Copenhagen Architecture Forum's Podcast

What happens to democracy when it meets a reality it wasn't designed to accommodate?  This episode is part of "On the Air: Redesigning Democracy," a three-part evening school we hosted live in our exhibition space at Halmtorvet 27 in the spring of 2026. Each evening brought together philosophers, political theorists, architects, community workers, and curators around one shared question: what happ...

What happens to democracy when it meets a reality it wasn't designed to accommodate?  This episode is part of "On the Air: Redesigning Democracy," a three-part evening school we hosted live in our exhibition space at Halmtorvet 27 in the spring of 2026. Each evening brought together philosophers, political theorists, architects, community workers, and curators around one shared question: what happ...

In this fourth and final episode of the podcast series Shaping the Rule, Ruling the Shape we wrap up our journey and bring the fellowship to a close. First, Danish business executive and lawyer Jens Klarskov explains how organisations in the construction industry can influence political decisions and turn their legislative visions into reality through strong research, well-developed cases, and lob...

Tune in to the third episode of Shaping The Rule, Ruling The Shape, from our weeklong fellowship with HouseEurope! In this episode we will unfold standardisation. Today, standards define what we consider safe. But what does standardisation mean for the transition to a more circular construction industry?   Reused materials are often treated as higher risk, but in this episode, we discover what it...

How are some of Denmark's biggest engineering and contracting firms thinking and working towards transformation and material reuse? Tune in to episode two of  Shaping The Rule, Ruling The Shape , a podcast series documenting our weeklong fellowship with HouseEurope! On this episode you will meet Daniel Veenboer, Industrial Design Engineer and Sustainability Consultant of Rambøll, who explains why...

How can architects move from passive recipients of regulation to active contributors to policy-making? Back in August, Copenhagen Architecture Forum, in collaboration with HouseEurope! , invited eighteen architects from across the world to Copenhagen for a week-long fellowship. Now you're invited to follow their journey - in a four episode series- and discover what legislation and politics can mea...

How do you live with water when there simply isn't enough of it? Why did an island that had spent centuries learning to do exactly that suddenly stop? And why does the answer to both of those questions matter far beyond one small island in the Atlantic? In this episode, architect Pablo Castillo Luna reads his text "Arid Infrastructures: Water beyond techno-optimism in the island of Lanzarote." Lan...

AI predictions tend to rest on an averaged notion of what a human being is.    In this final episode of Inclusion Talks, we take a closer look at how the growing use of AI in architecture and design processes risks reinforcing historical assumptions about what is deemed 'normal', with the consequence that difference is filtered out, concealed, and ultimately erased.   For this conversation, we hav...

In the second episode of Inclusion Talks: A Universal Design Perspective we zoom in on the role museums and cultural institutions play. Museums have a key role in shaping cultural narratives, yet many still exclude visitors who don't fit the traditional visitor model.   In a talk between Camilla Ryhl, Research Director at Bevica Foundation and Academic Lead of Universal Design Hub, Louise Kæmpe He...

In our new podcast series Inclusion Talks – A Universal Design Perspective  we investigate and share stories of how we can collectively create truly inclusionary spaces - spaces that are successful in rethinking our shared spaces, inviting more people in – from physical spaces to AI and digital spaces. In our first episode we go straight to a fundamental question: What does it truly take to ensure...

Who gets access to housing when there is not enough to go around? In the final episode of Unaffordables , we move beyond construction and economics to explore the political and ethical questions at the heart of housing affordability. Should access to housing be determined by the market alone, or are alternative models needed to ensure fair and incdlusive cities? Moderated by Olaf Grawert (HouseEur...

Can we build our way out of the housing crisis without deepening the climate crisis? In this episode of Unaffordables , we look at the physical realities of creating affordable homes in a world where seven of the nine planetary boundaries have already been breached. From adaptive reuse and bio-based materials to investment models and regulation, the discussion explores how housing can be delivered...

