1 00:00:13,715 --> 00:00:15,321 I can say we have to become 2 00:00:15,321 --> 00:00:17,683 more than just designers 3 00:00:17,683 --> 00:00:20,244 of the two dimensional facades 4 00:00:20,244 --> 00:00:21,881 or three dimensional architectural objects. 5 00:00:21,881 --> 00:00:23,618 We have to become 6 00:00:23,618 --> 00:00:27,630 designers of ecosystems, systems of both 7 00:00:27,630 --> 00:00:30,402 ecology and economy that channel 8 00:00:30,402 --> 00:00:31,787 not only the flow of people 9 00:00:31,787 --> 00:00:32,847 throughout cities and buildings, 10 00:00:32,847 --> 00:00:34,631 but also the flow of resources 11 00:00:34,631 --> 00:00:37,514 like heat, energy, waste and water 12 00:00:37,514 --> 00:00:41,346 into this sort of perpetual motion engines, 13 00:00:41,346 --> 00:00:44,116 which is sort of stop seeing our presence, 14 00:00:44,116 --> 00:00:45,899 the human presence, on the planet earth 15 00:00:45,899 --> 00:00:48,881 as a sort of detrimental to our eco-system, 16 00:00:48,881 --> 00:00:52,040 but actually tries to sort of integrate and incorporate 17 00:00:52,040 --> 00:00:54,614 our consumption patterns and our leftovers 18 00:00:54,614 --> 00:00:57,468 into our natural environment. 19 00:00:57,468 --> 00:01:01,630 The reason for this sort of expanded role of the architect 20 00:01:01,630 --> 00:01:06,347 is because of the atmosphere you capture in this image. 21 00:01:06,347 --> 00:01:09,032 It was taken at the COP 15, 22 00:01:09,032 --> 00:01:10,764 the United Nations Conference on Climate Change, 23 00:01:10,764 --> 00:01:12,232 in Copenhagen, a year and a half ago, 24 00:01:12,232 --> 00:01:16,144 and as you can see, you know, Sarkozy and Brown 25 00:01:16,144 --> 00:01:20,432 and Merkel and even Obama, it wasn't exactly a party. 26 00:01:20,432 --> 00:01:21,813 (Laughter) 27 00:01:21,813 --> 00:01:25,117 It was like a -- it was a complete failure. 28 00:01:25,117 --> 00:01:27,110 Essentially none of the goals 29 00:01:27,110 --> 00:01:29,549 that had been established for the meeting were met, 30 00:01:29,549 --> 00:01:31,952 and the generals of discussion about sustainability 31 00:01:31,952 --> 00:01:35,587 was sort of drowning in this general misconception 32 00:01:35,587 --> 00:01:38,753 that sustainability is a question of how much 33 00:01:38,753 --> 00:01:42,503 of our existing quality of life are we prepared to sacrifice 34 00:01:42,503 --> 00:01:45,833 in order to afford becoming sustainable. 35 00:01:45,833 --> 00:01:47,961 Almost like this sort of protestant idea 36 00:01:47,961 --> 00:01:49,517 that it has to hurt to do good. 37 00:01:49,517 --> 00:01:53,302 But sustainability can't be like 38 00:01:53,302 --> 00:01:55,650 some kind of moral sacrifice 39 00:01:55,650 --> 00:01:59,222 or political dilemma or even like a philanthropical cause, 40 00:01:59,222 --> 00:02:01,621 it has to be a design challenge. 41 00:02:01,621 --> 00:02:05,267 So, when we were sort of recently asked to do 42 00:02:05,267 --> 00:02:08,312 the Danish pavillion for the Shanghai World Expo 43 00:02:08,312 --> 00:02:10,778 that was focusing on sustainable cities 44 00:02:10,778 --> 00:02:13,524 we tried to ask ourselves if there was another sustainability 45 00:02:13,524 --> 00:02:15,941 than this sort of sad depressing one. 46 00:02:15,941 --> 00:02:18,484 We tried to ask ourselves if we could find examples 47 00:02:18,484 --> 00:02:21,021 where sustainable cities and buildings 48 00:02:21,021 --> 00:02:23,689 actually increased life quality. 49 00:02:23,689 --> 00:02:25,889 So we decided to make the pavillion 50 00:02:25,889 --> 00:02:27,694 as a sort of a condensation of how 51 00:02:27,694 --> 00:02:30,125 Danish cities through their sustainable design 52 00:02:30,125 --> 00:02:32,608 actually increase life quality. 