The Jeffrey Fine (C'76 MArch'78) and Andrea Katz Lecture: Dorte Mandrup

The Department of Architecture welcomes Dorte Mandrup for her lecture, "Negotiating Place." 

Since founding her eponymous studio 26 years ago, Dorte Mandrup has specialised in projects that demand a high degree of consideration and care, creating architecture characterised by its contextual cohesion and profound understanding of the relationship between place and building, human and space, form and function. For Mandrup, the context extends beyond the physical elements one can see, touch, and feel. It includes the invisible layers of memory, emotion, and identity that give meaning to a place. Balancing pragmatic consideration and creative exploration, each process begins with the particularities of the place and evolves into a design that engages with its complexities and responds to its inherent qualities. In this lecture, Dorte Mandrup will discuss the importance of context in her studio’s work, which spans fragile UNESCO-protected landscapes in the Arctic and the intertidal coastline of Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands, as well as places inhabited by difficult historic content, such as the design for the future Exile Museum at Anhalter Bahnhof in Berlin and the masterplan and reimagination of Saalecker Werkstätten in Central Germany. 

Danish architect Dorte Mandrup is the Principal and Creative Director of the Copenhagen-based architecture studio Dorte Mandrup, which she established in 1999. The studio is internationally recognised for their ability to create architecture that actively engages with the complexities of each place and contributes with new relevance. Using the entire context as a conceptual starting point, Mandrup employs an artistic, humanistic, and scientific approach to form designs that enhances the awareness and experience of each place. In recent years, Mandrup has distinguished herself in the architectural field with extraordinary projects like The Whale in Norway, the Exile Museum in Berlin, Nunavut Inuit Heritage Centre in Canada, and Ilulissat Icefjord Centre in Greenland.

Dorte Mandrup has received numerous national and international awards and recognitions for her work. She headlined the curated international exhibition at La Biennale de Venezia in 2018, chaired the Mies van der Rohe Award in 2019, is Vice Chairman of Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, member of Akademi der Künste in Berlin, Honorary Professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Architecture, Design and Conservation, Adjunct Professor at Accademia de Architettura de Mendrisio in Switzerland, and Kenzo Tange Design Critic in Architecture at Harvard GSD.

If you require any accessibility accommodation, such as live captioning, audio description, or a sign language interpreter, please email news@design.upenn.edu. Please note, we require at least five (5) business days’ notice.