Samuel Charles Barratt

"-3,996 traffic cones, which is a lot less than the original sketch. Originally I think it was like 10,000 or something."

Almost 4000 traffic cones, suspended from steel scaffolding, turned the Charlottenborg courtyards into something else entirely for CHART Art Fair 2025. The installation was called Re-Route, and it was the winning proposal for CHART Public, a new concept introduced this year combining a total installation with the fair's public programme.

The man behind it is Samuel Charles Barratt, a young British architect based in Denmark who trained in some of the world's most unforgiving climates. His design transformed standard Danish traffic cones, everyday symbols of construction and caution, into an overhead canopy that reframed how you moved through and experienced the space. Built entirely from reusable materials, everything returned to its original use after the fair.

We were lucky enough to broadcast live from underneath Re-Route throughout the whole weekend. At some point we pulled Samuel aside and asked him to walk us through the thinking behind it. How the idea came together, what the cones meant to him, and what it felt like to see it realised in that courtyard. This is that conversation.