2023-2024
2023-2024
The work presented here was undertaken during the studio founder's tenure at CAF×.
CAF× is a non-profit dedicated to raising awareness of how architecture shapes lives and worlds, working across three areas: exhibitions and public programming at Halmtorvet 27, alongside podcasts, publications, and a film club; learning and education programmes that bring architecture to children, schools, and the wider public; and policy and advocacy work addressing the legal and economic frameworks that govern how cities get built. All three existed in some form under the festival, but the shift to a year-round forum was what let them grow into sustained, defined areas of work in their own right.
The idea of moving to a biennial model drew on Michau's own experience curating the Danish Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale, a project a few members of the CAF× team had also worked on; the wider team then shaped this further, into a year-round programme of exhibitions and events running alongside a biennial as the organisation's new flagship. Securing it meant an extended, incremental funding process addressed to a range of institutions — the Municipality of Copenhagen, Realdania, and Statens Kunstfond among them — through presentations, pitches, and meetings; what scale the first Biennial edition could take became clearer only as this basic funding came together.
Once the shift was underway, the organisation confronted a naming problem: it could no longer be called a festival, since the festival format itself was being retired rather than replaced by something that would still go by the same name. The team decided internally on Forum. Building the case for what that name meant — an organisation running a year-round programme and a biennial together — became its own piece of work, closely bound up with the Biennial's own emerging identity, since the two needed to read as distinct from each other while both remaining legible as CAF×'s.
The identity that followed was deliberately continuous: the logo, colour system, and typography carried over from festival to forum unchanged, preserving a recognisable thread between the two. Only the name itself changed, word for word, and the copy was rewritten entirely around it. The website was rebuilt with an entirely new architecture, produced by Open Studio in close collaboration with the studio founder, who worked as their point of contact throughout. Design and production extended across everything CAF× used to present itself publicly, including print material, signage, a full press kit, and a new communications approach for social media and newsletter, developed in house. Announcing the change was handled in stages — press briefed first, then a public rollout across social media, newsletter, and CAF×'s other channels.
Running a year-round programme also demanded an operational structure the organisation didn't yet have. The studio founder introduced Notion as the team's operational backbone, building a fully customised system around how CAF× actually worked — the calendar, project management, file-sharing, and eventually the website's own backend all run through it. Rolling it out was its own extended project, staged deliberately over time, with the team trained on the system and given hands-on support throughout its adoption.
CAF× has been a member of the European platform LINA, supported by Creative Europe, since 2022, and continues to be supported by the Municipality of Copenhagen, Realdania, and Statens Kunstfond.
More images forthcoming.
Research & Analysis
Strategic Insight & Development
Sustainability & Impact Strategy
Business Development
Strategic Partnerships
Creative Strategy
Creative Direction
Concept Development
Brand & Identity Systems
Naming
Copywriting & Editing
PR & Communications
Marketing
Campaigns
Brand Activation
Print & Digital Design
Project Management
Team:
Valeria Granillo, Josephine Michau, Søren Nørkjær Bang, Ida Willadsen Bang Kjeldsen, Open Studio.