53 00:02:32,608 --> 00:02:35,513 We can see the pavillion as a sort of loop of a Danish street 54 00:02:35,513 --> 00:02:38,805 complete with the blue bicycle lanes of Copenhagen, 55 00:02:38,805 --> 00:02:40,937 because in Copenhagen 37% 56 00:02:40,937 --> 00:02:43,119 of the Copenhageners commute by bike, 57 00:02:43,119 --> 00:02:45,764 so people visiting could actually feel how cool it is 58 00:02:45,764 --> 00:02:47,531 to ride a bike through the city instead of sitting 59 00:02:47,531 --> 00:02:52,444 in a traffic jam or looking endlessly for a parking spot. 60 00:02:52,444 --> 00:02:55,864 Also in Copenhagen, our harbour water 61 00:02:55,864 --> 00:02:57,913 has become so clean that you can swim in it, 62 00:02:57,913 --> 00:03:00,381 so that you don't have to, like, take the bus for hours 63 00:03:00,381 --> 00:03:02,034 to go to the Hamptons, 64 00:03:02,034 --> 00:03:05,049 you can actually jump in the port. 65 00:03:05,049 --> 00:03:07,212 So at the heart of the pavillion 66 00:03:07,212 --> 00:03:09,097 we allow the visitors to experience on their own body 67 00:03:09,097 --> 00:03:14,686 how clean, if not how cold, the Danish harbour water is. 68 00:03:14,686 --> 00:03:17,379 And in the middle of this sort of harbour bath 69 00:03:17,379 --> 00:03:20,880 we decided to place the little mermaid of Denmark, 70 00:03:20,880 --> 00:03:24,848 not a copy of the mermaid, we actually moved her to China. 71 00:03:24,848 --> 00:03:28,320 We had to wrestle her out of the hand of the Danish 72 00:03:28,320 --> 00:03:30,994 equivalent of the tea party, who was trying to 73 00:03:30,994 --> 00:03:33,881 pass a law specifically against moving the mermaid, 74 00:03:33,881 --> 00:03:38,109 we had to get her through Chinese customs. 75 00:03:38,109 --> 00:03:40,438 (Laughter) 76 00:03:40,438 --> 00:03:42,122 And there she is! 77 00:03:42,122 --> 00:03:47,414 In her absence we invited the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei 78 00:03:47,414 --> 00:03:51,135 to sort of install an installation. 79 00:03:51,135 --> 00:03:54,172 He installed a Chinese surveillance camera. 80 00:03:54,172 --> 00:03:56,265 It's the same Chinese surveillance camera 81 00:03:56,265 --> 00:03:59,469 the Chinese State has installed in front of his house. 82 00:03:59,469 --> 00:04:01,954 This one, however, was part of an installation 83 00:04:01,954 --> 00:04:04,258 he called "The mermaid exchange". 84 00:04:04,258 --> 00:04:06,048 It was transmitting a live image 85 00:04:06,048 --> 00:04:07,782 to a giant flat screen 86 00:04:07,782 --> 00:04:10,597 so that the Copenhagen tourists that went in vain 87 00:04:10,597 --> 00:04:16,834 would sort of see that she was alright. 88 00:04:16,834 --> 00:04:17,974 But sort of more importantly, 89 00:04:17,974 --> 00:04:19,794 for the six months of the duration of the Expo 90 00:04:19,794 --> 00:04:22,398 it became like this sort of, the only sort of 91 00:04:22,398 --> 00:04:27,218 TV feed from China to the rest of the world, 92 00:04:27,218 --> 00:04:30,765 trasmitting a sort of uncensored live footage, 93 00:04:30,765 --> 00:04:32,889 almost turning Copenhagen 94 00:04:32,889 --> 00:04:36,634 into this sort of global speakers' corner for China. 95 00:04:36,634 --> 00:04:41,079 Sadly, Ai Weiwei has now been sort of silenced, 96 00:04:41,079 --> 00:04:43,058 like this critical voice of China 97 00:04:43,058 --> 00:04:45,440 has actually been captured by the government, 98 00:04:45,440 --> 00:04:48,578 and has been missing for the last six weeks. 99 00:04:48,578 --> 00:04:50,808 But sort of back in the pavillion, we can say like, 100 00:04:50,808 --> 00:04:52,369 to just sum it up, what we wanted to 101 00:04:52,369 --> 00:04:56,552 try to do, was to show how, essentially, 102 00:04:56,552 --> 00:04:59,014 sustainable life can be more fun than normal life. 103 00:04:59,014 --> 00:05:00,536 And as a sort of litmus test, 104 00:05:00,536 --> 00:05:02,865 this is the first image we've pubblished 105 00:05:02,865 --> 00:05:05,915 of the Danish pavillion. 106 00:05:05,915 --> 00:05:08,212 You notice the red rectangle. 107 00:05:08,212 --> 00:05:10,398 This is the first image or one of the first images 108 00:05:10,398 --> 00:05:12,323 pubblished of Iron man 2, 109 00:05:12,323 --> 00:05:16,330 showing Tony Stark's Mad Science Expo, 110 00:05:16,330 --> 00:05:19,333 and if you sort of compare the two rectangles. 111 00:05:19,333 --> 00:05:21,035 This is Hollywood and this Shanghai, 112 00:05:21,035 --> 00:05:24,097 so first of all like this is, this is big business 113 00:05:24,097 --> 00:05:27,365 it's America, the land of litigation, we should 114 00:05:27,365 --> 00:05:30,098 we should sue them and get rich. 115 00:05:30,098 --> 00:05:31,203 But then we thought 116 00:05:31,203 --> 00:05:33,585 that sort of Coco Chanel said that copying 117 00:05:33,585 --> 00:05:36,184 is the highest form of compliment, and you know, 118 00:05:36,184 --> 00:05:38,848 if Hollywood starts using our sustainable architecture 119 00:05:38,848 --> 00:05:40,765 to portrait science fiction, it could be a sign 120 00:05:40,765 --> 00:05:45,380 that we are moving towards hedonistic sustainability. 