The Rebuilding Pavilion

The Rebuilding Pavilion was a collaborative artistic project developed for the UIA World Congress of Architects in Copenhagen in July 2023.

The Rebuilding Pavilion aimed to demonstrate that reconstruction can be holistic, sustainable, accessible, collaborative, locally rooted – and, not least, beautiful.

The Rebuilding Pavilion project was based on an investigation into whether reconstruction in areas affected by war, natural disasters, climate change, or post-industrial change has anything fundamental in common. Can communities in widely different contexts benefit from collaboration and knowledge exchange—despite major differences in local needs, resources, and conditions? To explore this, the Royal Academy invited international figures—all deeply involved in reconstruction in their own practices and realities. Together, they co-designed a temporary pavilion for the UIA Congress, as well as a program consisting of talks, debates, workshops, and an exhibition in and around the pavilion.

The Rebuilding Pavilion aimed to demonstrate that reconstruction can be holistic, sustainable, accessible, collaborative, locally rooted – and, not least, beautiful. The need for reconstruction is acute in communities affected by conflict or disaster, whether it be sudden destruction or slow but irreversible climate change. In many cases, the built environment is no longer able to protect, support, or strengthen its communities—and must therefore be rethought and rebuilt.

Sustainable reconstruction requires many actors. It is a joint task across disciplines, sectors, and levels. But architecture has a special potential to shape solutions with care, consideration, and collaboration. Architects can bring to life a reconstruction that is economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable—and rooted in local needs and cultural identities.

The challenges we face in reconstruction are in many ways similar to those we encounter everywhere in the development of the built environment – but they are exacerbated by pressure, trauma and haste. This makes communities extremely vulnerable to decisions that serve neither people nor the planet. Architecture must therefore balance the necessary with the possible: delivering rapid solutions that do not compromise long-term sustainability.

The Rebuilding Pavilion aims to showcase precisely these alternatives. The pavilion served both as a physical prototype and as an international forum for dialogue, and it had a dual purpose: to show that sustainable reconstruction—using local materials, contextual understanding, and collaboration—is possible, while also engaging the global architectural community in a shared commitment to participate in the reconstruction agenda.

It is the project group's hope that the pavilion will contribute to the formulation of an ambitious yet down-to-earth strategy for reconstruction – a strategy that not only restores buildings and infrastructure, but also strengthens homes, communities, and ecosystems. 

The project was organized by Natalie Mossin, Ingeborg Hau, Adam Linde Nielsen, Magnus Nilsson, and Elliott Andrew from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Institute of Architecture and Technology.

And developed in close collaboration with a number of external partners: Bhawna Jaimini, Viktoriia Didych, Marwa al Sabouni, Ramatu Aliyu, Bolatta Silis-Høegh, Khwaja Fatmi, Saad Onnoy, Rizvi Hassan, Asbjørn Lund, Tegnestuen Vandkunsten, Britt Gundersen, Byens Netværk, Genbyg, I Tråd med Verden, Naturpladen, and Anlægsgartner Gottlieb.

The project was supported by Realdania.