Opening: Slow Pavilions

Slaatto Morsbøl and Tom Svilans x THISS Studio are the winners of the Slow Pavilions open call.

With each their take on an architecturally sophisticated pavilion in recycled and reusable materials, they set out to imagine what a great deceleration of the global system might look, feel, and sound like on a local scale. The architecture of the 21st century will be an architecture of the slow. For it’s really not about whether we slow down, nor if we need to. It’s about how slowness will arrive. In each their way the winners give this years Biennial theme, Slow Down, physical form.

Join us for the opening of the pavilions on 18th September at 16:00 on Søren Kierkegaards Plads. The opening will begin with a guided tour of Inside Out, Downside Up, Slaatto Morsbøl’s pavilion, before we walk to Gl. Strand for the viewing of Barn Again by Tom Svilans x THISS Studio.

Designed and built specifically for the Biennial the pavilions will act as a symbols and gathering places for the first Copenhagen Architecture Biennial 2025 taking place in 18 September - 19 October.

Inside Out, Downside Up by Slaatto Morsbøl

is a pavilion built mainly from reused materials, offering a spatial response to the biennale theme Slow Down through a tactile and sensorial architectural experience. Located at Søren Kierkegaard Plads, the pavilion reflects the characteristics of its immediate context — a site marked by the contrast between historic brick warehouses and modern metal and glass buildings, all framing an expansive
cobblestone-paved plaza beside the canal.

The project understands slowness as a physical and emotional recalibration — a return to awareness through the senses. In a world where construction is often driven by speed, efficiency, and detachment from material realities. The pavilion invites visitors to slow down
not just through its atmosphere, but through its very making.

BIO: Slaatto Morsbøl (Thelma Slaatto, NO, and Cecilie Morsbøl, DK) is a young architectural duo based in Copenhagen, with an education from the Royal Danish Academy. Slaatto Morsbøl were the 2024 winners of the Danish Association of Architects ‘Udsyn’ prize.

Barn Again by Tom Svilans & THISS Studio

proposes a reimagining of the traditional Norwegian barn through the expressive reconfiguration of reclaimed timber elements. The pavilion addresses slowness from three different perspectives: by providing a place of pause in the middle of the city; by deferring and elongating the material value chain; and through the tectonic overlay of timber hand and machine-craft.

Timber is salvaged from a disused barn—weathered wood that has already lived a life—and strategically reconfigured into a sheltered cocoon in the plaza at Gammel Strand, where its traditional architectural language is contrasted with new joinery and precise machine incisions.

Barn Again is made in a collaboration between: Tom Svilans, an award-winning architectural designer and researcher based in Copenhagen, Denmark. THISS Studio, an award-winning London- based architecture practice founded by Tamsin Hanke and Sash Scott. As well as Bollinger+Grohmann & Winther A/S. Visit their Instagrams here and here

From the jury

Amy Frearson, Journalist & Editor at DeZeen: "The two winning designs epitomise the idea of “slowing down” in architecture. One highlights the beauty that can be found in reused materials, while the other shows how historic typologies can inspire new forms of innovation. Together, they offer a bold vision for how architecture can respond to our changing world.”

Ida Willadsen Bang Kjeldsen, Curator & Architect at CAFx: "The winning pavilions showcase how reused building materials can be employed in both aesthetic and innovative ways, and how existing materials can be repaired—adding new layers of meaning and connection between the old and the new. These are important steps toward ‘slowing down’ the building industry. We received an exceptional number of high-quality pavilion proposals, which made the jury’s decision all the more difficult.”

Lars Autrup, Director of the Danish Association of Architects: “It is a great pleasure to be allowed to select pavilions in such a fine field of professional engagement and artistic ambitions. Pavilions serve as vital testbeds for sustainable architecture—offering a unique opportunity to experiment with innovative materials, circular design principles, and low- impact construction techniques. Their temporary nature encourages bold exploration, allowing architects to push boundaries, rethink resource efficiency, and inspire new approaches to building for a more sustainable future.

Chrissie Muhr, Architect, Researcher & Curator: “The selected pavilions articulate a most current and forward-looking architectural agency, situated within the broader transition toward circular building. Through regenerative material strategies and a deep engagement with craft, they revive construction culture and reconfigure material value chains— foregrounding architecture as both process and practice. Their affective spatial language reveals how emerging forms of architecture can assert agency across cultural, material, and social horizons, bridging environmental intelligence with sensuous, embodied experience.”

Partners

The pavilions will be built using recycled, regenerative, and reusable materials in a partnership with Revalu and Dreyers Foundation and Buro Happold, reflecting the biennial's commitment to zero waste and long-term ecological impact. The pavilions will be erected in The Copenhagen Cultural District