The 2024 RIBA+VitrA ‘Challenge: Rethink’ talks series brings together practitioners who are leading the way in challenging expectations and rethinking conventional approaches, using architecture as a catalyst for positive urban and social change.
Opening the 2024 series, architect Kim Herforth Nielsen, founder of Danish architectural practice 3XN, will discuss their boundary-pushing Quay Quarter Tower, known as the world’s first ‘upcycled skyscraper’ and winner of the World Architecture Festival’s World Building of the Year. The keynote lecture will outline the research and design processes involved and the ambition behind the most comprehensive transformation project ever completed.
After the keynote, Kim will be joined in conversation to discuss the impact of this revolutionary milestone project, and we invite you to join the conversation in an audience Q&A.
Kim Herforth Nielsen says: “Quay Quarter Tower is a project about transformation: urban, social, and environmental. It is now also recognised as the most important transformation project ever completed – one that would not have been possible without an ambitious client and a great team. Instead of demolishing a building that no longer worked for its users, we have prolonged its life and given it new form and character – with its further transformation in mind.”
About Kim Herforth Nielsen
Since founding the company in 1986, Kim has been the creative driving force behind 3XN. He functions as the creative director and has overall responsibility for the architectural quality of 3XN's work from the ideas to the final result. Working closely with the competition department, Kim directs the group with a high degree of personal involvement in each project. He has been involved in all of the practice's major projects, including Quay Quarter Tower, Sydney Fish Market, 2 Finsbury Avenue, Royal Arena, Denmark's National Aquarium, the Museum of Liverpool, Ørestad College, IOC Headquarters, and UN City in Copenhagen.
Kim is an Honorary Professor at Aarhus School of Architecture and lectures at universities around the world. From 2014-2017 he was appointed chairman of the architecture committee at the Danish Arts Foundation.
This RIBA + VitrA event is part of the 'Challenge: Rethink' talks series in partnership with VitrA Bathrooms.
This partnership reflects a shared commitment to add social, economic and cultural value to society, and VitrA Bathrooms are proud to be supporting such an inspiring programme.
With innovation at its core, a global reach and a tradition of collaborating with celebrated architects and designers, the VitrA bathroom brand has become a world leader, synonymous with contemporary sophistication since the mid-1900s.
