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Designer Helle Mardahl has combined her signature approach to colour with traditional architectural elements for the interior of her Copenhagen flagship store. More
Danish designer David Thulstrup has renovated a 218-year-old canal-side warehouse in Copenhagen to create four apartments defined by “quiet luxury”. More
Shiny silver curtains and a lacquered burgundy stage feature inside the flagship store for Danish womenswear label Rotate, which opened in Copenhagen during fashion week.
Locally based French designer Thibaut Allgayer designed the two-level store on Kristen Bernikows Gade.
Rotate’s flagship store features a mirrored counter and a lacquered burgundy stageIt is the first physical location for Rotate, which was launched by stylist influencers Thora Valdimars and Jeanette Friis Madsen in 2018 and is part of the Birger Christensen Collective.
Allgayer’s design concept was to create a series of freestanding architectural elements that divide the space into different zones and allow it to function in different ways.
The counter is formed of three stacked semi-circles”We were thinking about what a flagship store for a brand is today,” explained Allgayer during a preview tour.
“It’s not only about selling clothes; it’s a destination,” he told Dezeen. “It should also be welcoming for parties and events, creating different experiences.”
Burgundy wall units organise the ground-floor spaceA mirrored counter, formed of three stacked semi-circles, is the first thing customers see as they arrive.
This polished stainless-steel element rotates around an existing column, allowing it to function as a checkout desk, a bar or a display unit.
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Also in this room, a triangular set of steps can serve as a seating area or a stage. With its high-shine burgundy lacquer finish, it provides a focal point in the corner of the space.
Wall units with the same burgundy lacquer finish divide the front of the store from the rear, creating a narrow central corridor with video screens integrated into the walls.
Silver curtains frame an oval roomThis leads through to an oval room framed by silver curtains, slender graphic display rails and a curvy white sofa.
A custom-built brushed-steel staircase connects the ground floor with the basement, a carpeted space with a dressing-room feel. Details include silk curtains, a daybed and a vertical lighting fixture.
Fitting rooms offer a kaleidoscopic effectChanging rooms are slotted in behind the new fixture, with mirrors creating a kaleidoscopic effect.
“The brand plays with this contrast between raw and sleek, fun and serious, soft and strict, colourful and neutral,” said Allgayer.
“I was trying to translate that into the architecture.”
A custom-built brushed-steel staircase leads downstairsCombined with the silver and burgundy elements, a muted green shade brings an edgy feel to the colour palette.
Allgayer also played with transparency, texture and reflection, with materials including granite and glass.
The basement is a carpeted space with a dressing-room feel”I was trying to find materials that reflect the brand’s values,” said Allgayer.
“The space needs to be neutral because the collection is going to change season to season. But neutrals for me are not necessarily about being grey.”
The design plays with transparency, texture and reflectionRotate opened its doors for the first time on 5 August, coinciding with the start of Copenhagen Fashion Week.
It is an important milestone for the fast-growing label, described by Vogue as “a go-to partywear brand”. The ambition is for Rotate to become a major Scandinavian export, following in the footsteps of Ganni.
“Rotate is a brand with a beating heart and unique DNA,” said Madsen and Validmars, who serve as the label’s creative directors.
The store is located on Kristen Bernikows Gade in Copenhagen”We have had a strong sense of the world that our brand has existed in for so many years, that the opening of the store is an organic progression,” the duo continued.
“We are thrilled to host our loyal community, and offer a space where they can feel at home, engaged and excited in our hometown of Copenhagen.”
The photography is courtesy of Rotate.
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The Danish bricks and narrow floor plan of this Aesop store in Copenhagen nod to the “humble” design of the nearby Louisiana Museum of Modern Art.
Located on Kronprinsensgade in Copenhagen’s old town, the neutral-hued store was created by skincare brand Aesop’s in-house design team to complement its setting without “unnecessary flourishes”.