121 00:05:45,380 --> 00:05:48,182 So another idea we've been working on 122 00:05:48,182 --> 00:05:49,947 to try to build this idea of how 123 00:05:49,947 --> 00:05:53,160 artificial design can actually be most of, 124 00:05:53,160 --> 00:05:56,998 be environmentally aware but also increase life quality. 125 00:05:56,998 --> 00:05:59,813 We started a project we called "The Mountain", in Copenhagen 126 00:05:59,813 --> 00:06:01,945 It's essentially a combination 127 00:06:01,945 --> 00:06:05,738 of a big parking building and an apartment building, 128 00:06:05,738 --> 00:06:07,838 but the parking creates a man-made mountain 129 00:06:07,838 --> 00:06:11,350 that lifts all the apartments up in the sun and the view, 130 00:06:11,350 --> 00:06:13,654 creating this sort of houses with gardens, 131 00:06:13,654 --> 00:06:16,730 but in the middle of the Danish city. 132 00:06:16,730 --> 00:06:18,504 We called this idea architectural alchemy, 133 00:06:18,504 --> 00:06:20,473 because it's this idea that by mixing 134 00:06:20,473 --> 00:06:22,902 traditional ingredients, like parkings and apartments, 135 00:06:22,902 --> 00:06:25,627 you can actually create if not gold, 136 00:06:25,627 --> 00:06:28,431 then at least added value. 137 00:06:28,431 --> 00:06:30,658 We took this idea one step further 138 00:06:30,658 --> 00:06:32,847 in a project in Copenhagen, 139 00:06:32,847 --> 00:06:36,082 where sort of by mixing shops and offices, 140 00:06:36,082 --> 00:06:39,046 town houses and apartments, putting them in a 141 00:06:39,046 --> 00:06:41,708 stak where they occupy their favourite position 142 00:06:41,708 --> 00:06:44,286 distorting the block to sort of maximise 143 00:06:44,286 --> 00:06:47,492 views for the apartments and access to sunlight, 144 00:06:47,492 --> 00:06:50,535 we created this building we call "The 8 House", 145 00:06:50,535 --> 00:06:52,780 named after its shape. 146 00:06:52,780 --> 00:06:54,974 And this sort of approach 147 00:06:54,974 --> 00:06:58,015 doesn't only allow us to optimize the individual position 148 00:06:58,015 --> 00:07:00,900 of the different parts of the program, 149 00:07:00,900 --> 00:07:03,630 like leaving shops and offices on the street, 150 00:07:03,630 --> 00:07:05,331 lifting the town houses with gardens 151 00:07:05,331 --> 00:07:10,596 up into the sunshine, but it also sort of allows 152 00:07:10,596 --> 00:07:13,420 public life, which is traditionally 153 00:07:13,420 --> 00:07:15,380 restricted to occurring on street level, 154 00:07:15,380 --> 00:07:18,162 to actually invade the three dimensional space 155 00:07:18,162 --> 00:07:20,768 of the urban block, so that the 8 House in Copenhagen 156 00:07:20,768 --> 00:07:23,641 is not, you know, a two dimensional facade design 157 00:07:23,641 --> 00:07:24,756 or even a three dimensional 158 00:07:24,756 --> 00:07:27,246 architectural object, it's a sort of three dimensional 159 00:07:27,246 --> 00:07:31,347 urban condition that allows, public life 160 00:07:31,347 --> 00:07:34,682 the possibility for spontaneous social encounters, 161 00:07:34,682 --> 00:07:37,996 to actually invade the normally private space 162 00:07:37,996 --> 00:07:39,365 of the urban block and reach 163 00:07:39,365 --> 00:07:43,614 the penthouse of the city. 164 00:07:43,614 --> 00:07:47,109 So this building is at the edge 165 00:07:47,109 --> 00:07:50,457 of Copenhagen, basically at the city limits, 166 00:07:50,457 --> 00:07:54,100 so you have this clash of life forms. 167 00:07:54,100 --> 00:07:58,196 The last idea in the 8 House, it is essentially 168 00:07:58,196 --> 00:07:59,698 like a private developer project, 169 00:07:59,698 --> 00:08:01,987 built for private apartments and town houses, 170 00:08:01,987 --> 00:08:04,711 but somehow it has this sort of generosity 171 00:08:04,711 --> 00:08:07,827 towards the city that it invites public life into it. 172 00:08:07,827 --> 00:08:10,271 This sort of idea of public participation, 173 00:08:10,271 --> 00:08:12,668 we took one step further in a project 174 00:08:12,668 --> 00:08:15,106 we did for the new city hall in Tallin. 