1. WELLBEING — Wellbeing Through Architecture

5^th of July 2023, 15:15 – 16:30, Bella Center, Copenhagen

Wellbeing by means of architectural interventions was the theme for the inaugural OBEL Award. At its best, as well as at its worst, architecture is all-encompassing which the jury described thus: “Architecture has an enormous impact on the conditions of individual and social life, on the self-awareness of people, on the public sphere, on education, science, economics and politics, on the environment, and on the future developments of all these. Architecture is not only able to contribute to sustainable developments. It is able to design the world of the people as a whole.” In particular, architecture’s ability to impact on both the physical and mental wellbeing of people – by design and by making informed uses of all four dimensions – is an issue that deserves continuous discussion, attention, and self-questioning among the architectural professions.

Speakers:

• Junya Ishigami, Architect and Founder, junya.ishigami+associates
• Martha Schwartz, Former Senior Advisor, OBEL

2. MENDING — Creative Mending Through Climate-Positive Construction or Design

4^th of July 2023, 13:15 – 14:45, Bella Center, Copenhagen

Mending within the built environment can be applied to many circumstances and involve different actions. It does not only transform the physical but can also impact other aspects of society.  Mending embodies proposals and processes that can be adjusted to local culture, conditions, and needs, and places each global citizen at the heart of their own city, enabling them to thrive. The OBEL jury stated that “planet needs creative mending and wholly new ideas. Architecture can and must develop alternative and sustainable uses of space; new and innovative materials; holistic design approaches and construction methods, to name a few. It can and must develop climate-positive solutions in building on an available level. Architecture can and must offer new and daring solutions.”  If mending implies caring for and improving something that is weak or in danger, can architects ‘mend’ the climate? If not, what is their role? How can local materials and techniques be understood, evaluated for their sustainability and used effectively?

Speakers:

• Xu Tiantian, Architect and Founding Principal, DnA Design and Architecture
• Jeanne Gang, Architect and Founding Leader, Studio Gang
• Martha Thorne, Former Senior Advisor at OBEL
• Reinier De Graaf, Architect, Architectural Theorist, Urbanist & Writer
• Anna Heringer, Architect and Founder, Studio Anna Heringer

→ Watch the full talk here

3. CITIES — Seminal Solutions to the Challenges Facing Cities

5^th of July 2023, 13:15 – 14:45, Bella Center, Copenhagen

We all know the figures about cities: more than 50% of the world’s population are city dwellers and the number is increasing. Cities consume about 75 % of all energy and produce about 80% of all CO2 as well as about 80% of GNP. Even with these figures in mind, the major issues facing cities seem difficult to define and even more difficult to tackle. Cities are dynamic, and with many agents intervening in the definition and creation of a city or parts of it, coupled with often out of date tools to understand and manage cities, the current situation is, at best, complex and confusing. Who makes the city of today? Cities are places of conflicting interests. Is it possible to reconcile some of these? Can cities move fast enough towards a circular economy to assure survival? Is policy top down necessary or the answer? How can we meaningfully engage people from the individual level to broader levels of community, city and societal actions?

Speakers:

• Martha Thorne, Former Senior Advisor, OBEL
• Carlos Moreno, Professor, University of Sorbonne, Paris
• Joan Clos, Former Executive Director, UN Habitat
• Lina Ghotmeh, Founder, Lina Ghotmeh Architecture
• Natalie de Vries, Architect & Founding Partner, MVRDV

→ Watch the full talk here

4. EMBODIED EMISSIONS

3^rd of July 2023, 17:30 – 19:00, Danish Architecture Centre, Copenhagen

CO2 is being discussed everywhere, but what are the enablers and barriers for architects to take a leading role in driving down emissions? This panel discussion, with a Q&A, will touch on embodied emissions by, and from, materials, methods, tools, circularity, decisioning acceptance, behaviour, as well as the question of accounting.

Speakers:

• Sam Draper, Co-founder, Seratech, OBEL Award 2022 Winner
• Kjetil Thorsen, Co-founder, Snøhetta, OBEL Award Juror
• Matthias Schuler, Founder, Transsolars
• Martha Lewis, Head of Materials, Henning Larsen Architects
• Albert Taylor, Co Founder and Director, AKT II
• Moderated by Chris Luebkeman, Strategic Foresight, ETH-Zürich

5. UNGROUNDING

2^nd of July 2023, 14:00 – 15:30, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark

Ungrounding is a concept that explicitly aims at destabilizing – pointing to an understanding of space as marked by conflicts and politics. Addressing an unstable world order, the conversation will build on cave_bureau’s work of critical architectural acts of resistance in order to offer new perspectives on the era of the Anthropocene. This talk is a collaboration between Louisiana and OBEL on the occasion of the exhibition The Architects’s Studio – cave_bureau which was on show at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art from June 29 through November 26, 2023.

Speakers:

• Kabage Karanja, Co-founder, Cave_bureau
• Stella Mutegi, Co-founder, Cave_bureau
• Anna Heringer, Architect and Founder, Studio Anna Heringer
• Tomà Berlanda, Architecture Professor
• Aric Chen, Former Director, Het Nieuwe Instituut