The Aesop store is on Kronprinsensgade in CopenhagenThe interior takes cues from the architecture of the famed Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, completed in 1958 in Humlebæk, 35 kilometres north of Denmark’s capital.
A long and low-ceilinged rectangular room makes up the store, which features a circular space at the back with a curved brick-clad basin.
Danish red bricks feature throughout the interiorThis floor plan mirrors the museum’s “understated horizontal building” with its thin glass corridors, according to Aesop’s head of store design Marianne Lardilleux.
“We were drawn to the Louisiana Museum because it was designed as a home for Danish, rather than international, modern art,” she told Dezeen.
A backlit circular opening illuminates the curved basinDanish red brick tiles were laid across the floor by local stonemasons, arranged in a “radiating” pattern that recalls several Copenhagen landmarks, according to Lardilleux. These bricks replaced the store’s original painted concrete screed flooring.
Stained oak timber was used to create sleek geometric shelving, which spans the length of one of the walls and provides a gallery-style display unit for neat rows of Aesop products.
This material was also applied to the ceiling, characterised by slatted wood interrupted only by an oversized and backlit circular opening above the brick-clad basin with aged brass elements.
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A smooth timber door leads to the back-of-house area, concealed behind a sandy-coloured curtain.
“The focus is on the warmth of the materials,” explained Lardilleux.
“At the museum, the humble materials used – bricks, wood, white paint – come together in a way that is simple yet striking. At Aesop, we hope to design spaces that are similarly direct in their approach.”
Stained oak was used to create the slatted ceiling”Just as every work of architecture relates to its site and context, every Aesop store is sensitive to its environment,” added the designer.
“We are not interested in rolling out identical interiors – our surroundings have always inspired us.”
Since the first Aesop outlet was designed in St Kilda, Melbourne, in 2003, the brand has opened hundreds of global stores that respond to their settings.
Recently, architect Jakob Sprenger installed 1920s plaster medallions above a sculptural sink as the centre of a Paris store while design studio Odami chose minty green interiors for a location in Los Angeles.
The images are courtesy of Brian Buchard.
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As part of 3 Days of Design, Danish practice Natural Material Studio has created a futuristic fossil-free home interior where all the elements, from the curtains to the sofa, are made from the same bioplastic.
White Utopia is Natural Material Studio’s most ambitious installation to date, adapting the studio’s Procel bioplastic to form massive functioning furniture pieces across three separate rooms – a dining room, a lounge and a bedroom with a walk-in wardrobe.
The White Utopia installation includes a lounge (top image) and dining room (above)The exhibition envisions a future where our homes are made entirely using biomaterials like this, which can be endlessly remade into new products and backyard composted at the end of their life, rather than ending up in landfill.
“The installation has for sure been the most challenging to date due to the complexity in scale and the three-dimensionality of the whole ‘house’,” studio founder Bonnie Hvillum told Dezeen. “You can really start to see how we can live with these new materials.”
Every element down to the lampshades is made from Procel bioplasticNatural Material Studio initially developed Procel as a flexible biotextile, used to form everything from clothes to curtains. But recently, the studio started experimenting with adapting its recipe to create whole load-bearing furniture pieces.
The core ingredient is a specific – although nondisclosed – natural protein, which Hvillum says can be derived from either plants or animals.
Among the larger pieces is a monobloc biofoam sofa”It’s very much used in the medical industry, also in bookbinding,” said the designer, who sources her protein from different suppliers across Europe.
“It’s used in many different places,” she added. “But when I called them and said ‘can you figure out a way of supplying this to me’, they were like ‘okay, we’ve never had this question before’.”
The installation also features a bedroom with a walk-in wardrobeTo create Procel, this natural protein is mixed with a small amount of chalk for strength and a natural softener made from plant oils for flexibility.
Combined in different rations and cast into different moulds, this mixture was used to create not just the textile room dividers found in White Utopia but an entire bio-foam sofa for the living room, stools for the dining area and a giant platform bed that visitors were encouraged to sit on.