175 00:08:15,106 --> 00:08:17,439 We thought that instead of having 176 00:08:17,439 --> 00:08:19,122 this sort of traditional dicotomy of the 177 00:08:19,122 --> 00:08:21,361 politicians inside and the public outside, 178 00:08:21,361 --> 00:08:24,897 we would harbour the city hall above the ground 179 00:08:24,897 --> 00:08:28,975 allowing the public to invade the ground floor 180 00:08:28,975 --> 00:08:31,382 in what we called the public service market place, 181 00:08:31,382 --> 00:08:34,076 where they can interact with the public servants 182 00:08:34,076 --> 00:08:37,772 and even sort of see the politicians at work. 183 00:08:37,772 --> 00:08:39,899 We called it the public village, 184 00:08:39,899 --> 00:08:42,147 because it is essentially like an accumulation of all 185 00:08:42,147 --> 00:08:43,869 of the different departments that have their own building. 186 00:08:43,869 --> 00:08:47,162 They sort of merge to form a 187 00:08:47,162 --> 00:08:50,248 a sort of a single consolidated village. 188 00:08:50,248 --> 00:08:51,996 In one place we invited the people of Tallin 189 00:08:51,996 --> 00:08:55,131 to access the roof and enjoy the panorama 190 00:08:55,131 --> 00:08:57,930 of the surrounding city. 191 00:08:57,930 --> 00:09:00,345 And finally in the masterplan they wanted 192 00:09:00,345 --> 00:09:02,221 a tower, because like in Europe 193 00:09:02,221 --> 00:09:04,833 it's hard to imagine a city hall without a tower. 194 00:09:04,833 --> 00:09:07,575 So we thought, what are we going to do with the tower? 195 00:09:07,575 --> 00:09:09,097 We thought, why don't we place 196 00:09:09,097 --> 00:09:11,149 the city council inside the tower? 197 00:09:11,149 --> 00:09:14,847 So we created this incredibly generous space for political reflection. 198 00:09:14,847 --> 00:09:17,137 The ceiling is made as a giant mirror, 199 00:09:17,137 --> 00:09:19,790 so that when politicians have to make difficult decisions, 200 00:09:19,790 --> 00:09:21,887 all they have to do is to look up, 201 00:09:21,887 --> 00:09:24,898 and they get this sort of periscopic overview 202 00:09:24,898 --> 00:09:28,270 of the city that they are actually messing with. 203 00:09:28,270 --> 00:09:30,432 (Applause) 204 00:09:30,432 --> 00:09:32,564 But as a sort of a side effect, 205 00:09:32,564 --> 00:09:35,555 when the angry citizens gather to demonstrate, 206 00:09:35,555 --> 00:09:38,986 they get this perfect insight, 207 00:09:38,986 --> 00:09:41,015 they can see, you know, 208 00:09:41,015 --> 00:09:42,940 if politicians are missing, if they are sleeping, 209 00:09:42,940 --> 00:09:45,667 if they are playing Angry Birds. 210 00:09:45,667 --> 00:09:48,596 So we called it 211 00:09:48,596 --> 00:09:50,314 the democratic periscope 212 00:09:50,314 --> 00:09:53,715 that combines political overview with public insight. 213 00:09:53,715 --> 00:09:55,879 And to our extreme luck the City council 214 00:09:55,879 --> 00:09:57,834 liked the idea and we are now building 215 00:09:57,834 --> 00:10:00,769 this sort of architectural relaxation 216 00:10:00,769 --> 00:10:04,332 of radical political transparency. 217 00:10:04,332 --> 00:10:08,416 So these three ideas we tried to bring together in 218 00:10:08,416 --> 00:10:12,598 what is, until now, our biggest 219 00:10:12,598 --> 00:10:14,625 project, it combines 220 00:10:14,625 --> 00:10:16,270 this idea of hedonistic sustainability 221 00:10:16,270 --> 00:10:19,016 with this sort of architectural alchemy and this 222 00:10:19,016 --> 00:10:21,181 notion of public participation. 223 00:10:21,181 --> 00:10:23,858 It's located within a masterplan 224 00:10:23,858 --> 00:10:25,980 we were commissioned by the 10 municipalities 225 00:10:25,980 --> 00:10:29,024 of Metropolitan Copenhagen, to do a plan 226 00:10:29,024 --> 00:10:32,348 according to, like along the new train line 227 00:10:32,348 --> 00:10:34,764 that would connect all the municipalities. 228 00:10:34,764 --> 00:10:37,290 What we proposed in return to saying 229 00:10:37,290 --> 00:10:40,767 why just focus on Copenhagen, or even Denmark, 230 00:10:40,767 --> 00:10:44,349 right on the other side of the Oresund waters 231 00:10:44,349 --> 00:10:47,830 we have Sweden, southern Sweden. 232 00:10:47,830 --> 00:10:49,898 It is sort of the most densely populated 233 00:10:49,898 --> 00:10:51,996 and most economically active region 234 00:10:51,996 --> 00:10:55,309 in Scandinavia, and by adding a simple 3 mile bridge 235 00:10:55,309 --> 00:10:57,514 we could actually connect it all 236 00:10:57,514 --> 00:11:00,200 into a sort of a single bi-national 237 00:11:00,200 --> 00:11:02,730 metropolitan region where no area 238 00:11:02,730 --> 00:11:05,139 is further away than fourty minutes 239 00:11:05,139 --> 00:11:07,861 by public transportation. 