Louisiana Channel has recently published a second piece of their interview with Jens Thomas Arnfred and Søren Nielsen co-founders of the award-winning Danish practice Vandkunsten Architects. In this short video, the two architects talk about nurturing the sense of community through design and reflect on the studio's preoccupation with fostering social encounters within their projects.
In tune with the studio's design philosophy, that is creating housing in sync with the ways people live, work, play, and think, the two co-founders briefly touch on the practice's community-oriented approach, the growing general interest for shared-living housing schemes, and comment on the evolution of the Danish Freetown Christiania.
With more than 50 years of experience, Vandkunsten Architects is a well-established Copenhagen-based architecture studio whose designs focus on community values and social goals. The practice's extensive body of work comprises of residential, cultural and commercial projects, as well as refurbishments, landscaping and urban planning. Five times nominees for the Mies van der Rohe Award, Vandkunsten Architects are promoters of the low-rise high-density housing model, with several designs pertaining to this concept dotting the Scandinavian countries. Some of their projects include the student housing project CPH Shelter, as well as Housing on Lisbjerg Hill, distinguished with the Milanese Matilde Baffa Ugo Rivolta Award for the best European social housing in 2019.
The interview was made in connection to the exhibition Living Better Lives with Vandkunsten, which opened on May 30th and showcases the firm's core values of community and sustainability. In a similar video from the same interview, Vandkunsten partners talk about the sustainability advantages of using timber. Hosted by the Utzon Center in Aalborg, Denmark, the exhibition is part of the series In The Architect's World, in which trend-setting architects create holistic architectural images reflecting their work. Living Better Lives with Vandkunsten will be on display until February 2021.
Via Louisiana Channel.