Why has housing become unaffordable in so many cities across Europe? In the first episode of Unaffordables , we explore the forces driving the housing crisis and the growing pressures on urban housing markets. As more people are drawn to cities, demand is increasingly shaped not only by residents, but also by tourism, short-term rentals, and international investment. Is the problem simply a lack o...

Today we conclude our three-week dive back into Living With Other Species. A series exploring how to plan and live alongside other species in the cities of the future. With todays episode we turn our attention to the smallest and often most overlooked inhabitants of the city: microbes. From the soil beneath our feet to the materials that make up our buildings, microbial life shapes the health and...

Urban infrastructure does merely mean roads, pipes, and buildings. Soil, water flows, trees, and fungi are infrastructure too. This episode moves away from the idea that gardens belong at the edges of development or appear afterward as cosmetic additions. Instead, it asks whether the city itself can be understood as a form of cultivation: something living, maintained, and ecologically embedded rat...

Today at Halmtorvet 27, we're hosting an event exploring how other species can become part of the political community. So what better time to dive into the podcast archive for an episode on how to create cities where insects can actually thrive? Among many other fascinating insights, you'll learn how Copenhagen's biggest electronic music festival - and its guests - help create ideal living conditi...

In this first episode on the policy proposal of Material Ownership, drafted by architect and founder of Lendager, Anders Lendager, we sit down with Anders alongside Co-Founder of both Home. Earth & Transformer. Build Kasper Guldage Jensen, Vice President of Global Sales at Fritz Hansen, Martin Scharff and Senior Adviser at construction company DI Byggeri, Jakob Thaysen Rørbech to discuss the propo...

This week we are revisiting an episode from last year, to celebrate our newly announced fellowship with HouseEurope! Instead of demolishing and rebuilding, HouseEurope! calls for sustainable renovation and adaptive reuse, pushing for new EU laws that protect and prioritize existing spaces. Our joint fellowship invites talented young professionals from the fields of law and architecture to join for...

As debates about rural life resurface across Denmark, including in Altinget 's highly recommended podcast  Aftryk , the countryside is once again being cast as a political battleground. The debate is not new, but it is encouraging to see it begin to move beyond a long-standing assumption: that the countryside mainly matters insofar as it serves the urban environement or the agricultural industry. ...

Many still assume that buildings must excite. They must capture attention, produce images, and offer experiences. Boredom is treated as failure. But this reveals a hidden intuition that human beings need constant stimulation to remain engaged. What if this intuition is wrong? This episode explores that question. It suggests that architecture has become entangled in a psychological economy of atten...

Modern life is built on a simple promise: the more comfortable, stable, and controlled our surroundings become, the better our lives will be. We insulate ourselves from weather, reduce friction in daily routines, and design spaces that are predictable and easy to navigate. Progress, in this view, means minimizing effort and exposure. But this logic may carry an unintended cost. This week, we retur...

Listen to the second podcast series Slow Down. A conversation between David Garcia and Kristoffer Weiss on the architecture of extreme environments. An important conversation on the future of architecture in a world of increasingly extreme conditions.   In this second and last episode of Slow Down we delve into the architecture of extreme environments with a true expert: David A. Garcia. Since 201...

We are back with a new podcast series! Listen to the first episode of Slow Down , a series investigating ways to slow down overheated sites, cities, and societies. In this episode, we follow a deep dive into the Køge Bay and explore the violent praxis of marine sand extraction. As part of her PhD, Emma Rishøj Holm descends to the seabed to experience firsthand the hidden consequences of marine san...

Today we conclude  Living With Other Species.  A series exploring how to plan and live alongside other species in the cities of the future.  The last episode is a talk on how microbes and human well-being is connected through soil ecologies, building materials, and urban planning—and how acknowledging processes of decay can inform healthier, more resilient cities. What happens when we begin to thi...

Living With Other Species is back! The second episode, "The Insect As Worker and Citizen", is a conversation on the role of insects as urban workers with - pollinators, decomposers, and ecosystem engineers. How might cities look if we began to think of insects not only as inhabitants, but as workers and citizens of the city? The episode asks how designing with (and for) them challenges aesthetic n...