Introduction
On January 26 2017 Danish Architecture Center in Copenhagen (DAC) opened Lendager Group’s exhibition ‘Wasteland – From waste to architecture’. Read the press coverage by the famous architecture media ArchDaily and Danish newspaper Berlingske.
At the present moment Wasteland travels around the world! First stop on the journey was from February 2018 to April 2018 in Kolding, Denmark. Now Wasteland travels to the art- and design museum Vandalorum in Värnamo, Sweden. You can experience Wasteland at Vandalorum from 16 June 2018 to 13 January 2019.
Background
The exhibition is taking its point of departure in current global and local challenges, including the fact that global population is currently growing by five school classes per minute, or one packed metro train every 2 minutes, or an entire village with 10,000 inhabitants per hour. It is estimated that the world population is increased by 83 million people only in 2016 – just slightly less than the population of Germany and Panama combined. This means that the total world population will rise to 9.7 billion by 2050 – so action is needed!
It is estimated that by 2030, five billion of the world population will live in cities and by 2050 two thirds of all people will be living in urban areas. This accelerates the demand for housing and put pressure on the cities. Obviously, it is a global challenge but at the same time it could be an opportunity. Right now, the built environment accounts for a large share of the global CO2 emissions and resource- and energy consumption. Specifically, the construction industry accounts for 40 percent of the global energy consumption and one third of total global CO2 emissions.
It is obviously not sustainable, but as an industry we have two options: we either accept the facts and try to ignore the problem for as long as possible. Or else we choose to see the unique opportunity of the crucial role we can play in creating a sustainable world where urbanization, urban space and housing play an essential part in the solution rather than being part of the problem.
Lendager Group has chosen the latter and thus Wasteland will be displaying selected projects in which architectural concepts help solve some of the global challenges facing the world.