240 00:11:07,861 --> 00:11:09,764 And it wouldn't just be like an infrastructure 241 00:11:09,764 --> 00:11:12,080 for public transportation, it would also be 242 00:11:12,080 --> 00:11:14,444 an infrastructure for waste management, 243 00:11:14,444 --> 00:11:16,567 for water management, for energy, 244 00:11:16,567 --> 00:11:18,213 combining a smart grid that combines 245 00:11:18,213 --> 00:11:20,164 hydro electricity from Sweden 246 00:11:20,164 --> 00:11:23,587 with wind power from Denmark. 247 00:11:23,587 --> 00:11:25,782 It connects all of the most prosperous businesses 248 00:11:25,782 --> 00:11:28,850 in the entire region and by merging it 249 00:11:28,850 --> 00:11:31,038 and making it sort of a bi-national masterplan. 250 00:11:31,038 --> 00:11:33,295 We also introduced 251 00:11:33,295 --> 00:11:37,481 pink in the flag for the first time. (Laughter) 252 00:11:37,481 --> 00:11:39,547 It has exactly the same size 253 00:11:39,547 --> 00:11:41,122 as the San Francisco Bay area. 254 00:11:41,122 --> 00:11:42,474 So it is actually quite likely 255 00:11:42,474 --> 00:11:44,981 sort of a regional planning size, 256 00:11:44,981 --> 00:11:46,499 just because of the national boundaries, 257 00:11:46,499 --> 00:11:49,895 this sort of holistic perspective has never been applied. 258 00:11:49,895 --> 00:11:51,732 And our idea was to instead of focusing 259 00:11:51,732 --> 00:11:53,277 on the individual infrastructure, 260 00:11:53,277 --> 00:11:55,696 to actually merge it all, so that the train line is also 261 00:11:55,696 --> 00:11:58,973 the first faced densification of the downtown areas. 262 00:11:58,973 --> 00:12:00,465 The train really stops 263 00:12:00,465 --> 00:12:02,742 at the heart of the different neighbourhoods. 264 00:12:02,742 --> 00:12:05,380 And finally, since we are combining 265 00:12:05,380 --> 00:12:08,051 industry, commerce and residential 266 00:12:08,051 --> 00:12:09,855 we are proposing that perhaps 267 00:12:09,855 --> 00:12:11,965 the excess energy from the power production 268 00:12:11,965 --> 00:12:13,748 of the industry could become 269 00:12:13,748 --> 00:12:17,480 like a human programme, like thermal baths. 270 00:12:17,480 --> 00:12:20,246 So this could sound like sort of science fiction 271 00:12:20,246 --> 00:12:22,747 or the Jetsons, but to take it to 272 00:12:22,747 --> 00:12:25,617 something really tangible, this is going to be the first 273 00:12:25,617 --> 00:12:29,282 building that we're completing within the Loop city. 274 00:12:29,282 --> 00:12:32,530 It's a waste-to-energy plant. 275 00:12:32,530 --> 00:12:36,683 In Copenhagen we only landfill 4% of our waste -- 276 00:12:36,683 --> 00:12:39,968 as an example in Chicago it is 85% -- 277 00:12:39,968 --> 00:12:42,135 42% gets recycled, 278 00:12:42,135 --> 00:12:50,264 and 54% is essentially used as fuel to create heat and electricity. 279 00:12:50,264 --> 00:12:53,026 97% of the homes in Copenhagen have district heating, 280 00:12:53,026 --> 00:12:55,039 so they don't spend any energy on heating 281 00:12:55,039 --> 00:12:57,814 in a very cold country, they get it all as excess heat 282 00:12:57,814 --> 00:12:59,976 from the power production. 283 00:12:59,976 --> 00:13:02,092 And essentially they form this loop 284 00:13:02,092 --> 00:13:04,545 that people give their trash to the incineration plant 285 00:13:04,545 --> 00:13:06,963 and they get it back as power. 286 00:13:06,963 --> 00:13:09,414 So as a thumb rule, three kilos of 287 00:13:09,414 --> 00:13:12,031 household trash turn into four hours of electricity 288 00:13:12,031 --> 00:13:15,693 and five hours of heating. And just to give you an idea of 289 00:13:15,693 --> 00:13:18,818 this resource, one tonne of waste is almost 290 00:13:18,818 --> 00:13:21,396 two barrels of oil. But essentially 291 00:13:21,396 --> 00:13:23,372 this is a power plant like any other, 292 00:13:23,372 --> 00:13:26,083 it's a big, ugly, boxy factory 293 00:13:26,083 --> 00:13:27,885 that casts shadow on the neighbours 294 00:13:27,885 --> 00:13:30,498 and blocks the view, so the city wanted, 295 00:13:30,498 --> 00:13:32,532 since it is located in downtown Copenhagen, 296 00:13:32,532 --> 00:13:34,767 to somehow try to make it beautiful. 