Can good design create a better world? For the five finalists of the CHART Art Fair’s architecture competition, who we're exclusively announcing today, the answer is a resounding yes. As these five pavilions by emerging architects propose, creative design can turn trash, quite literally, into the building blocks of the urban environment, while emerging technology paves the way for a more sustainable future.
Part of the fifth edition of CHART, Copenhagen, Denmark’s celebration of Nordic contemporary art and design, which runs from August 31–September 2, the five pavilion designs chosen from an open call of work by young professionals, students and recent graduates will house the art fair’s gastronomy partners and SPACE10, a future-living lab. It's all part of CHART Social, the fair's free public program of cross-cultural events and programming.
This year's projects (and their partners) include: Cloud 9.0, a structure by Sean Lyon inspired by open-source information sharing that will house the SPACE10 pop-up; Frame, a flat-packable pavilion by Malte Harrig, Vitus Karsten Bjerre and Katrine Hoff that will host Italian restaurant Mother; Open Resource, a space that investigates the potential of plastic waste by Dennis Andersson, Mikkel Møller Roesdahl and Xan Browne that will be home to Belvedere Vodka; The Many Chairs Pavilion, a concept by students Sofia Luna Steenholdt, Joachim Makholm Michelsen, Emil Bruun Meyer and Casper Phillip Ebbesen that will house an outpost of Paté Paté wine bar in a zero-waste structure made from remnants of the manufacturing of a modular chair design; and Tight Knit, a project by Jan Sienkiewicz and Uta Sienkiewicz that repurposes one of the oldest-known craft techniques, knitting, as a tool for urban hacking while hosting restaurant Rouge Oysters.
The finalists were selected by an all-star panel of industry insiders including Bjarke Ingels, the wunderkind architect behind BIG Bjarke Ingels Group, Metropolitan Museum of Art curator Beatrice Galilee, and CHART co-founder Susanne Ottesen, among other leaders in the field.
It’s all part of a concept to support young architects, for whom getting a first big commission can be the biggest challenge of kick-starting a career. The competition is meant to foster networking and cross-collaboration between industry professionals, but there’s an added bonus for the program’s winning design, which will be announced on September 1: a mentorship program with the aim of stimulating and supporting young architect’s careers.
So if you find yourself at the fair, be sure to take a moment to take in the kiosks. You might just be discovering the work of a future Pritzker Prize winner. chartartfair.com