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By taking out the softener, Natural Material Studio was also able to create more rigid pieces, including a dining table that was originally cast as a simple rectangle but deformed into a more organic shape as it dried.
“The presented design objects are really pushing the possibilities of these materials,” Hvillum said. “Opening the door to making them structural is a completely new route for us.”
“I think it holds so much potential, creating materials that resemble polystyrene and vacuum-formed plastics.”
Visitors were encouraged to sit on the bioplastic bedFurnituremakers including Isomi and Natuzzi have already started experimenting with using natural latex as an alternative to traditional polyurethane upholstery foam, as the plastic is hard to recycle and contains toxic chemicals.
Hvillum argues that Procel could offer another promising alternative, as it can be endlessly recast to form new products or simply buried outside in the garden, where it will degrade within a month.
“We are basically investigating fluidity,” Hvillum said. “So everything is in motion and things can move on to have another life. ”
“This is how we envision the future to be.”
Procel biotextiles were also used to form wall coveringsProcel has already made it out into the real world with clients including Calvin Klein and Copenhagen restaurant ÅBEN.
A collaboration with a Spanish luxury fashion house is also in the works, despite the brand being weary of using animal-derived protein.
However, Hvillum argues that animal polymers can actually be more sustainable than their vegan counterpart because they are made from waste residues from the meat industry.
The dining table deformed as it dried”When we work with animal-based materials, we can actually tap into a waste flow so we work with second-generation materials,” she explained. “Whereas when we work with plant materials, we work with virgin materials.”
“Sustainability is a lot more complex than just: is it animal or is it vegan,” she added. “It’s more about: what sources can we reuse from so that we keep things in a circular loop.”
The photography is by Peter Vinther.
White Utopia was part of 3 Days of Design, which took place at venues across Copenhagen from 12 to 14 June. See Dezeen Events Guide for more architecture and design events around the world.
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Danish designer Signe Hytte had Oscar Wilde in mind when designing this home for a fictional poet, presented during 3 Days of Design in Copenhagen.
Enter the Salon was an exhibition of furniture and homeware products from seven different brands, styled to feel more like a lived-in interior than a show space.
Enter the Salon took cues from the salons of the 19th centuryThe project was initiated by The Conary, a private members’ club for senior executives with C-suite roles. The club gave Hytte free rein to transform its rooms during the design festival.
Hytte, who was previously head of design for &Tradition, decided to create a modern reinterpretation of the 19th-century salon, a place where artists, musicians, writers and thinkers would come together to share ideas.
Rooms featured furniture and objects from seven different brands”I wanted to create a narrative,” Hytte told Dezeen during the tour.
She said she aimed to create an interior that didn’t feel branded, so guests could imagine real-life scenes unfolding. This led her to think about the house being home to a poet.
“My vision was to do away with the classic fair stand and tell a story instead, one where every guest can explore multiple layers and find their own to be inspired by,” she said.
Rooms include a study designed for a writerThe exhibition spread across two floors, with furniture by Japanese brand Karimoku Case, lighting by Japanese company Ambientec and beds from Sweden-based Carpe Diem Beds.
Portuguese homeware brand Origin Made, American design office Ladies & Gentlemen Studio, Danish textile company Silkeborg Uldspinderi and Danish box-making company August Sandgren completed the line-up.
Wall tapestries from Ladies & Gentlemen Studio hung in various roomsThe most striking space is the study, where shelves filled with assorted objects provide a backdrop to a bureau.
This desk was also laden with objects, including piles of paper, a leather pencil pot and bound letters, while a large paper pendant lamp hung overhead.
“I wanted to push the brands out of their comfort zone,” said Hytte. “You can imagine this as the study of a writer.”
A bag sits next to a sofa in the ground-floor reception roomUpon arriving, the first room visitors encountered was a large reception space that flowed into a dining area.