297 00:13:34,767 --> 00:13:36,770 It should be a gift to the city, 298 00:13:36,770 --> 00:13:39,847 said the CEO of the plant. 299 00:13:39,847 --> 00:13:42,368 So this is not only going to be the biggest building 300 00:13:42,368 --> 00:13:44,465 in Copenhagen, it is also going to be the tallest, 301 00:13:44,465 --> 00:13:47,080 it is going to be more than 350 feet tall. 302 00:13:47,080 --> 00:13:51,048 It's located right in the middle of the historical city, 303 00:13:51,048 --> 00:13:53,331 you can see just the opera, the royal theatre, 304 00:13:53,331 --> 00:13:55,857 downtown, and that's where it is going. 305 00:13:55,857 --> 00:13:57,650 It is right next to the Copenhagen marina. 306 00:13:57,650 --> 00:13:59,886 And right in front of it there is something called 307 00:13:59,886 --> 00:14:02,432 the Copenhagen cable track, 308 00:14:02,432 --> 00:14:04,564 which is a track that pools wakeboarders, 309 00:14:04,564 --> 00:14:06,859 and water skiers around in this sort of 310 00:14:06,859 --> 00:14:10,534 perpetual loop of water fun. 311 00:14:10,534 --> 00:14:13,654 And speaking of skiing, Copenhagen has loved skiing, 312 00:14:13,654 --> 00:14:16,749 but unfortunately Copenhagen is flat as a pancake, 313 00:14:16,749 --> 00:14:18,881 we have the snow but we don't have the hills 314 00:14:18,881 --> 00:14:21,580 so we heavily go for hours on buses 315 00:14:21,580 --> 00:14:24,299 to the south of Sweden, so we thought, 316 00:14:24,299 --> 00:14:28,164 you know, if Copenhagen doesn't have mountains, 317 00:14:28,164 --> 00:14:32,979 at least we have mountains of trash, so why don't we 318 00:14:32,979 --> 00:14:35,383 transplant one of the Swedish ski slopes 319 00:14:35,383 --> 00:14:38,532 and put it on the roof of the factory? 320 00:14:38,532 --> 00:14:41,359 So essentially we know the size of the machines, 321 00:14:41,359 --> 00:14:44,152 so we created this sort of minimum envelope. 322 00:14:44,152 --> 00:14:47,662 They wanted to make a visitor centre, 323 00:14:47,662 --> 00:14:49,140 which essentially is a place 324 00:14:49,140 --> 00:14:51,100 where school teachers drag the children 325 00:14:51,100 --> 00:14:54,649 to force them to listen to how trash turns into energy. 326 00:14:54,649 --> 00:14:57,197 Instead we proposed to install 327 00:14:57,197 --> 00:14:59,867 an elevator that takes you to the roof, 328 00:14:59,867 --> 00:15:01,146 where you can choose between 329 00:15:01,146 --> 00:15:04,764 a green, a blue and black ski slope. 330 00:15:04,764 --> 00:15:06,449 And because it is man-made, we can make sure 331 00:15:06,449 --> 00:15:08,541 that it ends up at the foot of the elevator, 332 00:15:08,541 --> 00:15:12,648 to create this sort of perpetual loop of skiing. 333 00:15:12,648 --> 00:15:15,859 Miraculously we actually won the competition 334 00:15:15,859 --> 00:15:17,948 based on this idea. 335 00:15:17,948 --> 00:15:21,379 (Applause) 336 00:15:21,379 --> 00:15:24,656 The roof material is a form of artificial carpet 337 00:15:24,656 --> 00:15:28,180 that all the rainwater that drops on the mountain 338 00:15:28,180 --> 00:15:31,562 is collected and can be blown out 339 00:15:31,562 --> 00:15:33,881 in these humidifiers, that in the summer 340 00:15:33,881 --> 00:15:36,147 can actually create so little friction that, 341 00:15:36,147 --> 00:15:39,264 with normal skiing equipment you can actually ski, 342 00:15:39,264 --> 00:15:42,014 creating this sort of nice brasilian 343 00:15:42,014 --> 00:15:45,681 hybrid of bikini skiing. 344 00:15:45,681 --> 00:15:47,930 But in the winter we do have 345 00:15:47,930 --> 00:15:51,982 three to four months of frost and snow. 346 00:15:51,982 --> 00:15:53,703 So from 2015 347 00:15:53,703 --> 00:15:55,842 you are going to have to look out 348 00:15:55,842 --> 00:16:00,438 for the Danish competitors in Alpine skiing! 349 00:16:00,438 --> 00:16:02,332 You know, originally the competition was 350 00:16:02,332 --> 00:16:03,846 to make the factory look good, 351 00:16:03,846 --> 00:16:05,707 so we also had to do a facade. 352 00:16:05,707 --> 00:16:08,064 We proposed to make it out of these giant planters 353 00:16:08,064 --> 00:16:13,346 made out of recycled plastics. The excess water 354 00:16:13,346 --> 00:16:15,681 runs through the facade watering the plants, 355 00:16:15,681 --> 00:16:17,866 so in the summer we create this sort of 356 00:16:17,866 --> 00:16:20,274 natural shade that turns the working space 357 00:16:20,274 --> 00:16:22,715 of the factory into this sort of nice, naturally illuminated 358 00:16:22,715 --> 00:16:25,391 and naturally ventilated work space. 