VIDEO: Dorte Mandrup-Social Communities

Award-winning Danish architect Dorte Mandrup has, from the beginning of her career, worked in neighbourhoods with numerous social challenges – areas that, in her view, often incorporate tremendous energy. Sometimes she seeks to create “protected havens” by raising a building above ground. In other projects, the focus has been on the building’s façade to secure an optimal relationship between the inside and outside:

“Transparency really interests me, particularly as a filter that doesn’t expose everything but engages you. Architect Toyo Ito describes façades as osmotic skin – something that allows the permeation of the best of both sides. A house made entirely of glass is uninteresting and makes the situation inside vulnerable.”

Also, Mandrup reflects upon density as a global challenge: “Key to density is figuring out how to maintain high quality in small spaces. We must live closer together and in places where we don’t commute by car. We can’t keep encroaching on nature at this rate. Both communal and individual spaces must be of a higher quality if we were to live in smaller spaces.”

Dorte Mandrup (b. 1961) graduated from the Aarhus School of Architecture, Denmark, in 1991. Eight years later, she founded her Copenhagen-based studio, where she continues to be the Creative Director. As a humanist with a distinct nonconformist outlook, Dorte Mandrup is well known for her commitment to the development of the architectural practice and her frequent participation in public debates. She has won numerous awards – the latest of which are: Member of the RIBA Honours Committee 2021, Architect of the Year at ICONIC Awards 2021, Visiting Professor at Mendrisio Accademia di Architettura, Switzerland, AZ Awards 2020 for Environmental Leadership, Canada, Kunstpreis Berlin by the Academy of Arts, Chairwoman of the prestigious Mies van der Rohe Award 2019. In 2018 her Icefjord Centre in Ilulissat, Greenland, was part of the curated international exhibition at La Biennale di Venezia. In 2022 Dorte was elected a member of one of Europe’s oldest and most important cultural institutions, Akademie der Künste in Berlin. She has also been named Monocle’s Architect of the year.

 

Dorte Mandrup was interviewed by Marc-Christoph Wagner. Camera: Simon Weyhe, Edited by Simon Wehye, Music: Simon Dokkedal, Sound Mix: Torsten Larsen, Sound Everest, Colour Grade: Klaus Elmer, Produced by Marc-Christoph Wagner & Simon Wehye, © Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2021. Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet and C.L. Davids Fond og Samling. This film is supported by Dreyersfond and Realdania