Build Of Site

How can we build on the world without building something new?
Architect Søren Pihlmann of Pihlmann Architects presents an exhibition that transforms the pavilion itself into a hybrid space, where renovation and exhibition merge.

New and innovative ways of reusing construction waste materials are being explored. Instead of consuming resources for a temporary Biennale Architettura installation, this exhibition creates permanent improvements to the pavilion.

The Danish Pavilion requires renovation due to recurring flooding, outdated functionality, and interior climate issues. These problems necessitate interventions on floors, doors, and windows. For this reason, while the pavilion is being renovated, unconventional methods of reusing excess materials are being explored. The work began in December 2024 as an integral part of the exhibition concept and will be completed after the exhibition ends. During the exhibition period, the pavilion is presented as a hybrid space where the boundaries between renovation and exhibition dissolve.

“The pavilion is not just an exhibition space, but a living organism that renews itself by displaying its own transformation.”
— Søren Pihlmann

“It is now clear to many that from now on we must engage constructively with everything we have already created in the world. This awareness is often perceived as a limitation. But now is the time to discuss the architectural possibilities that emerge from the ground, from stones, from concrete, or from any other material we can find in the places where we are privileged to build on the world,” explains Søren Pihlmann. What you see is what was.

In Build of Site, visitors will encounter a construction site temporarily paused. From May to November, the area will be open to the public through archetypal exhibition elements such as podiums, ramps, benches, and tables — all made from waste materials from the renovation. The exact types and combinations of wood, limestone, concrete slabs, stones, sand, silt, and clay in the pavilion have been analyzed in collaboration with researchers and students from the Royal Danish Academy, the Technical University of Denmark, the University of Copenhagen, and ETH Zurich since autumn 2023.

Gelatin — a by-product of the Adriatic fishing industry — is mixed in the right proportion with sand excavated from the pavilion’s subsoil to create work surfaces with undulating profiles. Detailed studies of each individual limestone tile and the way it was originally cut from the Istrian quarries have made it possible to assess the risk of breakage during removal and whether it can be reused in the floor renovation.

Close collaboration with experts from various fields — who have contributed to the project since its earliest stages — demonstrates how the organic, the high-tech, and the recycled can coexist harmoniously in architecture. The focus is not on the original function or value of the materials, but on how they can enrich the built environment.

The exhibition thus highlights both a concrete transformation of the building and a shift in how we should understand architectural practice in the future.

In the Koch section of the pavilion, the main renovation work is taking place, and visitors can walk on bare earth, raw concrete surfaces, and remaining tiles. A film will be projected in the Koch Hall, created in collaboration with Louisiana Channel, which has documented the project for two years — from its conception to the final exhibition.

In the Brummer section of the pavilion, prototypes, studies, and insights into the work carried out and the future phases of the project after the exhibition’s closure will be presented.

19th International Architecture Exhibition
Intelligent. Natural. Artificial. Collective.
La Biennale Architettura 2025 will take place from 10 May to 23 November 2025.

Further information on Denmark’s contribution can be found at www.dac.dk and by following @danishpavilion_architecture on social media.