Instrumentalising the Archipelago:

The project aims to instrumentalize the reading of a context (the small Danish village of Faxe) as an archipelago, utilising a formal language derived from the town to produce specific and resonant architectural compositions. The characterization of Faxe as an archipelago follows an understanding of the town as being defined by the close proximity of the banality of its provincial architecture (1,2,3) to points of extreme programmatic and formal specificity such as the local industry and public institutions (4,5,6).

These points of architectural specificity, or islands, are abstracted from their respective locations within the archipelago. (7) The project develops from the creation of a series of discrete elements, a formal language (8), created through the analysis, transmutation and representation of various formal and spatial themes present within the reading of the selected architectures.

This formal language is subsequently intersected with problematics of program and site, in the formation of three specific architectural interventions within the fabric of the archipelago. These interventions which include a theatre (9), a garden (10) and a workshop (11). Composed from the architectural language of Faxe, the buildings maintain a resonance with their respective contexts, while forming strong characters of their own. The buildings provide architectural clarity and identity to the town, heightening the definition of the town.