Does my speed depend only on my own will?

During the visit to Copenhagen Archtecture Biennial Architect and researcher Laura Norkūnaitė invited the public for a collective storytelling experiment set in Copenhagen’s Rådhuspladsen. Participants were encouraged to trace the square’s hidden velocities and rhythms by observing, mapping, and intervening in its everyday flows. By making its actors visible, both human and non-human, the square’s layers connected into narrative loops — stories of how people, objects, and infrastructures affect one another. Rådhuspladsen shifted from a landmark into a stage, where overlapping stories revealed the city as a network of unique, interconnected lives.

Laura Norkūnaitė’s experiment being presented at the Copenhagen Architecture Biennial. Pictures by Eline Nesje

The participants were divided into teams and received different clues about what actors in the square they would have to observe – from ventilation openings, subway entrances, paving tiles, to a fountain, a hot-dog stand, pigeons or sculptures on the facades of buildings. Each team embarked on an adventure of spatial observation, at the end of which, following prepared narrative questions, they had to write a story about the life of Rådhuspladsen. Finally, the entire experiment’s team gathered in a cozy café overlooking the rainy square, where everyone shared the stories they had created. Their diversity was surprising and proved that space can be experienced in a very diverse way, depending on how you act in it, which layer you look into.