Age of Nature

Exhibition

until May 17, 2026

KULTURINFORMATION
POLITIKEN
BERLINGSKE

How can we make space for both people and nature? Danish Architecture Center presents a major exhibition exploring the relationship between architecture, nature, people, and biodiversity – and asks: How can architecture help us create a future where both nature and humans can thrive?

Age of Nature explores the relationship between humans and nature. Experience trees on artificial respiration, mushrooms grown in towers and facades that provide homes for birds and insects. The exhibition offers wild visions of the future and sensual suggestions on how new knowledge and technology can unite architecture and nature for the benefit of all life on earth.

We seek out nature as never before. We spend nights in shelters, take winter swims, and hike to find peace and presence. But are we truly willing to make space for nature when it matters most? Denmark is one of the most cultivated countries in the world, and only 0.7% of its land is true wilderness. In just 200 years, the global population has grown from one to eight billion. In the same period, wild animal populations have been cut in half, and more than 70 percent of biodiversity has been lost. Meanwhile, the demand for land for green energy, urban development, and climate infrastructure continues to rise.

Can buildings and urban spaces become homes for people, animals, and plants alike? Can architecture learn from nature’s ingenious designs—where every element exists in perfect balance with everything else? And can we begin to see ourselves as part of nature, not separate from it? For millennia, architecture has been understood as a shield against nature—roofs, walls, and cities built to protect us from cold, floods, and predators. Nature was seen as wild and unpredictable, while architecture embodied civilization’s order and stability. But today a new awareness is emerging: architecture and nature do not have to be opposites. They can become part of the same cycle—where buildings are flexible, temporary, and porous, and where other species besides humans also find room.

This change is not only about the form of architecture, but also about our perspective on nature. To secure biodiversity and balance, we need to rethink the language we use when we speak about nature—perhaps even embrace an entirely new worldview. One in which we recognize that we are nature, and where nature is a collaborator and a value in itself, not merely a resource for humans.

Age of Nature invites visitors on a journey into how architecture can play a central role in this transformation and help protect nature and promote biodiversity.

Explore the exhibition

GeoSanctuary is a living miniature landscape by artist Georg Jagunov. Inside a glass sphere, moss and Danish flint thrive in a balanced cycle of light and moisture. The work connects us to millions of years of natural history and invites us to reflect on our own place between past and present.
How can we learn from nature’s patterns? The installation Biohybrid demonstrates how researchers use Kagome weaving to combine living organisms, building materials, and culture. This method creates lightweight structures with minimal joints that can be taken apart and reused. Inspired by nature’s own forms – from beehives to leaf structures – the work points to new sustainable solutions that are simple, accessible, and learnable by all.
Age of Nature showcases groundbreaking projects by Danish and international architects, researchers, and artists who explore how we can build with nature rather than against it.
Experience The Great Endeavour – a film that may look like science fiction but is grounded in reality. The story takes you to humanity’s greatest construction project, set on the edge of climate collapse: a massive facility that removes CO₂ from the atmosphere. Driven by cutting-edge technology and a global effort involving one billion people, the project offers a vision of collective action at an unprecedented scale.
Did you know that the rare Maitake mushroom can be grown right in the city? At DAC, it grows in the Mushroom Tower – created by hacking our own exhibition system and giving architecture new life. The mushroom thrives on byproducts from organic farming, with almost no climate footprint and no need for agricultural land. Compared to beef, its cultivation requires over 100 times less space and enables local food production close to the consumer.

Photo: Anders Sune Berg

Glimpses from the Exhibition

Nature on Life Support
In the exhibition, you encounter Lung Trees, an installation by Danish artist Rune Bosse. Here, living trees are wrapped in plastic, sustained by UV lights and machines, to keep them alive.
This poetic work is a visceral reminder of what happens when ecosystems collapse. As biodiversity declines and nature’s cycles break down, even the air we breathe may one day require our intervention. A haunting vision of a future where nature can’t breathe without us.
Multispecies Architecture
Studio Ossidiana builds and imagines for more than just humans. In Amsterdam Allegories, the Dutch architecture studio unfolds a playful and sensory vision of public space as a shared habitat for many species. The project reimagines Sixhaven, a vacant harbor site in northern Amsterdam, as an experimental landscape of 21 floating islands. Here, people, animals, plants, and materials coexist – and new civic rituals, relationships, and encounters can unfold. Each island becomes a poetic micro-world that invites discovery, connection, and new ways of living together.
Photo: Kyoungtae Kim

Test yourself: Which green vision do you share?

Should we give more space to wild nature, free from human presence – or is it our task to shape and care for it? Should it exist independently, or be more closely integrated with our cities?

We can’t solve the climate and biodiversity crises without managing our land differently. That’s why CONCITO has developed three visions for Denmark’s land use.

Below, you can answer seven dilemmas to find out which of the three green visions for Denmark’s future best matches your views.

The test is anonymous. CONCITO will collect the responses and use them in their ongoing work.

Kids track

Bring the kids along and explore the exhibition’s children’s track together. Discover nature’s secrets, breathe with the trees in a sensory installation, let your imagination run wild by drawing animals and building them a home. In the installation Wild Animal Looking for a Home, children can also find inspiration for their own experiments.