In order for creative symposiums, exhibitions, and biennales to escape the pigeonhole of performativity followed by inaction, it is essential to shift focus, to include disparate decision-makers, engage varied participants, and invite a diverse audience. In a nutshell, it is crucial to consciously design and create public commons, where individuals from across diverse vocational, racial, social, religious, economic, and other delimitations can come and interact. This will not only enable the provision of just opportunities for all, but will also allow varied arguments to come forth, and determine an inclusive, sustainable, and just future. Venice Architecture Biennale 2023 aims to retain the hope for such a future with a thematic that calls for the contribution of ideas from all. The Biennale in Venice, Italy, now in its 18^th edition, is designated the title of The Laboratory of the Future by Lesley Lokko, the curator of the architecture festival. It is inspired by the idea of a ‘workshop’ in American sociologist Richard Sennett’s The Craftsman, where the author describes this space as one where communities meet, reconnect, and make objects and ideas.

A national architecture pavilion—unveiled as part of the event—that echoes this idea of including diverse voices to design solutions and undertake cogent projects is the Danish Pavilion. On view from May 20 to November 26, 2023, their exhibition, titled Coastal Imaginaries, shines a light on nature-based design solutions that aim to counter several global issues, namely rising sea levels, storm floods, and more. Josephine Michau, curator of the Danish exhibition, calls Coastal Imaginaries “a laboratory for hope in a world of viral hopelessness,” in reference to the overall title of the Venice Architecture Biennale chosen by the curator Lokko this year—The Laboratory of the Future. “From Denmark to the World: Nature-based Design can Help Solve Global Challenges on Our Coasts,” reads a proclamation from the pavilion.

The architecture exhibition, curated by Josephine Michau, represents a collaboration between landscape architectural firm Schønherr, researchers, artists, Danish trade organisations and scientific institutions. Some key members from the team that helped put the exhibition together include Rikke Juul Gram, architect and partner at Schønherr; Christian Friedlander, a scenographer; landscape architect Anna Aslaug Lund; architect and associate professor David Garcia; and sound designer Peter Albrechtsen. "Through a composite of speculative scenography and displays of novel research projects, the exhibition invites the audience to explore the spatial logistics of the coastal realm and its field of fluctuating forces, destabilising and disclosing the terrestrial bias of human headspace and habitats,” Michau explains. Keeping in line with the intent of the exhibition, the organisers assured a low carbon footprint from the production of the exhibition. A majority of the materials used in the pavilion are recycled elements from past exhibitions. They are configured in a manner such that they can be disassembled and reassembled for future exhibitions.

“We are in the middle of the Anthropocene Age—that is, the age of mankind—where geologists have declared humanity to be a geological force on equal terms with volcanoes, meteor strikes, and tectonic shifts. Humans are contributing to many of the crises we are facing today, including the biodiversity crisis, the climate crisis, the environmental crisis, and the food crisis. We not only have the opportunity, but also the duty, to take action and reverse this trend, and the architects who design our physical surroundings play a vital role in this," shares Michau. The various research findings make a show at the exposition in the form of drawings and diagrams, placed alongside spectacularly staged large-scale dioramas developed by Christian Friedländer, exhibition designer of Coastal Imaginaries.

The exhibition, housed in two historical buildings designed by Carl Brummer and Peter Koch respectively, also highlights the need for an interdisciplinary approach in order to counter this issue. "The architects need allies. We must work across professional, geographical and institutional boundaries to learn from each other and, most importantly, to cultivate the political will to initiate radical changes," Michau asserts. This is substantiated by the collaboration between members coming from different disciplines.

Apart from delineating the wide array of coastal challenges that require our attention, Coastal Imaginaries also raises awareness about the impact of climate crisis upon buildings and homes in such areas. The exhibition, through an array of research presentations and project showcases, aims to present the potential of natural provisions in facilitating coastal protection and climate moderation across various locations in the world. Against the augural conjecture that rising sea levels and frequent storm floods will dramatically change our coastal landscapes in the coming years, research of this nature is imperative. Michau showcases these proposals through seven nature-based solutions that span various timelines and landscapes. “The solutions offer mechanisms for landscape resilience, carbon sinks, cultivation areas, materials banks, biodiversity, and new natural spaces for socialising and recreation,” reads an excerpt from the press release. 

Taking Copenhagen as an example, Schønherr showcases the evolution of the city and its coasts, as well as a speculative presentation delineating the improvement of its coastline in future through the employment of nature-based solutions. Although regarded as one of the best cities to live in, Copenhagen is currently under the threat of rising sea levels and flooding. This is due to its low-lying position and vulnerable foundations, which are largely made up of sandbars, islets, and filled seabed areas.

