Copenhagen Architecture Biennial: Slow Down

The inaugural Copenhagen Architecture Biennial makes its debut from September 18 to October 19, 2025, under the theme “Slow Down”.

The Biennial invites participants to reconsider the rapid pace of modern life and its impact on the built environment. As the world faces the consequences of the Great Acceleration—characterised by unprecedented growth in population, energy use, and resource consumption—the biennial seeks to explore how architecture can contribute to a “Great Deceleration.” This involves envisioning spaces that promote sustainability, longevity, and mindful engagement with our surroundings.

Visitors to the Biennial will experience more than +150 events. Among others Open House Copenhagen, that invites audiences inside buildings typically closed to the public, the event ‘Living Lab’ by Lendager as well as exhibitions with international stars like Atelier Bow Wow and Rem Koolhaas.

The 2025 Copenhagen Architecture Biennial launches on 18th September with a free celebration at the iconic Thorvaldsens Museum, with performances, DJ-sets and food for all ages.

See the evolving programme here.

Winners of the Slow Pavilions Revealed
Following an Open Call launched earlier this year, two projects have been selected for the first edition of the biennial and will be constructed in Copenhagen’s Cultural District. “Barn Again” and “Inside Out, Downside Up” are two innovative projects that show how slowing down the building industry can be done in aesthetically sublime ways.

“Barn Again” is a collaboration between architectural designer Tom Svilans, UK-based THISS Studio, engineers Bollinger+Grohmann, and Danish carpenters Winther A/S. The pavilion reimagines the traditional Norwegian barn using reclaimed timber from a disused structure. By layering hand and machine-crafted techniques, the project offers a space for pause, while extending the lifecycle of aged materials through precise, expressive design.

“Inside Out, Downside Up” by emerging duo Slaatto Morsbøl (Thelma Slaatto and Cecilie Morsbøl) transforms found and reused elements into a pavilion that invites sensory engagement and contemplation. Through simple gestures and minimal intervention, the pavilion reclaims slowness as a physical and emotional counterpoint to the speed and abstraction of contemporary construction.

During the Biennial the pavilions will serve as hubs for a range of activities.

New legislation at Assemble!
The ecological crisis demands a building sector operating within planetary boundaries. But significant structural barriers block the road. At Assemble! a two-day conference, you’ll gain the tools, strategies, and narratives to overcome them.

Speakers such as Kate Orff, founder of SCAPE, Indy Johar, Founder of Dark Matters Labs and Anders Lendager, founder of Lendager Group will propose new legislation and discuss and showcase how these future-oriented ideas are already taking shape in built and planned projects. You can also look forward to panels and best-practice cases with: Søren Pihlmann (Pihlmann Architects), Dan Stubbergaard (Cobe), Rikke Juul Gram (Schønherr), Rotor and more.

Tickets here.

Slow Down film programme
For the film programme the Biennial will present you with world premieres, curated picks, hidden gems and recontextualizations of immortal classics, unfolding the Biennial theme.

Copenhagen Architecture Biennial is proud to present the world premiere of “Make Materials Matter”, a new film portrait of Søren Pihlmann of Pihlmann Architects, the curator of the Danish Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennial 2025. But you can also look forward to portrait films of big names like: Aldo Rossi, Carlo Scarpa, Rem Koolhaas and Kengo Kuma.

The film programme also includes selections by renowned urban planner Jan Gehl, as well as star architect Dorte Mandrup and Kate Orff. And screenings of Softly Brutal and Transmutations by the iconic duo Bêka & Lemoine

Slow Down exhibition
Throughout the Biennial a group exhibition titled Slow Down will be held across two venues: Halmtorvet 27 in Copenhagen and the Form/design Center in Malmö.

The exhibition aims to present new narratives and concepts for a cultural imagination tied too much to speed, such as shock and surge, friction and frenzy, weariness and whirl. Visitors will be invited to engage in work presented by Dark Matter Labs, Studio Tideland with Emma Rishøj and CENTRALA among others, tackling the theme.

Looking forward to seing you in Copenhagen!
 

Inside Out, Downside Up, Slaatto Morsbøl, 2025.