilion takes on the form of a hybrid space, blurring the boundaries between exhibition and renovation.
"It should be clear to most people by now that, going forward, we'll have to think constructively with regard to what we've already put into the world. This has been perceived as a limitation. But now should be the time to discuss all the architectural possibilities provided by the ground, the stones, the concrete, or by whatever you find in the place where you've been granted the privilege to build upon the world," explains Søren Pihlmann.
What You See Is What Was There to Begin With
Stepping into Build of Site, visitors will be transported to a construction site temporarily suspended in time. From May to November 2025, the pavilion site will be accessible to the public showcasing archetypal exhibition elements such as podiums, ramps, benches, and tables, all of which have been constructed from
surplus materials unearthed during the renovation process. The materials used throughout including compositions of wood, limestone, concrete floor, stone, sand, silt, and clay, have been closely studied since autumn 2023 in collaboration with researchers and students from the Technical University of Denmark, the
University of Copenhagen, the Royal Danish Academy – Architecture, Design, Conservation, and ETH Zurich.
Gelatine, a by-product of the fishing industry in the Adriatic Sea and elsewhere, has been mixed in the right ratio with sand excavated from the soil under the pavilion and molded into a tabletop. Each individual limestone tile has been studied to understand how it was cut from the quarry in Istria to determine the risk of the tile breaking while removing it, and whether it can be reused when renovating the floor. Non-destructive UPV (Ultrasonic Pulse Velocity) tests have been performed on the existing concrete decks to determine in advance how to cut the components for the highest possible strength when reusing them as beams in the exhibition.
New Alliances Lead to New Insights
The close collaboration between experts from various disciplines since the project's early stages is reflected
in the way bio-based, high-tech and recycled elements are integrated side by side in the architecture. The focus is not on the original function and value of the materials, but rather on how they can be reused to enrich our built environment. The exhibition thus points to both a real building transformation and a transformation of the way we should understand architectural practice in the future.
A majority of the renovation is being carried out in the section of the pavilion built by Peter Koch in the late 1950s. Here visitors will be able to navigate the exhibition on rammed earth patches, raw concrete surfaces, and preserved, tiled areas. As part of the exhibition, a film created in collaboration with the Louisiana Channel will also be on view in the Koch room. The film follows the project over a period of two years from its early conception to the finished exhibition. The Brummer section of the pavilion displays prototypes, studies, and background information about the renovation work and aims for the project following the culmination of the Biennale.
Build of Site is accompanied by the English-language publication Making Matter What Too Often Does Not Matter, an exploratory dialogue between the exhibition's curator, Søren Pihlmann, and the Canadian poet and professor of poetry, Adam Dickinson. Through the lens of Pihlmann's and Dickinson's respective practices, the book explores the themes of the exhibition and, by extension, Pihlmann's other work. The book is published by Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther und Franz König and Danish Architectural Press. Søren Pihlmann and his architecture studio have also been selected as participants of the 19th International Architecture Exhibition Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective. curated by Carlo Ratti.
CREDITS
Commissioner: Kent Martinussen, Danish Architecture Centre
Curator/Exhibitor: Søren Pihlmann, pihlmann architects
