Barn Again by Tom Svilans and THISS Studio at the Copenhagen Architecture Biennial 2025 – Photos by Maja Flink.

Architecture. Slow Down is the central theme of the inaugural Copenhagen Architecture Biennial, inviting reflection on how architecture shapes fast-paced societies and responds to environmental challenges. On the plaza at Gammel Strand, the Barn Again pavilion by Tom Svilans and THISS Studio brings this idea to life, reimagining the Norwegian barn through reclaimed timber and inventive design.

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Selected through the Biennial’s open call, the pavilion transforms salvaged wood from a disused barn into a cocoon-like shelter. Weathered surfaces and historic joints meet precise machine cuts and new joinery, forming a layered dialogue between past and present. “We didn’t see the barn as a relic destined for demolition, but as a living material reservoir,” explained Svilans, Sash Scott, and Tamsin Hanke.

Working with engineers at Bollinger+Grohmann and carpenters at Winther A/S, the team designed a fully demountable structure, ensuring the timber can continue its life beyond the pavilion. Its weathered beams, old joints, and new incisions create a record of past, present, and potential futures, proposing a cyclical vision of material life where elements are continuously reassembled and revalued.

Inside, atmosphere deepens the experience. Three suspended incense burners, designed by British designer Edward John Milton, diffuse custom-scented smoke developed in collaboration with B Corp People Care Planet Care. The fragrance, combined with light filtering through the timber, transforms the pavilion into a calm, immersive retreat amid the city’s bustle.

Barn Again embodies slowness on multiple levels: as a place of pause, as an extension of material lifecycles, and as a tectonic dialogue between handcraft and machine craft. By treating old barn beams as ‘green gold,’ the project shows that architecture can be both impermanent and enduring, proving that reuse and imagination can prolong a material’s life while shaping spaces that are functional, beautiful, and thoughtful.

All photos are by Maja Flink, courtesy of the Copenhagen Architecture Biennial.