The Danish architecture company Cobe, headed by Dan Stubbergaard, has opened an updated edition of the highly successful exhibition ‘Our Urban Living Room’ at the renowned Aedes Architecture Forum in Berlin
The opening was launched last Friday with a big party and speeches by founder of Cobe, Dan Stubbergaard, founder of Aedes, Kristin Feireiss, and Ambassador of Denmark, Friis Arne Petersen.
The focus of the exhibition is the architectural firm Cobe, which has had a wide breakthrough in Denmark and abroad since the foundation in 2006. Today it is one of the most acclaimed and award winning architecture firms in Denmark and one of the most renowned protagonists of a new generation of Danish architects.
The exhibition ‘Our Urban Living Room’ presents a selection of realised Cobe projects in Copenhagen, including the urban space Karen Blixens Plads, the residential highrise The Silo and the Frederiksvej Kindergarten.
A city in transformation
Over the past 30 years, Copenhagen has undergone major changes – from a postindustrial city to one of the most liveable cities in the world, establishing itself as an experimental metropolis for sustainable urban development and pioneering architecture.
“Our city is our home, and that quality is what underpins the success of Copenhagen today. The more we care for it – as architects, but more importantly as Copenhageners ourselves – the better we will treat it. The better it is designed, the more people will want to live well in our city and take pride in it. This is not a matter of beauty, elegance or wealth, but a story of social liveability and urban democracy,” says Dan Stubbergaard, architect and founder of Cobe.
Step into a giant bookcase
With the exhibition, Cobe invites the visitors to step into a giant wooden bookcase, which contains models, images, texts, drawings and many other exhibits which the exhibition visitors can climb into, touch and listen to. Copies of Cobe’s book ‘Our Urban Living Room’ are also found in the bookcase, so in that sense, exhibition and book go hand in hand.
“The large wooden bookcase forms a setting for showcasing seven different themes from our work. That includes, among others, architecture for children, the transformation of industrial buildings and what Copenhagen should look like in the future. By creating an exhibition that invites play and interaction, we invite the visitors to help us define the urban living room we have created at Aedes – just as we are all involved in shaping Copenhagen’s urban living rooms,” says Dan Stubbergaard.
Together with the Danish Architecture Centre, ‘Our Urban Living Room’ was first exhibited in Copenhagen in 2016, and later at the urban information centre Laituri in Helsinki in 2018. The current edition of the exhibition in Berlin was developed by Cobe in cooperation with Aedes Architecture Forum.
Cobe in Germany
From having a large number of projects in Copenhagen, Cobe has in recent years also done many projects abroad – especially in Germany. These include, among others, adidas HALFTIME – a combined meeting place and conference centre for adidas’ employees, visitors and brand ambassadors that opened at adidas’ headquarters in Southern Germany in 2018, the transformation of Cologne’s former industrial harbour, Deutzer Hafen, into a new city district, and the mixed-use Europahafenkopf development in Bremen’s former industrial harbour, currently under construction.
About the exhibition
The original ‘Our Urban Living Room’ exhibition from 2016 was developed by Cobe in cooperation with the Danish Architecture Centre. The revised edition of ‘Our Urban Living Room’ was developed by Cobe in cooperation with Aedes, and financially supported by Dreyers Fond, Johannes Fogs Fond, Knud Højgaards Fond and KUKURUZ. Arvinius + Orfeus Publishing, Rama Studio and Rasmus Hjortshøj – COAST collaborated with Cobe on the exhibition.
The exhibition will run from January 18 – April 29 2020 at Aedes Architecture Forum, Christinestr. 18-19, 10119 Berlin. The exhibition has free admission.