What We Support

Boliglaboratorium: A Danish Housing Lab

Environmental Sustainability

Nordic-inspired sustainable living

How do we create housing that addresses some of the greatest challenges of our time? This question forms the basis for Boliglaboratorium: A Danish Housing Lab. Six groundbreaking Danish architectural projects are exhibited to explore how housing can respond to the current climate crisis, future urban challenges, shifting family patterns and new ways of living. Common to all of them is that they will be realized as full-scale housing experiments in Denmark.

The exhibition is timely for the Pacific Northwest, where recent State-level policy changes mean that more communities will need to add housing and density. The Danish examples offer models that can help new housing better fit into our neighborhoods through design excellence and a wider set of residential typologies.

Meeting in the Middle: Imagining Gentle Density in Washington State

Watch this video by our partner, Framework Cultural Placemaking

The Housing Lab was exhibited in Copenhagen in 2023 as part of the UIA World Congress of Architects. From November 2024 to May 2025, it will be exhibited in four locations in the Pacific Northwest. The Northwest tour is presented by Scan Design Foundation, in partnership with the Danish Embassy in Washington DC.

Our exhibition host partners are (in order of schedule)

Seattle Architecture Foundation
University of Washington - College of Built Environments
Portland State University - School of Architecture
Nordic Northwest

Our programming partners include

COurban Design Collective
Framework
Futurewise
Urban League / Capitol Hill EcoDistrict

Additional support provided by

Nord Architects
Realdania
Danish Arts Foundation
National Foundation for Danish America

As part of the exhibition programming, we are offering themed panels and events.

Climate mitigation and new communities:

New forms of housing enable new types of communities. This often means fewer square meters per person – but more space for community and a better use of resources. The building sector is responsible for more than a third of our CO2 emissions - new housing options are a necessary development for climate mitigation.

New ways of living:

Mother, Father and two kids – the nuclear family structure is still in center when designing family homes. However, Danish architects have been experimenting with new ways of living – for patchwork families, single parents, seniors or the more modern nuclear family. The models demonstrate a new way to utilize scarce space in cities, combat loneliness, and accommodate today’s diversity of families and households.

The Exhibition Venues

Current Venue: Nordic Northwest

April to May 2025
8800 SW Oleson Rd
Portland, OR 97223

Upcoming events:

Housing, Access, and Inclusion: A Pacific Northwest Lens

Tue, Apr 22 | Nordic Northwest

How do we create housing that addresses some of the greatest challenges of our time? From climate change, resource scarcity, and new family patterns to influx and migration, income inequality, historic displacement, and gentrification-how do our cities keep up with current housing challenges

NNW will have a panel of experts looking at how policies on the local level around housing, sustainability, and accessibility are ensuring that the region can remain affordable and inclusive for all residents.

For this program, we’re joined by the Honorable Mayor Lacey Beaty of Beaverton, who has been at the forefront of championing policies that focus on housing, sustainability, and accessibility, ensuring that Beaverton remains affordable and inclusive for all residents. Her forward-thinking on these issues garnered her a role on the Advisory Board of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, where she is deeply engaged on housing policy. Mayor Beaty will jumpstart conversation and be joined by architect Sergio Palleroni, director of the Center for Public Interest Design at PSU and co-founder of the Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative, who brings global insights from decades of work integrating sustainable practices to improve the lives of underserved communities worldwide, and another speaker TBA.

Visit the event page here to register.

Community-Building and Housing: Equity, Innovation, & Best-Practices

Wed, May 07 | Nordic Northwest

For this program the speakers will dive into best-practices in the Portland metro region —from innovative middle housing investment and public-private partnerships to scalable and replicable "reparative development" projects that address undue effects of urban renewal and displacement —and explore key themes in the Housing Lab exhibition.

Speakers include, Azalea Renfield, Executive Director of Williams & Russell Community Development Corporation (CDC);Tyler Bump of ECONorthwest; and Steve Messinetti, President and CEO of Habitat for Humanity Portland Region.

Visit the event page here to register.

