Copenhagen Architecture Forum's Podcast

CAFx - Copenhagen Architecture Forum
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You are listening to a podcast from Copenhagen Architecture Forum: A place that explores, discusses and communicates architectural and urban questions through a number of interdisciplinary initiatives.

  1. 1d ago

    On the Air: Redesigning Democracy (Ep.3): How Can Participation Be Reimagined for Refugees? — On the Architecture of Interlegal Democracy

    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 happens to democracy when it meets a reality it wasn't designed to accommodate?  Across the three conversations, that question is asked from three different angles — through future generations, other species, and the participation for refugees. On this third and final episode of On the Air: Redesigning Democracy, we explore how asylum policies and temporary living conditions shape refugees' opportunities to participate in society, and how new forms of community building, shared spaces, and collective decision-making might create more inclusive ways of living together. On the podcast you will meet: → Mohammed Zanboa, a Syrian architect, researcher, and photographer based in Luxembourg, whose work on spatial justice and refugee inclusion takes shape through collaborative urban and civic initiatives, including his project Municipality 101. → Tone Olaf Nielsen, a independent curator and co-founder of the curatorial collective Kuratorisk Aktion, Trampoline House and CAMP / Center for Art on Migration Politics, whose practice has explored questions of forced displacement, structural racism, and the legal status and participation of refugees in Danish society for the past 25 years. → Zachary Whyte, an Associate Professor at the Centre for Advanced Migration Studies (AMIS), University of Copenhagen, whose research and practice spans housing, language schools, arts, sports, rurality, and policy with refugees and the institutions around them.

  2. Nov 3

    On the Air: Redesigning Democracy (Ep.2): Can Other Species Be Part of the Political Community? — On the Architecture of Interspecies Democracy

    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 happens to democracy when it meets a reality it wasn't designed to accommodate?  Across the three conversations, that question is asked from three different angles — through future generations, other species, and the participation for refugees. On this second episode of On the Air: Redesigning Democracy, we investigate how animals and nature can gain actual political subjecthood. On the podcast you will meet: → Mickey Gjerris, Associate Professor in bioethics at the University of Copenhagen, whose research focuses on the ethical questions that arise at the intersection of humans, nature, and technology — spanning animal ethics, food ethics, and climate ethics. → Lucy Reid, Chief Strategy & Creative Officer at DemocracyNext, whose work — spanning the arts, journalism, and 16 years in senior roles at the National Trust — focuses on accelerating the spread of citizens' assemblies internationally.

  3. Oct 27

    On the Air: Redesigning Democracy (Ep.1): Who Speaks for The Future? On the Architecture of Intergenerational Democracy

    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 happens to democracy when it meets a reality it wasn't designed to accommodate?  Across the three conversations, that question is asked from three different angles — through future generations, other species, and the participation for refugees. On this first episode of On the Air: Redesigning Democracy, we explore how designing for future generations can change democracy itself. On the podcast you will meet: → Klara Sørensen, who works with citizens' assemblies at We Do Democracy and with the question of how a political "we" is formed. → Nicklas Larsen, Director at the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies, working with intergenerational fairness and how future consequences are accounted for in present decision-making. → Pernille Maria Bärnheim, Deputy Director of CAFx, whose work moves between education, research, and curation, with a focus on how the built environment conditions collective life.

  4. Oct 21

    Shaping the Rule, Ruling the Shape (Ep. 4): Implementing Extended Producer Responsibility

    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 lobbying. Then, Maria Brunander Vøgg, COO of COPI shares her perspective on material reuse, building transformation, and circular building practices from a developer's point of view. And finally, we'll hear presentations from the fellows, who will share their newly acquired knowledge and explore how it can be applied to create a more sustainable construction industry and support the implementation of Extended Producer Responsibility. Thank you for listening! The fellowship was supported by the Dreyers Foundation and Profile Partner Velux.

  5. Oct 13

    Shaping the Rule, Ruling the Shape (Ep. 3): Standardisation in the Construction Industry

    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 might take to standardise them to enable a safer, more circular construction industry. You'll meet Alexander Mollan Bohn Christiansen, Senior Consultant in Construction at Dansk Standard, who explains how standards shape the construction industry and explores the challenges of reusing building materials to support safer, more circular construction practices. The fellowship was supported by the Dreyers Foundation and Profile Partner Velux.

  6. Oct 6

    Shaping The Rule, Ruling The Shape (Ep.2): Transformation, Dismantling and Handling Materials

    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 we demolish rather than transform existing buildings. And what could potentially change that. Afterwards, Niron Nirmalananthan from Tscherning discusses the challenges and opportunities within dismantling, material reuse, and sustainable transformation.   On the episode you will meet:   Daniel Veenboer: Daniel Veenboer is an industrial design engineer and Chief Sustainability Consultant at Ramböll working in the field of sustainable urban development.   Niron Nirmalananthan: Niron Nirmalananthan is Head of Sustainability at Tscherning which is a Danish construction company specializing in civil engineering and demolition.   Back in August, Copenhagen Architecture Forum, in collaboration with HouseEurope!, invited eighteen architects from across the world to Copenhagen for a week-long fellowship.You are now invited to follow their journey and discover what legislation and politics can mean for architects and architecture when we are willing to listen, question, and engage with the systems around us.

  7. Sep 29

    Shaping the Rule, Ruling the Shape (Ep 1): Material Reuse, Regulation and Liability

    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 mean for architects and architecture when we are willing to listen, question, and engage with the systems around us. In the first episode you get both sides of the story: from an architect and a lawyer. First, Nicholas Duxbury Ransome, managing director at Lendager, uses the studio's own practice with reused and recycled materials as a case study for how regulation can transform architectural practice. Before Simon Heising, an experienced lawyer specializing in construction, gives his view on the state of the legislation in the industry, focusing on the legal challenges surrounding material reuse and Extended Producer Responsibility. On the episode you will meet: Nicholas Duxbury Ransome: architect, urban planner and Managing Director at Lendager has been involved in many of Lendager's most ground-breaking projects. Simon Heising: Corporate lawyer specializing in construction law, public procurement, and insurance, working at Nexus Advokater.

  8. Sep 15

    Arid Infrastructures: Water beyond techno-optimism

    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." Lanzarote is, in many ways, a preview of where a lot of the world is heading: a hot, dry territory with no natural freshwater, that for generations built entire cultures of care, maintenance, and shared responsibility around scarcity — and that then, almost overnight, handed that relationship over to a desalination plant and a control panel. That shift, from water as something you live with to water as a resource managed by technical experts, is happening quietly almost everywhere, and it rarely gets questioned. Pablo's text asks what gets lost when it does, and what we might still learn from the infrastructures it replaced. The text builds on Pablo's project "A Permeable Atlas," shown in our exhibition "Slow Down" at the Copenhagen Architecture Biennial.

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You are listening to a podcast from Copenhagen Architecture Forum: A place that explores, discusses and communicates architectural and urban questions through a number of interdisciplinary initiatives.

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