The mood here was defined by a Japanese-style skylight, which created a soft-lit atmosphere.
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Upstairs, the study formed part of a private suite including a small living room and a bedroom.
The upper floor also included a double-height atrium that Hytte styled as a courtyard patio.
A Japanese-style skylight offered a soft atmosphere in the dining roomThe colour and material palette was highly muted, with most objects and surfaces displaying shades of cream, brown, taupe and soft green, but each room had a distinct mood.
Traces of life could be found throughout but were very subtle. A pair of glasses appeared to have been left in the first-floor sitting room, while a handbag sat next to one of the sofas in the ground-floor lounge.
In the bedroom, details included a wall tapestry by Ladies & Gentlemen Studio resembling a hanging kimono.
To enhance the salon feel, a soundtrack created a sense of someone playing the piano elsewhere in the house, while Oscar Wilde quotes can be found on some of the walls.
Danish brand Kvadrat supplied textiles for curtains, bringing an element of softness. The effect is most pronounced in the atrium, where white curtains surround the entire space.
An atrium became a courtyard patio for eventsThis space served as a venue for events throughout 3 Days of Design, including a drinks reception co-hosted by Dezeen and a panel discussion chaired by editorial director Max Fraser.
Other installations at 3 Days of Design include an exhibition by furniture brand Federicia that shows adaptations of iconic mid-century furniture classics and sculptural wood furniture created by Faye Toogood in Danish design studio Frama.
Enter the Salon took place from 12 to 14 June as part of 3 Days of Design. See Dezeen Events Guide for more architecture and design events around the world.
The photography is by Sofie Staunsager and Jonas Bjerre-Poulsen.
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Bold red-and-white checkerboard tiles and colourful upholstered banquettes lend an Italian feel to the atrium of this Copenhagen hotel designed by local studio Tonen.
Malene Bech-Pedersen and Mette Bonavent of Tonen oversaw the design of Hotel Bella Grande, which occupies a historic building close to Copenhagen City Hall.
Constructed in 1899, the five-storey building retained many characterful features but was in need of refurbishment to maximise its potential and bring it up to modern standards.
Tonen has refurbished a hotel informed by a Venetian palazzoTonen aimed to create interiors for the 109-room hotel that are timeless yet contemporary and combine a sense of nostalgic charm with modern sophistication.
“For the interior of Hotel Bella Grande we had two important pointers,” said the designers. “First of all to create a design hotel that is a true treat to the eye, and second to highlight the historic and very classic architecture of the building.”
“The hotel rooms should be luxurious, with high-quality materials and references to midcentury Italian design,” they added. “The interior design plays with a nostalgia that is utterly elegant, but also unexpected.”
The hotel occupies a historic building close to Copenhagen City HallInspiration for the project came from a trip to Italy, where Bech-Pedersen and Bonavent were impressed by a Venetian palazzo with an open-air central courtyard and peach-coloured walls.
The atrium at Hotel Bella Grande has a roof light that allows natural light to flood into a bright and welcoming space containing colourful furnishings, floral arrangements and marble-tiled floors that enhance the al-fresco feel.
Marble tiled floors feature in the bright atrium”We went for ‘wow’,” said the designers of their approach to the interiors, and particularly the reception and courtyard areas that are the first guests encounter upon entering the building.
“This should be a very one-of-a-kind experience, and nothing like you would normally experience in the centre of Copenhagen.”
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The atrium was previously a dark and underused space that required significant upgrades to become a prominent focal point within the scheme.
Soundproof windows were added to all the rooms that overlook the courtyard. All four internal walls were covered in acoustic foam which, along with the soft furnishings, helps to reduce sound reverberation within the space.
Tonen looked to give the hotel’s rooms and suites a calming atmosphere through the use of muted colours and sophisticated details, such as the coordinated upholstered armchairs and fabric lampshades from Danish brand Oi soi oi.
