Towards a critical Pragmatism

The architectural office BIG has become one of the leading exponents of the so-called pragmatic shift in Danish architecture. Arkitektur DK asked Boris Brorman Jensen to offer a critical comment and address whether BIG and the generation of similar Danish practices also represent an orientation towards new values in Danish architecture.

‘There is particularly one question that is becoming relevant: Is there any kind of new orientation of values in this new wave of innovation?

In the scientific world, new inventions, analysis and new perceptions are basically a lot more interesting then the question of value and attitudes, but can this be said regarding the architectural discipline. One can off course accept to turn things on it´s head, because in the world of culture the imagination can rule almost unrestricted. The experimental architect can exist by finding new constructions in the absurd, but such new inventions in it self cannot give life to a new identity in my opinion. There must at one point or another be introduced a new meaning or a new mission.’

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