Dorte Mandrup

Due to unforseen technical issues, we will not be streaming this lecture. 

Dorte Mandrup
The connectedness between place and form
Part of the MIT Fall 2024 Architecture Lecture Series. Presented with the Architecture and Urbanism Group. 

With the design of the Wadden Sea Centre in Denmark’s UNESCO-protected Wadden Sea area, Danish architecture studio Dorte Mandrup changed the perception of thatched construction, introducing vertical thatch to contemporary Danish architecture and re-actualising a traditional craft through a sculptural adaptation. In materiality and form, the building grows from the terrain, underlining the close connection between architecture and landscape. Throughout the last 25 years, Dorte Mandrup has specialised in projects that require a high degree of consideration and care. From spectacular and fragile landscapes to sites that grabble with troubled and uncomfortable historical events. The conditions of each place – both tangible and intangible – are the driving force behind the design. In this lecture, founder and creative director Dorte Mandrup will discuss the meaning of context in the studio’s work – from the yellow-brown marshes of the Wadden Sea and the astonishing vast scale of the Arctic to the mythical landscape beneath the surface of the Norwegian Sea and the difficult memories of war, flight, and expulsion imprinted on the ruins of Anhalter Bahnhof in Berlin.

Danish architect Dorte Mandrup founded her eponymous studio in 1999, eight years after graduating from Aarhus School of Architecture. Studies in both sculpture and natural sciences have influenced her approach, which is hands-on, materialising in deep contextual analysis and explorative prototyping. With a consistent sensitivity to context, artistic perception, and profound focus on human experience, she has been part of setting the agenda which is prevalent in Scandinavian architecture today and is internationally recognised for forming distinct concepts that ties together architecture and place. Her Copenhagen-based studio employs an artistic, humanistic, and scientific approach to create playful, original, and poetic designs that are enhancing the awareness and experience of each place. In recent years, the studio has distinguished itself in the architectural field with extraordinary projects like The Whale in Norway, the Exile Museum at Anhalter Bahnhof in Berlin, Nunavut Inuit Heritage Centre in Canada, and Ilulissat Icefjord Centre on the edge of the UNESCO-protected Kangia Icefjord in Greenland. 

Besides leading an international design studio, Dorte Mandrup is well known for her commitment to the development of the architecture practice and for being an outspoken proponent of diversity, inclusion and integrity within the profession. She headlined the curated international exhibition at La Biennale de Venezia in 2018, chaired the Mies van der Rohe Award in 2019, is Vice Chairman of Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, member of Akademi der Künste in Berlin, Honorary Professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Architecture, Design and Conservation and Adjunct Professor at Accademia de Architettura de Mendrisio in Switzerland. 

This lecture will be held in person in Long Lounge, 7-429 and streamed online.

Lectures are free and open to the public. Lectures will be held Thursdays at 6 PM ET in 7-429 (Long Lounge) and streamed online unless otherwise noted. Registration required to attend in-person. Register here or watch the webcast on Youtube.