Exhibition

Office Kim Lenschow. Not Made to Last

A partition wall made from sawdust and an animal-based binder. Office Kim Lenschow and Natural Material Studio, SMULD, 2024.
Photo: Nikolaj Bonde

Do buildings need to last forever?

The architectural practice Office Kim Lenschow challenges conventions of what buildings can be made of. The exhibition shows how delicate, impermanent and thoroughly biodegradable building materials can change the ways we build and live. Lenschow seeks to embrace the inherent susceptibility of materials to decay and change as a creative resource.

In this exhibition at the National Museum – Architecture, you can see, touch and smell building materials derived from organic sources, such as thin wall panels made from sawdust and cladding infused with protective fungi. Outside the museum, you can discover how various forms of decomposition progress under the influence of wind and weather.

Lenschow invites the public to reflect on their own attitudes towards materials and their lifespan. What impact does our own behaviour have on them, in terms of maintenance and wear and tear? And where does the boundary lie between decay as something negative and patina as something positive?

Office Kim Lenschow is an architectural practice based in Copenhagen. The firm applies an interdisciplinary, research-based approach to materials and the life cycle of buildings, and a conscious, caring attitude to their welfare for as long as they remain in use.

Over the next few years, the National Museum – Architecture will offer a programme that explores materials and approaches to their use in contemporary architecture. Not Made to Last is the first of three summer exhibitions featuring younger architectural practices that focus closely on the properties and possibilities of materials.

Office Kim Lenschow. Not Made to Last

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