Curatorial Statement

What Creates a Place?

What creates a place? How do we experience and give meaning to places? And how can we build and plan with an awareness of the multitude of diverse qualities, narratives, experiences, and needs that already exist 'in place' before the interventions of architecture and urban planning?

Sense of Place: This Year's Theme

For the ninth year in a row, we are unveiling a wide range of events, each in its own way engaging with this year's theme: 'Sense of Place.' It will be 11 days with over 100 events revolving around the economic, cultural, and climatic contexts that shape the city and its architecture; a vibrant festival complex that spreads across media, fields of knowledge, institutions, and urban spaces, a nomadic journey in an attempt to anchor the conversation about the city in its diversity.

A New Address for the Festival

But although the Copenhagen Architecture Festival loves to stroll, this year it has also found a more permanent address. It's an old bank building at Halmtorvet 27, which has enabled us to pull the festival out of hibernation and extend its activities throughout the year, still with a focus on the festival period.

At the address Halmtorvet 27, from October 6th, we will present the exhibition 'Architecture and Extreme Environments' by architect David Garcia, which can be experienced until November. But this is only a small corner of this year's program.

If, like us, you are year-round interested in the fantasies, philosophies, films, books, buildings, and urban plans that shape our built environments, you can keep an eye on the continuously updated event and exhibition program on the festival's social media profiles or on its website cafx.dk.

What to Experience

• The celebration of architect and composer Iannis Xenakis' 100th birthday with a performance at The Black Diamond.
• Two days of lectures and film screenings curated by one of the most influential architectural theorists of the 21st century, and Open House events at a selection of the country's leading architectural firms.
• A series of premieres of significant architecture films, including:
  • Hans Christian Post's new portrait of Copenhagen 'Best in the World'
  • The iconic film duo Békà & Lemoine's latest film about Thai architect Boonserm Premthada

These are just a few suggestions. You can always create your own route through the festival's sprawling program.

Your Map and Guide

With this newspaper, you have at least the map of this year's festival landscape, and you can also stay informed, book tickets, and read about this year's festival theme on our website.

We look forward to celebrating the city, architecture, and all that lives and exists in between with you.

Let's become wiser together on how we can create a more sustainable city that supports diversity and planetary abundance!