The Danish Architecture Center’s latest exhibition challenges the construction industry’s wasteful habits and showcases the beauty and potential of recycled materials
04.05.2025
Oscar Duran & Mayra Çağlayan
Entry to the Recycle! exhibition at the Danish Architecture Centre. Photo: Oscar Duran.
In an era marked by climate breakdown and resource scarcity, a new exhibition at the Danish Architecture Center (DAC) is urging one of the most polluting industries to radically rethink its approach: construction. The exhibition, Recycle!, running until September 10, invites visitors into a world of architectural innovation built not on virgin materials, but on the reused, the revalued, and the once-overlooked.
Curated by Victoria Diemer Bennetzen, Recycle! brings the urgent issue of waste to the forefront. “The construction industry is one of the biggest climate sinners,” she says. “But it doesn’t have to be that way. If we take good care of the buildings we have, and reuse the materials we already extracted from nature, we can reduce emissions drastically.”
According to the European Union, the building and construction sector accounts for 34% of global carbon emissions. Within the European Union, construction and demolition consumes 32% of the global energy and generates over 35% of the EU’s total waste, coming from a constant extraction of materials that represent 50% of all extracted materials. With materials becoming increasingly scarce and prices skyrocketing, Recycle! presents circular architecture not just as an ethical imperative, but as a creative and economic necessity.
The exhibition makes its case through large-scale installations, case studies of pioneering architectural projects, and hands-on sensory experiences that challenge how we relate to materials. “We want to change how people think about recycled materials,” says Diemer Bennetzen. “This isn’t about sacrifice. It’s about rediscovering joy in what already exists.”
The exhibition is split into four thematic zones: Preserve, Reuse, Rethink, and Feel. Each section offers a fresh lens on how architecture can be circular, not just theoretically, but practically, artistically, and even emotionally.
Preserve highlights how we can extend the lives of existing buildings, avoiding unnecessary demolition. One standout initiative featured in HouseEurope!, a campaign pushing for EU legislation to prioritize renovation over destruction. Visitors can digitally sign the petition on-site. “Preservation must be the first step,” Diemer Bennetzen stresses. “It’s crucial we stop demolishing buildings that could live longer lives.”
The Peder Lykke high-rise in Copenhagen is an example of a building worthy of preservation instead of demolition due to their materials and potential for redesign. Photo: Oscar Duran.
In Reuse, visitors explore projects like Thoravej 29 in Copenhagen, where 95% of the original structure was retained, and TRÆ in Aarhus, a high-rise featuring façades made from repurposed wind turbine blades. It’s proof that reuse isn’t just possible, it can be beautiful.
The third zone, Rethink, challenges our ideas about beauty. What if cracks, rust, and scratches weren’t flaws, but features? “We must challenge the idea that new is better,” says the curator. “Cracks and rust tell a story. Materials with a past have a unique beauty.”
Then comes Feel, where theory meets touch. Here, visitors walk through and interact with materials such as wood, brick and steel, that have been rescued and given new life. It’s tactile, immersive, and eye-opening. “We want people to experience materials through the body. To be curious. To be surprised,” says Diemer Bennetzen.
One of the most moving pieces is a scorched section of Copenhagen’s historic 17th-century Børsen building, which burned down in 2024. Seeing its old pine beams and brickwork up close makes the case for preservation more powerfully than any chart or stat could. “That piece tells a story of loss, but also of renewal,” says Diemer Bennetzen. “It’s a reminder that buildings were once made to last and can last still.”
Part of the reconstruction of the historic 17th-century Børsen building in Copenhagen. Photo: Mayra Çağlayan.
Recycle! doesn’t just preach circularity, it practices it. Every component used in the exhibition has been catalogued for future reuse, is recycled, or was repurposed from previous DAC exhibitions. “We are not just showing reuse,” Diemer Bennetzen notes. “We’re living it. The design of the exhibition itself is part of the story.”
As Europe accelerates its climate goals and searches for scalable solutions, the exhibition’s message is clear: the most sustainable buildings of the future are already standing. They may be cracked, rusted, or worn, but they’re also full of stories, and full of possibility.