359 00:16:25,391 --> 00:16:29,287 At night you see the machines working inside the factory. 360 00:16:29,287 --> 00:16:32,514 So you can say, the initial vision, 361 00:16:32,514 --> 00:16:34,603 you know of trying to design our cities and buildings 362 00:16:34,603 --> 00:16:38,106 as ecosystems, is quite close to materializing 363 00:16:38,106 --> 00:16:40,027 in this project, because not only locally 364 00:16:40,027 --> 00:16:43,745 there is this reuse of the water, the daylight, 365 00:16:43,745 --> 00:16:45,681 the natural ventilation, 366 00:16:45,681 --> 00:16:47,533 but also in a more regional perspective, 367 00:16:47,533 --> 00:16:49,932 together with Copenhagen and the rest of the loop city 368 00:16:49,932 --> 00:16:54,070 the plant actually forms an ecosystem. 369 00:16:54,070 --> 00:16:56,772 As a last thing, they were imagining, 370 00:16:56,772 --> 00:16:57,847 they wanted some kind of 371 00:16:57,847 --> 00:16:59,163 building integrated art project, 372 00:16:59,163 --> 00:17:00,646 and traditionally what you do, 373 00:17:00,646 --> 00:17:02,980 you hire some light artist to blow coloured lights 374 00:17:02,980 --> 00:17:05,770 at the building at night. We thought, 375 00:17:05,770 --> 00:17:09,227 why don't we play with the resources we have? 376 00:17:09,227 --> 00:17:11,067 This is going to be the cleanest waste-to-energy plant 377 00:17:11,067 --> 00:17:13,311 in the world, the smoke coming out 378 00:17:13,311 --> 00:17:16,014 of the chimney is completely non toxic, 379 00:17:16,014 --> 00:17:19,479 but it still does contain some CO2. 380 00:17:19,479 --> 00:17:21,731 A lot less than the current plant, but it does contain 381 00:17:21,731 --> 00:17:23,568 some of it. So we thought, 382 00:17:23,568 --> 00:17:26,265 why don't we design the mouth of the chimney 383 00:17:26,265 --> 00:17:30,014 in such a way that it fills gradually with CO2 384 00:17:30,014 --> 00:17:33,579 and when it contains 100 kilos, it compresses 385 00:17:33,579 --> 00:17:42,797 and puffs a giant smoke ring? 386 00:17:42,797 --> 00:17:46,881 So that we can play with it at night! 387 00:17:46,881 --> 00:17:49,862 But of course, on one end we like it, cause it's 388 00:17:49,862 --> 00:17:52,514 almost like the ultimate artistic expression 389 00:17:52,514 --> 00:17:54,124 of hedonistic sustainability, 390 00:17:54,124 --> 00:17:56,103 you take the symbol of the problem, 391 00:17:56,103 --> 00:17:57,314 the pollution, the chimney, 392 00:17:57,314 --> 00:18:00,354 and turn it into something playful. 393 00:18:00,354 --> 00:18:03,880 But one of the main drivers of behavioural change 394 00:18:03,880 --> 00:18:07,652 is knowledge, but if people don't know they can't act. 395 00:18:07,652 --> 00:18:10,182 And when my nephews ask me, you know, 396 00:18:10,182 --> 00:18:13,250 what's a ton of CO2, I have to say, I don't have a clue! 397 00:18:13,250 --> 00:18:16,313 In 2015 I can tell them to count 10 smoke rings 398 00:18:16,313 --> 00:18:18,563 and when they have counted 10 of them, 399 00:18:18,563 --> 00:18:22,015 we have just emitted one ton of CO2. 400 00:18:22,015 --> 00:18:24,347 So, we can say the waste-to-energy plant 401 00:18:24,347 --> 00:18:25,735 in Copenhagen is not only sort of 402 00:18:25,735 --> 00:18:27,745 economically and ecologically sustainable, 403 00:18:27,745 --> 00:18:30,054 by turning waste into energy, it's also 404 00:18:30,054 --> 00:18:32,632 socially sustainable because it turns a power plant 405 00:18:32,632 --> 00:18:35,051 into a park, and it turns a flat land 406 00:18:35,051 --> 00:18:39,556 into a man-made mountain for skiing. 407 00:18:39,556 --> 00:18:41,951 So, as a last thing, you might object that 408 00:18:41,951 --> 00:18:43,378 this is something that can only happen 409 00:18:43,378 --> 00:18:50,649 in sunny, semi-socialist, sentimental Scandinavia. 410 00:18:50,649 --> 00:18:51,947 But just to wrap it up, 411 00:18:51,947 --> 00:18:55,595 recently we got approached by Durst Fetner Residential, 412 00:18:55,595 --> 00:18:58,147 of Manhattan, to look at this side 413 00:18:58,147 --> 00:19:01,010 on the west side water front. 