A thorough architectural response towards the growing problems of population, climate, and urban migration is currently on display at the Danish Architecture Centre in Copenhagen, in the form of the upcycled Wasteland exhibition. Curated by Danish architecture firm Lendager Group, the exhibits shown in Wasteland are filled with raw materials, processes, experiments and methods, backed up with a long list of shocking facts about our effects on planet Earth: over 2 million tons of CO2 have been emitted globally this year; over 3.3 billion tons of resources have been extracted from the earth globally this year; over 127 million tons of waste have been dumped globally this year—all totalling a cost of over $14 trillion USD resulting from our failure to act on climate change. These are the live statistics (as shown at the time of ArchDaily’s visit last Friday) which confront visitors in the first room of the exhibition space. They provide context for what is to follow.
After displaying these sobering (and rapidly increasing) numbers, the exhibition opens up into a long room, in which the most eye-catching features are the piles of what appears to be waste, lying on the floor. These piles are markers for the themes into which Wasteland is split: cement, plastic, metal, glass, wood and brick. Denmark alone produces 11.74 million tons of waste per annum, of which 4.1 million tons come from construction. So the premise behind Lendager Group’s Wasteland could not be more relevant: “What if waste was perceived as the greatest untapped resource and played a crucial role in the development of new buildings?” Waste has become the main local resource within cities.
