The Copenhagen Architecture Festival has launched a new call to rethink the festival's format and execution for this edition affected by the novel Cover-19 pandemic. 

"The Copenhagen Architecture Festival had been looking forward to presenting visitors with 200+ events under the joint title “Welfare City in Transition” on Friday, but as you know, the world situation has changed," highlighted the organizers of the event. 

Copenhagen Architecture Festival was originally planned to be held between April 23 - May 3, 2020, but it will hold its first event as a digital format during April, they stated. 

The organizers of the festival said: "We are currently working towards spreading the festival's program over three time periods (and continuous drips occasionally)." 

"The first event will be in a digital form during April, where we, among others, will be looking forward to presenting you with the exhibition Watch more TV!!! by the German architecture practice Brandlhuber + and the film artist Christopher Roth and an associated exhibition program with contributions from Danish and international professionals. More on that soon!"

If the situation permits, the festival will spread activities in a more analog form to their last two festival periods in late August and the days around the Architecture Day on October 5, 2020.

In the meantime, the organizers are launching two open calls on their digital platforms (web and social media). There are many thoughts and considerations around the world as to how the Corona-crisis will impact our lives, societies and (cultural) production in the future. 

Thus, Copenhagen Architecture Festival would like to use its platforms in order to contribute to reflections on architecture, urban planning, public space and the sociality of the built environment in the context of the current Corona crisis.

Please see the details of the two open calls below:

Open call 1: Observations, visions, and considerations on the impact of the Corona-crisis on the built environment, in both Danish and international contexts.

The format is open and can be both text and illustration, however, please write in either English or Danish. The incoming contributions will be published on our web and Facebook pages.

Street life has been suspended, freedom of assembly has been radically restricted, and most institutions and workplaces are closed down, while social and professional relations are confined to digital platforms. To an extreme extent, the home and the nation-state have become guiding frameworks for our everyday lives. National borders are closing while new biological, bodily defined borders have arisen by dictate. Over a short period of time, a new system of distancing has been implemented, and as an underlying effect, these new codes of conduct have brought evidence to the connection between all of us. Paradoxical connectivity of both good and bad.

What impact can we imagine the current pandemic will have—or ought to have—on our approach to the built environment and urban planning in the future? Less density? More surveillance? More risk assessment and preventive regulations? What social, political, and cultural effects can we fear or hope for that this global state of emergency will cause? Increased social equality and solidarity across societal divides? Across national borders? Or more social control? A decrease in consumption? Changed mobility patterns? Are there concrete construction projects and planning strategies that present themselves differently in the wake of our, as of yet only budding, experiences from the pandemic and its expectedly severe impact on economies across the globe? Do the Corona-crisis call for a return of the Welfare state with its top-down planning? Is it possible to imagine that positive experiences and a change of behavioral patterns can be drawn from the Covid-19-crisis to the Climate-crisis?

The festival is looking forward to a querying, free-thinking, and inspiring debate, that can help us reflect together on this unprecedented situation and its possible consequences.

Please send your contribution to [email protected].

"NB: We reserve the right not to publish all contributions."

Open call 2: The home in the time of the corona-virus

Share a photo and your thoughts / reflections on your home during this life-changing time.

Copenhagen Architecture Festival wants to focus on how the character and meaning of home has changed in the midst of a global health crisis, where people have to isolate themselves at home either alone, with their families or among friends in collectives or colleges. For many, the home has become the setting for the workplace, school, kindergarten, care, and many different needs at once. How does this new reality manifest itself in the homes? Eg. details in the home that have become more important—for good or for bad? Or new design solutions adopted to meet the new reality? We would like to see and hear your take on that.

When the crisis is over, it is important that we remember how the situation was and how the home acted as a physical framework for everyday life in a state of emergency.

Thus, if you want to participate in documenting this historic time, we encourage you to:

Share a photo on Instagram of your home e.g. a room, an object or a spacious detail that has changed the meaning and put a few words on how the home has transformed and has been given a different meaning in this corona time, max. 50 words. Use the hashtags #CoronaHome, #CAFx2020, #Stayingathome and #CopenhagenArchitectureFestival and mention us in your post or story.

We look forward to reading, seeing and sharing your contributions!

The festival wishes to thank Realdania, Dreyers Fond + Copenhagen Municipality for their support.

Top image: Astrid Maria Rasmussen, courtesy of Copenhagen Architecture Festival

> via Copenhagen Architecture Festival