Boliglaboratorium: A Danish Housing Lab
About the program
As part of the Chicago Architecture Biennial’s year-round programming at the CAB Studio in the Chicago Cultural Center, the Biennial is partnering with MAS Context to present Boliglaboratorium: A Danish Housing Lab—an exhibition curated by Nord Architects that showcases six innovative Danish architectural projects.
How do we create housing that addresses some of the greatest challenges of our time? This question forms the basis for Boliglaboratorium: A Danish Housing Lab. Six groundbreaking Danish architectural projects are exhibited to explore how housing can respond to the current climate crisis, future urban challenges, shifting family patterns, and new ways of living. Common to all of them is that they will be realized as full-scale housing experiments in Denmark.
The Danish examples featured in the exhibition offer models that can help new housing better fit into our neighborhoods through design excellence and a wider set of residential typologies. Featured projects and teams include: Self-build in Musicon—Roskilde Municipality, Vandkunsten Architects, Nordiq Group, &Foldschack, COWI, researchers Anne Romme and Morten Birk Jørgensen (The Royal Danish Academy), and PhD Silje Sollien; Vertical Courtyards—PensionDanmark, ONV arkitekter, Gehl; Symbiotic Houses—Wihlborgs, URBAN POWER, FLUX, NxT, Stokbro, ØsterGro; The Multi-generational Wooden Building—Ørestad, Copenhagen: Boligforeningen 3B, KAB, Byggepartnerskabet &Os; Aalborg: Himmerland Boligforening; Aarhus: Brabrand Boligforening and Boligforeningen Århus Omegn; Valby: Samvirkende Boligselskaber Østerbro; Copenhagen: AKB; Stengården—Kollektivet Stengården (Hannibal Rasmussen, Mette Johnsen, Ane Vithner, Cecilie Morrison, Josh Morrison, Mathias Nilsson, Kathrine Westfall, Maya Degn, Simon Mikdal), Office Kim Lenschow, Fælleskassen, Byggevirke & Datter; and Cohousing for Single Parents—Domea.dk, ADEPT, Rambøll.
NORD Architects is a Copenhagen-based practice that designs healthy buildings and communities always focusing on the highest degree of sustainability. They design buildings and urban areas for industry leading companies and public clients. They are client advisers on large and complex building projects.
The exhibition travels to Chicago following its 2023 debut at the UIA World Congress of Architects in Copenhagen and its 2024 U.S. premiere at four Pacific Northwest venues: the Seattle Architecture Foundation, the University of Washington College of Built Environments, Portland State University School of Architecture, and Nordic Northwest.
Boliglaboratorium: A Danish Housing Lab, is a joint initiative of the Danish Arts Foundation and Realdania. The U.S. premier of the exhibition is presented by Scan Design Foundation, whose mission is to support the cross-cultural exchange between Denmark and the U.S., in partnership with the Embassy of Denmark in Washington DC.
