Join us for an exploration of how younger Danish architects make do with now, transforming and renovating the existing structures rather than making grand gestures from scratch.

During this salon, CAFx invites younger Danish architecture studios, working in line with approaches and themes of our current exhibition, Make Do with Now: New Directions in Japanese Architecture, to reflect upon what the curator Yuma Shinohara characterises as the “renovation generation” in a Japanese context: ‘Increasingly, architecture in Japan is one of transformation and reprogramming, rather than of new construction. If previous generations of young architects had made their name through adventurous single-family homes, commissioned by young families to mark new phases of their lives, one could speak now of a “renovation generation” whose first projects consist of small-scale refurbishments of existing buildings and interiors – an observation borne out by taking a look at any recent architecture magazine in Japan. On the one hand, this trend is a function of scarcity – commissions for new constructions are few and far between, often because young people simply do not have the resources to buy property and finance new houses from the ground up – but this is also reflective of a general shift in cultural values.’

Nicolai Bo Andersen, Djernes & Bell, Kim Lenschow and gruppe-aja will present their work and methodology in light of scarcity of resources, nature crises, aesthetics, changed values, etc. How might a strategy and methodology of a ‘renovation generation’ look like in a Danish context? How to transform and renovate ‘boring’ buildings from the 1960s - 1990s of varying quality and of an enormous quantity (instead of demolishing them and building from scratch)? What are the environmental, economic, cultural and aesthetic problems and potentials?

While drinks are served, you can continue the discussion with your friends and colleagues and see the exhibition.

You can meet:

Nicolai Bo Andersen, associate professor at the Royal Academy of Architecture – who has and is educating many of the young architects of a ‘renovation generation’, working more modestly with transformation of existing structures. (Nicolai Bo Andersen will both function as a moderator and take part in the conversation).

Djernes & Bell, is an architectural practice based in Copenhagen with a special interest in what already exists: built, material, human, natural.

Kim Lenschow, (the former partner of Søren Pihlmann), aiming to cultivate a more aware and authentic engagement with the world and the structures that surround us.

gruppe-aja, an upcoming office rethinking architecture through a focus on reduction of resources in the wake of the nature crises.