"The role of public buildings should be the first to show quality, sustainability, and an embrace of the people," says Copenhagen native and architect, Dan Stubbergaard, in this recent video from the Louisiana Channel. In COBE: Monuments of the Future, Stubbergaard speaks in favor of architecture that reinforces the welfare state, beginning with the philosophy behind the process: "Our buildings are like a hard disk of our memory or history" says Stubbergaard, "and you can see that this was the best you could do at that time."
Founder and creative director of COBE in Copenhagen, Stubbergaard focuses his practice on work varying from public space to large urban planning. Stubbergaard explains how architecture can be a way to understand how cities grow, live, break down and grow again. It is the architecture, the buildings and structure that direct people to the most popular cities, as it is "embedded into the history."
Stubbergaard encourages considering that the fantastic thing about architecture may be its ability to span past our own lives. He is aware that it is only through the extensive passing of time that we can see architecture's true impact. “Maybe it’s only at that time that you can really judge whether it was a success, whether it worked, whether it’s livable, whether it’s lively, whether it’s able to transform again and again and again, as a city has to work like a big organism.” It is through this mindset that Stubbergaard drives COBE: towards larger holistic considerations, and towards the future.
Read more on our coverage of Stubbergaard and COBE Architects here.
