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SLOW CITY

Type
Year
Location

Copenhagen Architecture Biennial, Slow Pavilion
2025
Gammel Strand, Copenhagen
Presentation link

                                          Text



 The rigidity of the frame — systematically, urbanistically, architecturally and in buil-
ding material — increases the density and collisions of particles, as more friction
builds, local heat transfer intensifies, leading to overheating on multiple levels:
physical, ecological and social.

Nature and sustainability at its core, is porous. It allows for movement and air to
pass through, just as organic materials and healthy urban environments do. Uncontained, nature finds balance, and perhaps we do too?

Removing the frame naturally slows down the system. The particles settle, and with them, we are reminded that slow is the normal, an underlaying state — always present beneath the noise.

The Pavilion
At the opening, we collectively begin by dismantling the “cube” out into the square—a performative act, signifying that we can take reality into our own hands.

Scattered across the square, the pavilion becomes a light urban intervention porous and attuned to the rhythms of the square — the pavilion enters a state of becoming, a continuous formation at the hands of people — a place too slow down, stop, re-arrange, engage, meet and reflect — becoming true public, always movable and open for transformation.

The urban anomaly.
The objects are urban anomalies — irregularities softly disrupting the regular, creating sparks of awareness and intrigue, a deliberate offset. The pavilion and objects are open in its inhabitation and perception—its multidimensional as it does not tell you how to think or what to do but activates the passerby to explore and slow down.

On architecture
The pavilion marks a shift toward an architecture that is responsive, tangible and
appropriable. The tactile quality of the objects reclaims a dimension often overlooked — the possibility of physically engaging with space. This interaction invites a broader sense of collective ownership in how we shape and share our urban environment. The pavilion directs the focus outward — toward the city, becoming a mediator and a tool for people.

By softening the boundary between people and the built environment, the pavilion reframes architecture from a finished, static expression to a continuous process - one that unfolds through use, movement and participation - an essential ingredient in social sustainability.