"HySociety" was part of the Danish Pavilion exhibition at the 9th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice, Italy, 2004. The exhibition was titled "Too Perfect: Seven New Denmarks," which refers to "Seven Pragmatic Utopias," architecture installations meant to make the world a better place to live for the majority. Rules for these pragmatic utopias are: solve a global problem, be economically profitable, show social responsibility, be a sustainable solution. Installations were created by the Danish architect studios PLOT, Kontrpunkt, NORD, Arkitema, SRL Arkitekter and Bruce Mau Design. Each installation is a proposition that takes architecture beyond the realm of buildings and into other areas of life that we have the capacity to design; from clean water and agricultural reform to energy use and social engineering.
The "HySociety" proposal (or "Hydrogen Society") may look like utopia on a large scale, but may be realized in a miniature Denmark. PLOT located a 100,000-square-meter site in a new development area called Oerestaden in Copenhagen for their proposal.
PLOT was founded in 2001 by architects Bjarke Ingels and Julien De Smedt.
Keywords: Denmark, Kobenhavn, Copenhagen, Oerestaden, Biennale, complexes, model. Submitted by Bjarke Ingels for PLOT for the KSA Lecture Series, Winter 2006.