Past events and exhibition locations:

The exhibit was also displayed in partnership with:

Portland State University School of Architecture

Exhibition Dates: February 7, 2025, to March 21, 2025, at the PSU School of Architecture, Shattuck Hall, 1914 SW Park Avenue, 2nd Floor, Portland, Oregon.

Open Hours of the Exhibit: Monday-Friday from 9-5 pm or make an appointment. Call 503.725.8405 for building access. More information can be found here.

EVENT 1

Cohousing in Denmark: Explorations of Sustainable Living with Michael Andersen (followed by an opening reception!)

February 7th, 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm

Location: Shattuck Hall Annex, SW Broadway at Hall Street, Portland

PSU event listing here.

Join us in welcoming architect Michael Asgaard Andersen as he delves into his studies on cohousing models in Denmark. The interest in community, sharing, and climate-conscious living is more widespread than ever. Since the first cohousing communities were established in Denmark in the 1970s, this form of housing has become widespread and recognized in Denmark and internationally – not least for its ability to provide a framework for sustainable living. The lecture will discuss how cohousing is considered a way of living that fulfills our individual needs and contributes to addressing societal and global challenges. It will take a historic trajectory leading up to the current housing experiments shown in the exhibition.

Followed by the Opening Reception February 7th @ 5 pm!

EVENT 2: Co-Housing Design in Portland

Friday, February 14 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM

PSU Event Listing here.

EVENT 3: Rooting Communities in Portland

Friday February 21st 2025 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM

PSU Event Listing here.

EVENT 4: Higher Density + Co-Housing Policy

Friday February 28th 2025 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM

PSU Event Listing here.

EVENT 5: Co-Housing Projects in Berlin

Friday March 7th 2025 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM

PSU Event Listing here.

Seattle Architecture Foundation

November 7th to December 14th 2024
Center for Architecture and Design
1010 Western Ave, Seattle, WA 98104

November 19th, 2024: The opening reception with Danish-inspired refreshments from Café Hagen and remarks by Fidelma McGinn, President, Scan Design Foundation and Frederikke Møller Kristiansen, Cultural Attaché, Royal Danish Embassy.

University of Washington College of Built Environments

January 2025
Gould Hall

The exhibit will open at UW on January 6th 2025

UW Panel series:

Panel 1: Circular Construction and Beyond

January 15th, 2025 at 11:00 am
Virtual Panel with Architect Søren Nielsen

Video recording: https://washington.zoom.us/rec...

UW Event Listing here.

Circular construction is a key technical characteristic of sustainable building as it facilitates future reuse. Principles of circularity come with both restrictions and potentials in architectural design. Among the potentials is an aesthetics based on disassembly, configurability, modularity, and prefabrication. However, circularity is only a single dimension in a far more fundamental strategy for keeping construction within planetary boundaries.

Panelist:

Søren Nielsen - Aarhus School of Architecture

Søren Nielsen (DK) is a practicing architect with a generation’s experience, primarily in designing affordable, sustainable, high-quality housing.

Since 2024 Søren holds a chair at Aarhus School of Architecture as professor in the practice of settlement and ecology. He is also an active debater and a critical voice in the architecture industry.

Moderator:

Rob Peña - UW Architecture

Robert B. Peña, Associate Professor and Graduate Program Coordinator in the Department of Architecture, teaches in the areas of architectural design and building science with an emphasis on ecological design and high-performance buildings. Professor Peña is also an adjunct faculty member in the Landscape Architecture department.

Panel 2: Design in Depth: New Housing Models for a Changing PNW

In-person at Gould Hall on January 22nd 2025 (5:00 pm to 6:30 pm)

Opening Reception 6:30pm to 7:30pm

Register with SAF Here.

UW Event Listing Here.

Zoom broadcast: https://washington.zoom.us/j/992064349320

Location: Gould Hall, 3950 University Way NE, Seattle, WA 98105

Parking & Transit: Paid parking is available in the UW Central Plaza Parking Garage located at N.E. 41st Street and 15th Avenue N.E. Public parking on levels C02, C03, C04.