The hotel also contains a restaurantThe hotel also contains an Italian restaurant called Donna, with a lively and vibrant interior defined by its use of moody red and pink hues.
The dining room’s dark red ceiling is complemented by blood-red couches and pink curtains that were designed to create an atmosphere of romance, but have a touch of mystery for the space to take on a nightclub vibe later in the evenings.
Guests can choose to dine in the main restaurant or in the atrium space, while a laid-back cocktail lounge provides a cosy spot for pre-dinner drinks or late-night conversations.
An internal courtyard is overlooked by the hotel bedroomsTonen was involved in every detail of the hotel’s interior fit-out, sourcing vintage objects and artworks to sit alongside contemporary pieces including furniture from &Tradition, bedside lamps by Tom Dixon, side tables from Polspotten and bespoke vanities made by by Københavns Møbelsnedkeri.
“Both Bella and Donna are very much unmistakable expressions of our style,” claimed Bech-Pedersen and Bonavent. “We love the historic references, mixing vintage with new design and the use of materials that age beautifully.”
The restaurant interior is defined by red and pink huesHotel Bella Grande is owned by Copenhagen Food Collective, a Copenhagen-based group operating 18 restaurants around the city. Tonen has worked on interiors for several of Cofoco’s properties, including Coco Hotel and Restaurant Delphine.
Other recent restaurant interiors on Dezeen include a steel-and-mirror space in London’s Mayfair area and a Frankfurt restaurant with lime-wash walls.
The photography is courtesy of Tonen.
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Danish studio Spacon & X preserved “different layers of unique history” when designing the Folk Kombucha brewery, which is set within a listed building in Copenhagen’s Meatpacking District.
The factory belongs to fermented-tea brand Folk Kombucha and features a production area for kombucha brewing overlooked by a mezzanine level used for workshops and other social events.
Spacon & X designed a brewery for Folk Kombucha in CopenhagenLocal firm Spacon & X aimed to balance the history of the 1930s functionalist building with its contemporary needs when designing the interior, which is led by cobalt blue, orange and pink accents.
“The buildings in the Meatpacking District are from the 1930s and have a strong character,” said architect Malene Hvidt.
“Our design team aimed to preserve different layers of unique history,” she told Dezeen.
Mustard-hued floor tiles were preserved in the renovationSpacon & X maintained the building’s “archetypal Meatpacking white-tile walls” as well as mustard-yellow and green marble floor tiles.
Translucent iridescent panels were placed behind the various stainless steel fermentation tanks to delineate spaces within the brewery.
The studio also maintained the building’s green marble flooringStainless steel was also used to form the extensive network of pipes connected to the tanks as well as custom tables and benches topped with bright blue rubber.
This tangle of tubes was echoed with the addition of spaghetti-shaped wire lighting.
“The buildings in the area are all known for their white facades with windows and panels painted in a strong cobalt blue colour,” explained Hvidt. “Cobalt blue was chosen to pay tribute to the area itself.”
A mezzanine overlooks the main production areaSpacon & X created lounge tables by recycling plastic packaging salvaged from fish and other food waste, which was industrially produced at the site before it became the Folk Kombucha brewery.
“Instead of throwing out this long-lasting hygienic material, we transformed it into unique custom-made tables,” Hvidt said.
Hand-hammered steel lamps also feature on the interiorArtwork made of scoby — a culture of yeast and bacteria that kickstarts the kombucha fermentation process — was used to decorate the interior alongside bespoke hand-hammered steel lamps.
Other spaces within the multipurpose building include offices, a separate lounge, a laboratory and various storage areas.
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“The brewery’s spatial design was created in a way that resembled and preserved the listed building’s long history and strong character,” said Hvidt.
“The design also incorporates subtle, organic and innovative spatial solutions with functionality and uses the building’s industrial nature as a guiding principle.”
