New Graduates Celebrated with Diplomas and Scholarships

Friday 19 June was a true day of celebration at the Royal Danish Academy, where more than 250 newly graduated Master’s students from design, architecture, conservation, and architectural technology – together with four PhD graduates – were honoured and received their diplomas as a visible testament to years of hard work. In connection with the diploma ceremony, scholarships and awards were also presented by organisations including Danmarks Nationalbank, Månsson, and VOLA.

The Red Hall C provided the setting for one of the Academy’s major annual events, where graduates received their diplomas in front of family, friends, and faculty members, marking many years of dedication and professional development.

Rector Lene Dammand Lund addressed the graduates, reflecting on the skills and competencies they take with them from their studies and how these are particularly relevant in a time characterised by rapid technological development and changing demands in the labour market:

“AI will be enormously helpful, and it will ultimately take over certain tasks. But it won’t remove the ones which require you to combine a strategic, theoretical approach with practical experience. It won’t remove tasks that require you to use your senses. That’s why I’m not fundamentally concerned that your qualifications will become irrelevant. If anything, AI may free you from the routine tasks of your future careers, giving you more room to think strategically about the complex societal and market-based systems that must be reshaped to create experiments that engage our senses, and to use all the other skills you’ve gained here. You are well prepared. The common feature of your study programmes is that you have learned to handle vast complexities. You have the ability to build bridges between theory and practice and between technology, behavior and experience. More than ever before, the world needs people like you. Because you have capabilities that others and AI don’t,” said Lene Dammand Lund.

Following the Rector’s address, graduates Lise Hybertz Andersen (Conservation), Felix Sand Sørensen (Furniture Design), and Kawun Ghawsi (Architectural Technology) delivered commencement speeches to their fellow graduates.

The diploma presentation followed. The four PhD graduates received their diplomas from Rector Lene Dammand Lund, while Deans Mathilde Aggebo (Design) and Jakob Brandtberg (Architecture) presented diplomas to the Master’s graduates.

Scholarships and Awards for Selected Graduates

As the final highlight of the ceremony, a number of scholarships and awards were presented to outstanding graduates.

Danmarks Nationalbank’s Anniversary Foundation Grant

• Cecilie Kvorning: Against Externalities – Reforming Danish Conventional Pig Production through Spatial Design (Spatial Design)
• Sofie Binderup Lund and Alberte Marie Koefoed: Høje Taastrup’s Former Town Hall – A Transformation into a Co-Housing Community (Cultural Heritage, Transformation and Restoration)

Månsson Scholarship

• Luna Lehmann: Colour Restoration of Sun-Bleached Fur (Master’s Programme in Conservation)
• David Siersted Poulsen: The Square (Fashion, Clothing and Textiles)
• Emma Stenbæk Aagaard: Concentric Bodies (Fashion, Clothing and Textiles)
• Helena Lehn Petersen: Dancing on New Ground – Reimagining Latin Dance Shoes (Strategic Design and Entrepreneurship)
• Emilie Kjærgaard Hauge and Jeppe Chorchendorff Vinholt Johansen: Follow the Sound of Yellow (Urbanism and Societal Change)
• Klara Dalgaard Reetz and Sarah Kirke Strand Andersen: Siorarsiorfik – At the Base of the Mountain (Strategic Design and Entrepreneurship)
• Rigmor Zinck and Helene Engehagen: Auderødlejren 2.0 (Settlement, Ecology and Tectonics)
• Kawun Ghawsi: Frankenstein Tectonics (Architectural Technology)

Grete Jalk Scholarship

• Bruno Oberdorfer: At Hand (Furniture Design)

VOLA Award

• Christoffer Gert Nielsen: Practice Each Step as a Form of Listening (Architecture and Landscape)
• Elspa Susanna Liengård: Artificial Respiration (Art and Architecture)

Duravit Award

• Charlotte Erny: Natural Stone as a Bioregional Resource (Spatial Design)
• Mert Topaloglu: Cuxtal Anthropocene Recovery Center (Architecture and Extreme Environments)

3XN Award

• William Harrison Wall and Gustav Alexander Sloth Andersen: Old Bits, New Tricks (Spatial Design)

VELUX Daylight Grant

• Albert Rygg Karberg and Anders Rovsing Kristiansen: Kallisperis Hus (Cultural Heritage, Transformation and Restoration)

HK Privat Copyright Foundation Grant

• Linda Schneider and Carla Juhl Renosto: The Weight of Absence: Meditations on Censorship (Graphic Communication Design)