Bringing Back Quality: Container-Pavilion
The City of Copenhagen’s overall goal for the city’s development is that Copenhagen will become an international, outstanding example of sustainable urban development. The same values form the basis for the framework of the North Harbour Exhibition. The sustainable container-pavilion has been developed by the architect’s office MAPT in collaboration with the City of Copenhagen.
Container Graveyard
Containers are a good example of overproduction which can be used for many other purposes than freight. Throughout the world, for example in the USA, you will come across huge, man-made mountains of containers. It is frequently uneconomic to ship containers back again to where they came from, so they are simply left to pile up.
The containers in the pavilion also tell the story of a temporary society, where needs and economies, life-styles and population density are in a constant state of flux. Our cities and our architecture must be geared to this. The pavilion encapsulates the essence of this mentality, demonstrating on a small scale the flexibility inherent in a temporary concept with an inbuilt life cycle. The pavilion’s building blocks can be used in innumerable configurations, according to the needs and demands put upon them.
This is not recycling; it is up cycling
With its pavilion project in the North Harbour Exhibition, MAPT has based its approach on the cradle-to-cradle principle, consigning the use-and-throw-out approach to the graveyard. The idea is simple: take a surplus product like an old, empty shipping container and give it some value again. In this way you have a supremely sustainable solution which can quickly be made exclusive in spite of the materials’ original use.
The pavilion’s containers can easily be reconverted to their life as a shipping container. Their flexibility ensures that they can be split up and used separately. The possibilities are endless. In the future, it will be possible to build both houses and second homes where the principle of sustainability is incorporated from beginning to end. After the exhibition for example, the City of Copenhagen will use two of the containers for cultural events or as venues for local meetings.
Can you live in a container?
Yes, it is absolutely possible to live in a container. You might think it is like living in a sardine tin! On the contrary, it can be a very spacious experience. The containers are like gigantic building blocks. They can be put together in all sorts of different ways. The sides can be opened up and they can be joined together. Instead of talking square meters, the container solution opens up for cubic meters – high to the ceiling, light and airy.
The climate pavilion is a temporary building and so it is uninsulated. If it is going to be used as residential accommodation, a good thick winter coat needs to be put onto it. In this way, a passive house can be built quickly and cheaply.
There are any numbers of opportunities for creating your very own, unique house. You decide yourself what surfaces you want on the inside. Do you want to see the untreated steel of the container while the floor is covered with boards. There is a whole range of exciting, new and sustainable materials to choose from.
In short, the framework of a sustainable exhibition is to get more out of less.
Sophisticated rubbish!
The interior of the pavilion is rubbish - literally! The materials are surplus products from the wood and wind turbine industries. With its rough finish, the pavilion promotes the idea that recycling can be beautiful if the materials are put together right. It also hints at a new aesthetic, where the story and the content are important. Where do the materials come from, who has produced them and what are they made of?
About MAPT- Mediating Architecture Process and Technology.
MAPT Founders, Anders Lendager and Mads Møller
MAPT was festablised in 2005. Since then the office has worked on giving Danish architecture a new and more international identity.Sustainability is one of MAPTs first priorities and is one of the key aspects of their design. In collaboration with a network of specialists, combined with new technology it's possible to realize their visions. The combination of a Danish eye for detail, a European understanding for program and function combined with the American interest in technology and design creates a unique architecture. MAPT is based in the heart of Nørrebro Copenhagen and is in a constant development, both as to do with the firm and in relation to the architectural development in Denmark.
Founders
The two MAPT founders, Anders Lendager and Mads Møller are both educated in the Aarhus School of Architecture. They received the prestigious VOLA price for best theses project. Apart from the Danish school the two spent a lot of their education time outside of Denmark, in architecture firms and in the Los Angeles based school SCI ARC, Southern Californian Institute of Architecture, a school that has been a big influence on how MAPT works.
What we believe!
We believe that architecture is supposed to reflect its own context. In a complex world it is not enough to understand a site as just a lot, a piece of ground. In reality, it is a complicated network of politics, economy, sociology, culture and technology.
We believe that every project has its own history and identity. They are sculptured by cultural trends and the new technological development. We add human values to the technology, and see it as an opportunity to create a new sustainable, intelligent and interesting architecture. Technology is a poetic, living organism that influences the work process of architecture, its physical form, and the interaction between people, space and building.
It is our ambition to create an architecture that twines the new digital world and a diverse community.
Sustainable Mindset
Sustainability is one of MAPTs highest priority and is one of the key aspects of our design. We as architects are responsible for the environment, and must take up the challenges of the future. Sustainable design is not just all about surviving; it is about the opportunity to make better architecture with a deeper meaning.
The concept of sustainability contains a lot of different parameters, concerning everything from social sustainability to reduction of CO2. It is possible to explain sustainability as ecosystem, where every element, big and small, from complex to simple, plays an important role. An example is the forest where the climate, the trees, the animals and microorganisms together are a sustainable system. It is about thinking in systems, and even the smallest thing matters.
MAPT has a big network of specialist advisors in the field of sustainability. We implement sustainability in all scales and use both known systems and develop new ones.
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