
Can Architecture Heal Us?
From Let's Talk Architecture by Danish Architecture Center – DAC
December 25, 2025 · 31 min
About this episode
The episode explores how architecture can promote health and community through the design of Copenhagen's Centre for Health.
Timber instead of tiles, curiosity instead of corridors, and a 15-metre-high atrium designed to make people feel safer, healthier and more connected. Copenhagen's Centre for Health proposes a new typology for public healthcare architecture. In this episode, Michael Booth meets architect Dorte Mandrup, widely regarded as one of Denmark's greatest living architects, to explore how a complex and often contradictory brief — openness and privacy, care and community — was translated into a warm, tactile and quietly radical public building. Together they discuss the centre's boomerang-shaped footprint, full timber construction and soaring atrium, and how architecture can gently nudge behaviour , foster wellbeing and create spaces that feel inclusive without feeling exposed. Guest: Dorte Mandrup, Arkitekt , Dorte Mandrup A/S Host: Michael Booth Let's Talk Architecture is a podcast by Danish Architecture Center. Sound edits by Munck Studios.
People in this episode
Host: Michael Booth
Guest: Dorte Mandrup
Topics covered
- healthcare architecture
- public buildings
- wellbeing
- design
- community spaces
Keywords
- architecture
- health
- Copenhagen
- Dorte Mandrup
- public healthcare
- design
- wellbeing
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Dorte Mandrup A/S
Places: Copenhagen, Denmark
More episodes of Let's Talk Architecture
- Reframing the Periphery · April 30, 2026 · 34 min
- Using Nature to Recharge Infrastructure? · March 26, 2026 · 28 min
- Using nature to turn billion Euro flooding into life quality bonus · February 26, 2026 · 28 min
- BLOX Unpacked · January 29, 2026 · 31 min
- Building a Mega-Museum · November 27, 2025 · 33 min
- Why biodiversity Matters and how to get more · October 29, 2025 · 32 min
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Let's Talk Architecture podcast page.