Interspecies Campus reimagines the Roskilde University campus as a space for interspecies living, which involves acknowledging the agency and voices of all species, and constructing human infrastructure with other species in mind. The pink sculptural infrastructure extends through the campus, interrupting and redirecting human movements, and creating new pathways for walking and thinking. Spreading out like a growing organism, each sculpture is unique in size and shape. They sprout out of sandstone flooring, reminiscent of the ocean floor, a reference to the land’s underwater past and its possible future.
The sculptures are built from superbricks: pink, curved bricks made of sand and clay. All of the structures are designed to avoid the right angles and straight lines of human architecture. Each features cracks, holes, and paths for all sorts of creatures, living both above and below the water, to navigate through it—facilitating the possibility of informal and unexpected meetings between species.
The intention of rejecting the right angle required KWY.studio to research and attempt a new brick stacking paradigm: extensive testing until the curved bricks could be combined as naturally as a standard brick. The sinuous designs have similar structural qualities to the British serpentine walls, while carefully developed bonds allow directional changes, add texture and suggest an apparent complexity. While composing and describing the multiple brick bonds and wall types was supported by contemporary technology, building Interspecies Campus required reviving the expert craftsmanship of laying decorative brickwork.
Following SUPERFLEX’s strategy of extended participation, workshops were held at RUC. At these sessions, the sculptures’ locations were informed by regular users of the campus who explored the area from the perspective of sea creatures. Further, in collaboration with participants and legal advisor Katarina Hovden, a Contract for the Interspecies Campus was written. The contract includes suggested guidelines for interaction within the Interspecies Campus. It is presented as a sculptural object on the sandstone floor, as if it’s a petrified monument from a deep past—or a message from the future.