The Danish landscape architectural firm Schønherr developed the strategy 'Copenhagen Islands,’ which is a proposal designed for the improvement of the city. “The capital city’s classic urban development plan, called the Finger Plan, from 1947 is replaced with urban development based on the islets that arise in a delta between seawater and rainwater. This transformed map of Copenhagen shows a new research-based proposal to ensure a robust future scenario for all of Greater Copenhagen. Attention is shifted towards the city’s underlying topography, and the urban planning of the future is based on our encounter with nature,” reads a description for the project.

The proposal aims to change the city’s relationship with nature. While its coast currently functions as a physical and administrative line, the strategy developed for the city underlines the need for it to transform into a ‘sponge’ zone, such that it can absorb and hold water when its level rises, and release it outward when the level recedes. “Here, nature’s own robust mechanisms from many landscapes and biotopes are translated into new and concrete solutions,” shares Rikke Juul Gram, MAA MDL, partner and creative director at Schønherr, whose large-scale model of a re-imagined Copenhagen is exhibited at the Danish Pavilion. Other strategies include the withdrawal of the city from the coastline and the wetlands over time, and planning neighbouring areas in alignment with nature.

Various findings are presented at the exposition in the form of drawings and models, by the research group Mitigating Sea Level Rise, headed by landscape architect Anna Aslaug Lund. Their three-year project, Danske byers tilpasning til havvandsstigning – nye løsningsrum (Adapting Danish cities to rising sea levels – new solutions) is the result of a partnership between the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), the Aarhus School of Architecture (ARCH) and the University of Copenhagen (UCPH), as well as architect and associate professor David Garcia, and students in the Architecture and Extreme Environments graduate master program at the Royal Danish Academy – Architecture, Design, Conservation. The project serves as an investigation into nature-based approaches designed to mitigate coastal issues. The researchers examined both international and Danish coastal regions in order to understand the different factors at play in these regions, as well as their corresponding impact. Various prototypes, mappings, photographs, and films showcase the findings of the team at the exhibition.

In order to convey a tangible and immersive experience at the exposition, scenographer and artist Christian Friedländer, and sound designer Peter Albrechtsen have translated parts of the research-led showcase into sensory experiences. The largest room within the pavilion features a ‘dramatically-staged coastal landscape of the future’ by Friedländer. “In a dramatised version of the relationship between wet and dry, between water and land, nature and culture and their interdependence, climate change is experienced on a 1:1 scale,” mentions a description from the official release.

As part of the exhibition, Friedländer also presents Mermaid Bay, the scenographer’s theatrical installation—a 55-minute long staged scenario facilitated with the help of a soundtrack and light design. The installations seek to address the vulnerability of today’s coastal landscapes and the damage wrecked by climate change. Its scenography illustrates 'a topographical triptych of Copenhagen's coastline.' The three landmarks, which are also the tallest buildings in the city, are dramatically accentuated by Friedländer, and his imagined narrative of the future depicts the disappearance of the lowland island of Amager—which geographically precedes Copenhagen—under the rising sea level. The different elements that make up the audio-visual experience are inspired by legends surrounding mermaids, and musician Eden Ahbez’s Nature Boys.

"We need ideas that are based on hope and optimism for the future and that embrace a new view of nature and a new world view in the shaping of the coastal landscape. And yet, in order to find the landscapes of the future, all we have to do is travel back in time. Examples of nature-based design can be found all over the planet, throughout history, and in a wide range of local adaptation traditions for living with water. They are always anchored in a deep understanding of the context of the specific location in which they are used,” explains Michau.

The Pluit Purification Project, on show at the exposition, presents the potential of water hyacinth as a 'grown, nature-based response to polluted waterways as well as a sustainable, flood-responsive building material.' Undertaken by Laurits Genz and Dejle Zaradechet, this study shows that water hyacinth has the potential to filter out pollutants from wastewater and poses great benefit to water bodies such as the Waduk Pluit reservoir in Jakarta, which lies two meters below the sea level and is listed as one of the most polluted bodies of water on the planet.

Another showcase at the exposition, Drowning Walk, by David A Garcia, presents the visualisation of the loss of coastal land in the west of Semarang, Indonesia, from 1985 to 2022. This area is 'prone to flooding from fluvial, pluvial and given the very low elevation of its coastline, to sea storm surges.'

The exhibition is also accompanied by the concurrent publication of the book Critical Coast by Arkitektens Forlag. It is a cross-disciplinary handbook, "a hybrid exhibition catalogue and reader that explores the ecologies and spaces of coastal landscapes, the critical issues surrounding contemporary coastlands and diachronic ideas about coastal futures."

STIR recently visited the architecture event and established a dialogue with the curator Josephine Michau, in order to gain further insight into the process that led to this showcase.

