September 9–October 15, 2027
Copenhagen Architecture Biennial returns for its second edition from September 9 to October 15 2027, under the theme “Elements”.
The 2027 edition turns from the Biennial's inaugural call to “Slow Down” toward a deeper reckoning with the elemental forces that architecture has long sought to master, and increasingly must learn to inhabit; a shift that calls into question one of modernity’s most persistent promises.
For much of the past century, the promise of leaving material limits behind has shaped modern life: that technological development would gradually free human life from the constraints of climate, geography, biology and material scarcity. Architecture has played a central role in making this promise believable, insulating everyday life from heat and cold, wet and dry, distance and friction. Warm feet, dry walls, clean air, hot showers, a job in the global offices of the knowledge economy.
But today, the promises contained in that story have become increasingly unattainable, and the conditions it sought to push into the background are returning with force: temperatures, polluted airs, rising waters, dead soils and growing pressures on the landscapes on which contemporary life depends. But the promise has also become increasingly undesirable. A world defined by ever greater insulation, frictionlessness and independence from material limits no longer necessarily describes the future we want to inhabit.
‘Elements’ begin from this double rupture. What was suppressed returns not only as dread, but also as desire; not only as error, but also as excess; wildfire but also cold plunge, exhausted soil but also forest bath, polluted air but also screen fatigue. The question is therefore not simply how architecture can protect us from the elements, but also how we might live, build and plan with them. Who is protected and who is exposed? What is maintained and what is allowed to fail? And what kinds of common life might emerge; habit, happiness, ritual and care?
"For decades, architecture has promised us mastery over heat, earth, air and water. With ‘Elements’, we ask what happens when we stop pretending we ever had that mastery, and start designing from dependence instead? The buildings that will serve us best aren't the ones that shut the world out, they're the ones that let us feel it.” —Josephine Michau, part of the Curatorial Collective & Director of the Copenhagen Architecture Biennial
Open call for element pavilions
Following the success of the inaugural Biennial's Slow Pavilions, the Copenhagen Architecture Biennial today launch an open call inviting architects, designers and researchers to propose new pavilions for the heart of Copenhagen, responding directly to the Elements theme. Details of the call, eligibility, timeline and application formula can be found here.
A programme built around the elements
The 2027 programme will unfold in Copenhagen’s Cultural District and more than 60 venues across Copenhagen, with further details to follow in the coming months.
Highlights will include:
Four exhibitions
A quartet of headline exhibitions dedicated to each of the four elements—fire, earth, air and water. They will explore how architecture harnesses, is shaped by, and remains dependent on elemental forces, bringing together international and Danish practices, artists and researchers.
Assemble! returns with multiple symposia
The Biennial’s professional symposium returns for 2027 with a sharpened focus on policy bringing together architects, urban planners and policymakers to confront the regulatory and legislative structures that govern how cities build, extract and consume. Building on the inaugural edition's call for new legislation, Assemble! 2027 will push further into the question of what elemental dependence means for planning law, building codes and industry practice with various symposia. Tickets will go on sale in Spring 2027.
Further programme details including exhibiting practices, pavilion winners, Assemble! speakers and the full public events schedule will be announced ahead of the Biennial’s opening.
Read the full Curatorial Statement and stay updated here.
