Dorte Mandrup-Poulsen (born 28 July 1961) is a Danish architect. Founder and Creative Director of the architectural practice Dorte Mandrup Arkitekter A/S that has approximately 60 employees. The practice is based in Copenhagen, Denmark and is behind several internationally acclaimed buildings.
Dorte Mandrup’s work is characterized by being conceptually strong as well as innovative in terms of form and material, but also by an analytical approach to architecture.
Dorte Mandrup is behind the Wadden Sea Centre at the Danish west coast, the Icefjord Centre by the UNESCO trail in Ilulissat in Greenland, and most recently Danish clothing company Bestseller’s upcoming mixed use development in Brande, which has already received attention due to its plans of building a more than 200 metre tall tower, thereby becoming Denmark’s tallest building.
In 2017, Dorte Mandrup caused an international stir with her opinion piece ”I am not a female architect. I am an architect” in Dezeen, in which she discussed gender politics within the world of architecture.
She was also winner of the Berlin Art Prize 2019, architecture division.[1]
Dorte Mandrup graduated from the Aarhus School of Architecture in 1991. From 1991–92 she studied sculpture and ceramics at the G.S.C Art Department in the United States. She then went to work for Henning Larsen Architects for a few years before, in 1995, co-founding Fuglsang & Mandrup-Poulsen with Niels Fuglsang.[3] This firm was eventually split in 1999 when Mandrup set up her current practice, Dorte Mandrup A/S. It was founded on 30 June 1999 and is based in Copenhagen.[4]
In April 2019, Dorte Mandrup headed the jury of the 2019 European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award.[5][6]
On 1 November 2019, Mandrup won a competition arranged by The Whale AS for designing an attraction to be built on the Norwegian island of Andøya, 300 km north of the Arctic Circle.[7] Her design resembles a whale but also presents a slope which visitors will be able to climb for a view over the sea, the mountains and the Northern Lights.[8]
Mandrup-Poulsen, Dorte. “Icefjord Center and Sustainability in Denmark : Dorte Mandrup.” A + U: Architecture and Urbanism, November 1, 2018, 48–51. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bvh&AN=794202&site=ehost-live.
“Profile | Dorte Mandrup.” Accessed October 25, 2021. https://www.dortemandrup.dk/profile#paragraph-930.
Schwitalla, Ursula,, Itsuko Hasegawa, Nili Portugali, Donna Blagg, Alison Kirkland, and Steven Lindberg. Women in Architecture: Past, Present, and Future. Berlin: Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2021.