The Central Garage uses PayByPhone parking:

https://transportation.uw.edu/park/visitor/pay-by-phone-parking

We recommend downloading the app before arriving, as reception is poor in the garage. The PayByPhone code for this location is 123211.

About the panel: What inspirations can experimental Danish housing provide for the PNW housing industry? Join the Seattle Architecture Foundation and the University of Washington College of Built Environments (UWCBE) to explore this question as it relates to BOLIGLABORATORIUM: A DANISH HOUSING LAB, an exhibit of six architectural housing models now touring Seattle and Portland.

Using the Danish Housing Lab as a jumping-off point, we’ll hear from local architects and community leaders about applying co-housing, creative reuse, and medium- and high-density housing principles in our local Seattle context. What can we learn from Danish housing models and how do we adapt these lessons to the needs of our specific environment and communities? How can good design generate excitement and promote acceptance of new housing patterns?

At this panel, we’ll hear from Grace Kim of Schemata Workshop, Leah Martin of Allied8, and Rev. Dr. W. Tali Hairston of Nehemiah Initiative Seattle. They’ll share examples of creative housing designs in Seattle and how these designs can help our city respond to population growth, zoning changes, and cultural shifts in family and living patterns.

This panel will be followed by a reception at UW CBE where attendees can view the Danish Housing Lab up close. Light refreshments provided.

BOLIGLABORATORIUM: A DANISH HOUSING LAB is presented in the United States by Scan Design Foundation. This panel is the second of the Seattle Architecture Foundation’s 2024-2025 Design in Depth lecture series.

Panelists:
Grace H. Kim, FAIA, Co-Founding Principle, Schemata Workshop
Leah Martin, Co-Founder, Architect + Partner, Allied8
Rev. Dr. W. Tali Hairston, Executive Director, Nehemiah Initiative Seattle
Rick Mohler, FAIA, NCARB, Professor and Chair, UW Department of Architecture

Bios:

Leah Martin

Leah is the co-founder of Allied8, an architecture, development and advocacy firm in Seattle. She has practiced in Seattle for 30 years and is an active housing policy advocate, working to remove barriers in local policies so it’s easier to create community based affordable housing.

Her specific area of focus over the last 8 years has been developing new affordable homeownership typologies so that communities and individuals at risk of displacement can create generational wealth while simultaneously ensuring communities stay intact.

Leah serves on the Board of Spark Northwest, an environmental justice non-profit that enables a clean energy future for low-income communities. She is a regular design critic at the University of Washington and is a member of the Northwest Eco Building Guild and the AIA.

Grace H. Kim, FAIA

Grace is an architect and co-founding principal of Schemata Workshop, a Seattle-based architectural practice with a keen focus on community, social equity, and sustainability. Her firm works on projects that shape Seattle and guide regional growth. Her co-design process engages not only her client and consultants, but also the surrounding community stakeholders. Grace is also the founder of Capitol Hill Urban Cohousing, a collaborative residential community which includes her street level office and a rooftop urban farm. Grace provides strategic leadership at all levels related to city planning, affordable housing, and community-led design.

W. Tali Hairston PhD

W. Tali Hairston PhD is the Executive Director of the Nehemiah Initiative Seattle, a mission to connect the historic black church to address housing disparities. A native Seattleite, with over two decades of experience in community development, Hairston brings a wealth of experience in facilitating multisector social impact projects with a specialty in transformative faith-based development. He is an alum of the University of Washington, and a father of four wonderful young adults.

Panel 3: Planning for Better Housing and Better Neighborhoods: Drawing on Local Examples and Learning from Danish Models

January 24th, 2025

Guided walking tour at 1:30 pm. UW Event Listing Here.

Panel at 4:00 pm in Gould Hall at UW. UW Event Listing Here.

(Walking Tour Meet at Capitol Hill Light Rail Broadway and John entry)

Zoom broadcast: https://washington.zoom.us/j/97947438358

The guided walking tour will include a visit to local housing models in the Capitol Hill area, led by Framework Cultural Placemaking, Futurewise and COurban Design Collective, offering a chance to look at and discuss best-practices and possibilities for applying lessons from Danish housing. A pamphlet with a self-guided tour in a geographically larger area will be available for those who are interested.