STIR: What is the idea behind the exhibition?

Josephine Michau: We decided to call the exhibition Coastal Imaginaries. It looks into the spatial challenges of our future coastal landscapes, where sea levels are rising and storm surges are becoming more frequent and intense all over the world. The exhibition especially focuses on Denmark, a country with approximately 8000 kilometres of coastline. In addition to coastal difficulties, Denmark is also facing the problem of getting submerged, just like Italy. This is a planetary challenge. Through this exhibition, we intend to understand and convey more about the kind of architecture required in the coming years. Being an architect today is not the same as being an architect some decades ago.

For this exhibition, a transdisciplinary research group called Mitigating Sea Level Rights was approached. They focus on examining ways to mitigate the sea level rise. Their nature-based design solutions are at the exhibition in the form of seven design principles that we are displaying in the panel as a toolbox. I think we have all been to a lot of exhibitions pointing towards this massive challenge called climate change that we are all facing, but not taking it any further. Through this exhibition, we are pointing towards a way to move forward, which is not a plug-and-play method. It is an extremely complex question, and what we are proposing is that we should look back into our history, before modernism taught us that we could somehow manipulate the topography and landscape in our own favour, draining where we wanted to build. We are paying the price for that way of inhabiting our planet. Before industrialisation, we had a very intuitive relationship with our landscape. We knew how to read the topography and biology, as well as the hydrology of a landscape. We would instinctually build settlements on higher ground because it would provide a place for the water to flow down. This is also the knowledge that you find in indigenous systems around the world. It is implemented in vernacular architecture. Hence, we need to relearn something that we have unlearnt.

STIR: Modernism in Europe led to the limitation of vernacular architectural practices in the region. Does the exhibition ponder upon this aspect and its impact on the coastal conditions?

Josephine: We do ponder on this aspect in the exhibition. There is some kind of belief in technology that made us forget that we ourselves are a part of a bigger ecosystem, where we are not the masters of the planet and the natural resources. We are nature, we are part of an ecosystem. Currently, we can witness this understanding amongst people and institutions more commonly. The theme and focus of this year's biennale also shifts from a very anthropocentric point of departure to a more eco-centric portrayal. There is definitely this belief and understanding that the Western ideas of progress, guided by imperialism, are perhaps a reason behind the current climatic situation. This is not explicitly communicated through the exhibition, but it is communicated on an implicit, more concrete level.

The ideas proposed in the exhibition may seem quite radical. However, so far, we have manipulated where we wanted to manipulate, and constructed in places that were not supposed to have any constructions. We are continuing this by expanding the city into the sea, and this makes no sense at all. So, this may be the reason why the actions proposed by researchers today may seem too radical. However, what we are proposing is normal. We are not stating that this is what things should look like, but it is definitely a very good point of departure for further discussions on how to plan and how to understand our own role in the whole system.

STIR: Upon pondering on the title of the exhibition, Coastal Imaginaries, one can interpret it in different ways. There's the imaginary that is mythical, or one that is never going to materialise, or one that is speculative. How do the showcases address each of these?

Josephine: I could see that we are working with a very artistic interpretation of a future landscape and if we want to create some kind of reaction, we need to emotionally engage the audience. Hence, I called the scenographer Christian Friedländer, who usually works in opera and is used to the seductive element of staging scenarios. He created this diorama, which easily sits somewhere in the middle of the imaginary ‘myth’ and the ‘unreal.’ On the other hand, the proposal for Copenhagen is a very speculative project based on so much evidence. We also have a whole line of work from the study program Architects and Extreme Environments, which is an urgent reaction to some of the challenges of extreme weather conditions. In this context, of course, the rising sea levels that Indonesia and Jakarta especially face right now and have faced for several years. They are moving a whole multi-million city to another island because it is sinking, and, of course, most of the people living there are not part of the plan. Suffering from contested water is the biggest cause of death, not drowning. So how do you deal with that? Students from this program (Architects and Extreme Environments) went there and worked with the locals to build solutions. Two of these, Drowning Walk and The Pluit Purification Project are on display at the exhibition. Both of these are cleaning systems for water bodies. These are solution-based or solution-oriented approaches, although for smaller areas, and their scaling up needs to be explored.

'Coastal Imaginaries' is on view from May 20 to November 26, 2023, at Venice Architecture Biennale 2023 in Venice, Italy.

STIR heralds Venice Architecture Biennale 2023’s zealous crusade for an inclusive, equitable and sustainable future! Explore 'The Laboratory of the Future' and the expositions hosted across various national pavilions—Ireland, Ukraine, Canada, Denmark and more—with our exclusive interviews, visits, and analyses.