Mads-Ulrik Husum

I forbindelse med 3 Days of Design 2016, opførte Pernille Egeskov en udstilling som bandt Fritz Hansen, Dinesen og Georg Jensen Damask sammen i én helstøbt helhed, i Dinesen Home på Nikolaj Plads i København. I denne udstilling var min rolle at rådgive om- samt at udføre elementer i værkerne, i tæt samarbejde med Pernille Egeskov.

Growing Sphere

(2016)
Winning proposal for Chart Art Fair - Chart Architecture Competition - a pavilion - category: Urban Farming. In collaboration with Sine Lindholm. 

A sphere is in its essence a sheltering form, leading the thoughts towards the state of an embryo.
By working with the sphere in designing the pavilion, it becomes an inviting space activator, able to stand free in any environment.

By dividing the sphere into slices, the pavillon, supports the life and growth of plants, by giving the access to sunlight, and the overlapping slices ensures that water and light can reach the vegetation on each slice, without reaching the visitor within. In this way, a coexistence is made, as the sphere functions as a growth activator for the plants, and a shelter for the visitor.

The pavillon enhances our relationship with vegetation by inviting the visitor into an intimate world, where only the visitor and the vegetation exists. The pavillon, built as a sphere, invokes the idea of a vibrant cosmos – a green globe. The visitor shares the same seat as the plants, in that sence that people and the vegetation are equals and coexist in the same cyclus.

For my thesis project I wished to challenge the caravan as a typology from a national point of interest – which is why the title of the project is ” A travel wagon – rethinking a typology in Denmark”

The project ended in a 1:1 prototype of a chosen concept functioning as a first iteration and is a result of working with the 5 following themes presented in chronological order: Research; Experimentation; Creation; Concretization; Realization.

The following is a brief description of the history, status quo, my intentions and the reasons for and possibilities of this particular area of interest from a personal and societal point of view.

“Modern technology shows an ever-growing commodification. Technology promises disburdenment and enrichment. New products are being developed continuously with their major aim to deliver more commodities easily, quickly, ubiquitously and safely. (…) They do not ask for engagement, but consumption, It is problematic if all things that ask for engagement would be replaced. It would reduce our existence to the immediate consumption of what is delivered to us whenever we wish, without engagement with the world being required of us.”– Albert Borgmann

The caravan as a typology is rooted in a culture which, throughout history, has been characterized by creativity and seeking freedom in natural environments. As the interest grows, the culture changes character; the typology changes hands from eager enthusiasts towards an industry that pulls it in a direction favoring capitalization, revenue and competitiveness over aesthetic and ideological principles – an industry that makes use of strategic craftiness to maintain the caravanner in the illusion that caravanning is synonymous with having the entire household hitched to the back of the car. The typology has an inherent potential that reaches beyond regular holidaying, but doesn’t come into its own, because the sort of people who could assist in pushing the boundaries and understanding of the typology and the space it creates and operates in, are the very same people being discouraged by the conventional caravan.

Web 2.0 and wireless technologies provides us with tools for administration of our work life private life and leisure time in new ways, independent of the surroundings. Tools that allow us to become shape shifters – changing our character as we see fit. We can share and seek knowledge with each other when and where we want to, and in that sense we are facing an autonomy and freedom, that will affect our way of living and being together with each other.

“You can be in the middle of the desert and people will think you are in New York, so you become anonymous, and you don’t care anymore where you are. This liberty we have now in work and play will reflect also in the other parts of life, so eating, sleeping, entertaining, we would be more nomadic about that, not always sitting at the same table with the same partner.” – Lidewij Edelkoort

With this project I have focused on making room for a transparency that disposes the common value laden understanding of what a typical caravan is, represent and implies. A transparency that a given receiver can build upon and apply own inherent values to.This project is in its form not finite, but elaborates on elements that can be cross-combined, changed and developed infinitely. This project shows a direction without a pre-given result, and builds fundamentally on the assumption that freedom isn’t rooted in comfort and far-away destinations, but is stretched out over the space that people choose to create around them.

Inspireret af tribuner og High line i New york ønskede vi at designe et rampe- og bleacher-system som kan indeholde varierede funktioner og oplevelser og samtidig have tribunens fokus mod optrædender. I Festugens sammenhæng kan opsætningen tage en mere legende og mindre formel opbygning. På denne måde indbyder installation til at blive indtaget på en- deløse måder.

Konstruktionen danner en perforeret installation med rige muligheder for at indtage private og offentlige rum. Nye såvel som etablerede passager i flere niveauer bliver skabt.

Afhængigt af behov, ombygges system- et så det i forskellige sammenhænge kan indeholde varierende scener og let kan nedtages, pakkes og genopstilles i en ny konfiguration.

Taget ud af sin kontekst er det ulogisk at bygge en trappe uden nogen egentlig destination, men på Store Torv er destinationen de forskellige niveauer og de nye vinkler man kan få på Hotel Royals facade, Domkirkens store far- vede vindue, Strøget etc. Den urbane trappe indbyder til at indtages af alle og enhver. 

I 2012 kom Kaospiloterne med en opgave. Uddannelsen stod overfor at flytte i nye lokaler i Filmbyen i Aarhus, og i den sammenhæng ønskede man input og løsningsforslag til indretning af disse. I samråd med ledende medarbejdere hos Kaospiloterne fik vi specificeret opgaven, og laven hierakisk inddeling af underopgaverne. Den første opgave vi definerede blev et vindfang til klasselokalerne, der sikrede adgang til klasse og tilstødende kontorer uden at forstyrre igangværende undervisning. Sammen med Kerstin Kongsted lavede jeg et løsningsforslag, der understøttede stedets identitet og arbejdsmetoder. Vi tegnede et vindfang med en råhed og et udtryk, der drager paralleller til ydersiden af et gammelt fly, og som kan tåle at blive dækket ind i tape, post-it’s og sprittusch igen og igen - elementer som uddannelsen er berømt og berygtet for at gøre brug af til brainstorms. Ved at foreslå galvaniserede jernplader skabtes en væg med et fly-inspireret udtryk, som ikke blot er modstandsdygtig overfor uddannelsens virkemidler og metoderedskaber, men ligeledes patinerer med tid og brug. Om 10 år vil man således have en væg som bærer præg af, at have været anvendt til at udtænke mange idéer. Ud over vindfanget kom vi med forslag til farvevalg, som afspejler hvilket klassetrin man befinder sig på – konkret gengivet i en skydedør ind til de enkelte klasselokaler. Således er studerende, undervisere og besøgende klar over hvor de befinder sig.