Denmark | LOUISIANA Museum | Anupama Kundoo | Taking Time | 8.10.20 - 31.1.21

Under the first main heading of the exhibition, THE ARCHITECTURE OF TIME, the visitor has access to Anupama Kundoo’s research archives, which include the first sources of inspiration, processed materials and architectural works. Under the categories Life, Mind and Matter LOUISIANA presents Kundoo’s investigations of the nature of materials, the tectonics of earliest living beings, and mankind’s ways of processing the material, which she calls “the thinking hand”.
On the balcony between the two large rooms of the exhibition, there is a 1:1 construction of Kundoo’s single cell that forms the basis of her Co-housing project envisaged for Auroville. This is based on her past research of the Full Fill Home prototype, conceived keeping the rapid urbanization and resulting housing shortage in India in mind. A single house can be built in seven days by the homeowner-to-be using simple crates cast in ferrocement – a material Kundoo has studied and researched. Built-in storage systems reduce the need for furniture, and the system can be used as a permanent or temporary home and be built anywhere in the world with a minimum of building experience.

The second main theme of the exhibition, CO-CREATION, presents Kundoo’s latest and so far biggest project – the town and housing development project Line of Goodwill for the city of Auroville. The project not only builds further on original concepts for the city from 1968, but also on the spirit of Auroville, that is the tradition of cooperation across types of expertise. Line of Goodwill has arisen in a collaboration with climate engineers from among others the German firms Transsolar, Amour Group and Bau Kunst Erfinden, and with students from three schools of architecture – The School of Architecture of the Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, the Yale School of Architecture in New Haven and the Fachhochschule in Potsdam.
A model (1:50) of the 240,000 m² project is shown in the exhibition, and part of the facade is built up in 1:1 as an example of Kundoo’s work with the development of intelligent facades. Kundoo thinks sustainably, socially, economically and environmentally, and the facades must all save or generate energy while providing climatic comfort. She works with three facade elements: Green Screens, which through the use of plants as part of the facade will bring the residents closer to nature, provide urban farming opportunities and create a better climate; Urban Surplus Recycled, where remains from denim factories in India are converted into facade cladding; and finally Energy Harvesting, where she collaborates with climate engineers on brand new energy-generating facade strategies.

Picture above : Anupama Kundoo Wall House, 2000, Auroville, Indien
Foto: Javier Callejas