Cobalt blue, orange and pink accents define the breweryElsewhere in Copenhagen, Spacon & X previously created the interior for a burger restaurant filled with natural materials and plants.
The studio has also completed an Ace & Tate glasses store in the city, taking cues from colourful artists’ studios.
The photography is by Hedda Rysstad.
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Danish furniture brand &Tradition has opened the doors to a four-storey showroom in Copenhagen, featuring a complete apartment and rooms designed by Jaime Hayon and Space Copenhagen.
Unveiled during 3 Days of Design in an exhibition titled Under One Roof, &Tradition’s design team has transformed the interior of a century-old townhouse on the historic Kronprinsessegade.
The Apartment takes over the top floor of the townhouseThe top floor has become The Apartment, an entire home interior that is described by Els Van Hoorebeeck, creative and brand director for &Tradition, as “the cherry on the cake”.
Despite being completely kitted out in the brand’s products, it was designed to have the feel of a lived-in space rather than a showroom.
Designed by &Tradition’s in-house team, the spaces combine classic and contemporary”When you enter, you feel this balance between colours and neutrals, between wood tones and glass or metal, and between classic and contemporary designs,” Van Hoorebeeck told Dezeen.
“There’s a lot of product in there, but you don’t notice it,” she said.
The bedroom showcases a quilted bedspread by Swedish-Danish duo All the Way to ParisSpanish designer Hayon has created two rooms on the first floor, which give an insight into the creative process behind products he has developed for &Tradition.
The first, called Cabinet of Curiosities, features a glass display case filled with objects and drawings, revealing the forms and images that inspire Hayon’s designs.
Jaime Hayon has created a room called Cabinet of CuriositiesThe second presents new works by Hayon – including the Momento vessels and a limited edition of his Formakami pendant lamp – in a scenography framed by large silhouette characters. This room is called Teatro Surreal.
“We felt it was important to show the world that his products come out of,” said Van Hoorebeeck.
Jaime Hayon’s Teatro Surreal creates a scenography for his new productsThe two rooms by Danish interiors studio Space Copenhagen can be found on the second floor.
These spaces include a studio and, building on the studio’s experience in hotel and restaurant design, a dining room. Here, shades of green and brown combine with fresh herbs and plants to bring a sense of nature.
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New products are peppered throughout these two rooms.
They include the Trace storage cabinets, which are filled with kitchen utensils and tableware, and the Collect rugs.
Space Copenhagen has created a dining room in shades of green and brownFounded in 2010 by Martin Kornbek Hansen, &Tradition combines contemporary and classic design in its collections.
The brand has been based at 4 Kronprinsessegade since 2018, but the building primarily served as a headquarters, with offices located on the upper levels.
Verner Panton’s Flowerpot lamps feature in several roomsThe company has now moved its offices to another nearby location, which made it possible to open the entire townhouse up to the public for the first time during 3 Days of Design.
Other spaces revealed in Under One Roof include the Verner Panton Lounge, which is dedicated to mid-century pieces by the late Danish designer such as the 1968 Flowerpot lamps.
An archive room is filled with original drawings and vintage samplesThere are also rooms designed to appeal to the senses. These include the Listening Lounge, a relaxed space filled with music, and Mnemonic, which centres around a range of scents.
Other key spaces include a “workshop” showcasing the possibilities of the modular workspace furniture, an archive filled with original drawings and vintage samples, a cafe and a shop.
A cafe and shop are located on the ground floorVan Hoorebeeck hopes the spaces will help tell the stories behind the products.
“What we wanted to do here is to create a whole universe,” she said. “Every room is based on showing a different atmosphere between contemporary and classic designs.”
“Now the layout of the house is set and every year we’ll just adapt it,” she added.
The photography is courtesy of &Tradition.
3 Days of Design took place in venues around Copenhagen from 7 to 9 June 2023. See Dezeen Events Guide for information, plus a list of other architecture and design events taking place around the world.
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