The Planning Panel will include planners from varied size cities and experts in delivering alternative forms of housing.

Panel Bios:

Introduction: Alex Brennan, Executive Director of Futurewise

As Executive Director of Futurewise, Alex shepherds the organization’s mission of encouraging healthy, equitable and opportunity-rich communities through wise land use policies and practices. He was previously the Executive Director of the Capitol Hill EcoDistrict, and helped bring leaders from Capitol Hill to Denmark in a 2019 ScanDesign Masterclass. He is on the leadership team for the 2025 Masterclass, also sponsored by ScanDesign. Alex brings a wealth of experience in land use planning, policy development and community engagement, and was a key advocate for recent game-changing housing legislation in Washington State.

Moderator: Lesley Bain, Framework

Lesley is an architect and planner, and the founder of Framework Cultural Placemaking. She has been involved in many aspects of housing and community building, working to raise the bar on what is considered best practices in the U.S. by learning from neighborhoods worldwide. She was part of the leadership team for the Capitol Hill EcoDistrict 2019 ScanDesign Masterclass and will play that role again for the Masterclass in 2025. Lesley is the author of Living Streets: Strategies for Crafting Public Space, and is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects.

Panelist: David Pyle, Director of Community Development, City of Sammamish

David Pyle serves as the Community Development Director for the City of Sammamish where he has worked to support implementation of the community vision since 2015. Previously, David worked for the cities of Bellevue and Shoreline where he had the opportunity to support their comprehensive plan updates. David’s interest in community planning stems from his lived experience through Peace Corps service where he witnessed the successful outcomes of community planning. His work in Sammamish includes updates to development regulations that went into effect in 2022, leading the recently adopted 2024 Comprehensive Plan, and looking forward to planning for a new town center for Sammamish.

Panelist: Rico Quirondongo, Planning Director, City of Seattle

Rico Quirindongo is the Director of Seattle's Office of Planning & Community Development. Before his appointment in 2021, Rico was with the international architecture firm DLR Group where he was the Civic Design Leader for the Northwest Region. Rico has worked for 30 years as an architect, advocate and leader to positively influence communities through public engagement, design, and civic service. Rico was chair of the Pike Place Market Preservation and Development Authority Council, a Downtown Seattle Association board member, and American Institute of Architects (AIA) Seattle Chapter President in 2012-13. He was recognized by AIA National as a Citizen Architect in 2020 and servedas a Northwest and Pacific Regional Representative on the national AIA Strategic Council. He was awarded the Jennie Sue Brown Lifetime Achievement Award by the AIA Washington Council in 2022.

Panelist: Tory Laughlin Taylor, Real Estate Advisor, Housing and Community-Based Investment

Tory is a real estate advisor engaged with organizations and strategies to leverage more enduring housing affordability for our Puget Sound communities. For more than three decades she has been financing, building, and operating multi-family housing for low-income working people, driven by the conviction that economic access to

desirable housing is the foundation of a healthy equitable society. Tory brings an unusual range and depth of experience to efforts to create successful new housing communities with experience in both the public and private sectors. As a long-time developer of workforce housing and urban mixed-use projects, she provides reality-grounded guidance to project planning and policy development. From her years leading nonprofit real estate organizations, she brings insight to the financial and practical realities of operating quality affordable housing. Over her development career she originated over 1,000 units of permanently affordable housing for people earning about half of median income.

Panelist: Robert Humble, Hybrid Architecture

Robert is a licensed architect and founder of Hybrid with more than 30 years of experience in creating innovative housing solutions. His leadership at Hybrid's Design & Development Studio focuses on fostering collaboration among builders, designers, and developers to drive impactful urban projects. Under his guidance, Hybrid has successfully integrated urban density into sustainable and creative multi-family designs. Robert and Hybrid have been honored with multiple awards and publications for their contributions to urban infill development, demonstrating a commitment to innovation in the built environment.