414 00:19:01,010 --> 00:19:04,304 It's quite far away from the nearby parks, 415 00:19:04,304 --> 00:19:05,747 it's right next to the Helena, a building 416 00:19:05,747 --> 00:19:08,631 owned by our client, named after his daughter. 417 00:19:08,631 --> 00:19:11,181 And normally residential in the area 418 00:19:11,181 --> 00:19:13,263 looks like this, sort of sturdy boxes, we thought: 419 00:19:13,263 --> 00:19:15,566 why don't we, you know, having spent 10 years of 420 00:19:15,566 --> 00:19:17,062 my career as an architect trying to escape 421 00:19:17,062 --> 00:19:19,348 the tiranny of the Copenhagen courtyard 422 00:19:19,348 --> 00:19:22,062 as a typology, we thought that maybe, in Manhattan 423 00:19:22,062 --> 00:19:23,687 this idea of creating an urban oasis 424 00:19:23,687 --> 00:19:26,455 at the heart of the block could be interesting, 425 00:19:26,455 --> 00:19:28,264 If you like, the Copenhagen courtyard 426 00:19:28,264 --> 00:19:29,574 is at the architectural scale 427 00:19:29,574 --> 00:19:31,870 what Central Park is at an urban scale, 428 00:19:31,870 --> 00:19:33,680 a human habitat surrounded by 429 00:19:33,680 --> 00:19:36,971 a dense wall of people. 430 00:19:36,971 --> 00:19:38,318 So we asked ourselves, 431 00:19:38,318 --> 00:19:39,815 what happens when you combine a skyscraper 432 00:19:39,815 --> 00:19:41,729 with a courtyard? Essentially, what would a 433 00:19:41,729 --> 00:19:45,202 courtscraper look like? 434 00:19:45,202 --> 00:19:47,364 So we first we placed the courtyard next to the Helena, 435 00:19:47,364 --> 00:19:49,203 we tried to preserve all of its views 436 00:19:49,203 --> 00:19:51,227 to be a good neighbour, but also because it is 437 00:19:51,227 --> 00:19:53,926 our client's building. 438 00:19:53,926 --> 00:19:56,956 And then in the north east corner, to create 439 00:19:56,956 --> 00:19:59,233 density and views, we lifted it up to 450 feet, 440 00:19:59,233 --> 00:20:02,763 creating this sort of walked perimeter block 441 00:20:02,763 --> 00:20:07,052 that has views and sunshine from the west side. 442 00:20:07,052 --> 00:20:08,241 And what happens is that you can say, traditionally 443 00:20:08,241 --> 00:20:10,395 perimeter blocks or courtyards 444 00:20:10,395 --> 00:20:13,412 are secrets kept for the tenants. 445 00:20:13,412 --> 00:20:14,268 In this case, it really becomes 446 00:20:14,268 --> 00:20:16,184 the main facade of the building towards the highway, 447 00:20:16,184 --> 00:20:18,913 almost showing how the rejuvination of the waterfront 448 00:20:18,913 --> 00:20:22,026 moves into the city fabric itself. 449 00:20:22,026 --> 00:20:23,663 And the warped geometry also brings daylight 450 00:20:23,663 --> 00:20:25,984 to the streetscape, and finally 451 00:20:25,984 --> 00:20:29,114 all of the apartments are rotated towards the view, 452 00:20:29,114 --> 00:20:32,553 creating this sort of pattern of balconies, 453 00:20:32,553 --> 00:20:33,981 but also allowing the residents 454 00:20:33,981 --> 00:20:35,727 to recognise their own apartment, 455 00:20:35,727 --> 00:20:39,229 almost as a building within the building. 456 00:20:39,229 --> 00:20:40,880 And of course, people living next to the roof 457 00:20:40,880 --> 00:20:43,330 have this nice view of the Hudson. 458 00:20:43,330 --> 00:20:45,014 So, because of the incredible asimmetry, 459 00:20:45,014 --> 00:20:47,079 the courtyard really goes from 42 inches 460 00:20:47,079 --> 00:20:49,081 to 400 feet and back down again. 461 00:20:49,081 --> 00:20:53,082 So this has been sort of passed forward, 462 00:20:53,082 --> 00:20:54,488 this has been well received, 463 00:20:54,488 --> 00:20:56,412 and according to plan, and sometimes, 464 00:20:56,412 --> 00:21:00,014 even in architecture, things happen according to plan. 465 00:21:00,014 --> 00:21:01,631 We should be breaking ground 466 00:21:01,631 --> 00:21:04,413 the 1st of September this year. 467 00:21:04,413 --> 00:21:08,133 (Applause) 468 00:21:08,133 --> 00:21:10,468 So you are gonna see some of the 469 00:21:10,468 --> 00:21:12,597 sort of architectural evolution 470 00:21:12,597 --> 00:21:14,049 we have been conducting in Scandinavia 471 00:21:14,049 --> 00:21:15,887 is now starting to cross-breed 472 00:21:15,887 --> 00:21:18,858 with the New York typologies. 473 00:21:18,858 --> 00:21:20,431 To finish off, this is what it could look like 474 00:21:20,431 --> 00:21:24,672 driving down the west side highway in four years. 475 00:22:13,161 --> 00:22:18,502 (Aplause)