pihlmann

A cylindrical pavilion was erected in the square courtyard of Charlottenborg Palace, a mansion in central Copenhagen housing a contemporary art institution, the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, and the Royal Art Library. The pavilion hosted a bar and was built for the annual Chart Art Fair.

The project is utilizing the most necessary components of a bar – kegs and bottles – and expose them as both construction, function, and decoration. The well-known metal kegs are stacked and form the load-bearing structure, while the bottles are hung as a sculptural element refracting light from fluorescent tubes.

The kegs are fastened together by orange straps. Between each floor of kegs lies a wooden ring of pine and OSB boards. Together, they create a tall and spacious figure. The products used are low-cost and known for their functionality rather than their aesthetic values.

Based on the products’ obvious purposes, the overall narrative – a bar built of kegs and bottles – is shaped, and in interaction with this narrative, the potential of kegs and bottles as architectural elements is examined.

The process is driven forward by a non-hierarchical interplay between the necessary and the dramaturgical. The necessary lies in the materials’ ability to form a structure that can facilitate the serving of beverages, while the dramaturgical lies in the gimmick of building a bar of keg and bottles.

Selected to be realized in Charlottenborg Palace’s courtyard during the CHART Art Fair in the late summer of 2014 by a jury consisting of architect Bjarke Ingels, architect Dorte Foss, and artist Jeppe Hein.