Norm Architects

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      Norm Architects bases jewellery store interior on the studios of Picasso and Matisse

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      Norm Architects used natural materials such as oak, clay, linen and travertine to create a jewellery showroom in Copenhagen informed by modernist artists’ studios.Located on Ny Østergade in the city’s old town, the flagship store belongs to jewellery brand Dulong and features an open-plan layout broken only by a few existing cast-iron columns.

      Dulong’s flagship store features travertine tables and counters
      Its “serene, soft and welcoming” interior is arranged much like a living room, with a curved sofa and round coffee table at its centre.
      To enhance the sense of homeliness, the local firm opted for natural materials such as oak flooring, clay walls, travertine display tables and caramel-coloured suede and linen curtains.

      The walls were finished with clay

      According to Norm Architects, the selection is intended to reflect the jewellery brand’s “timeless and exclusive” pieces but was also inspired by the studios of great modernist artists such as Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Romanian sculptor Constantin Brâncuși.

      Granite boulders feature in jewellery showroom by Richard Stampton Architects

      The oak parquet flooring is original, while everything else, including the clay walls, has been added.
      Burnished brass, glass and walnut feature as material accents across the store’s lighting, as well as in the bespoke furniture pieces that were designed for the space by Norm Architects.

      The studio kept the original oak parquet flooring
      A colonnade stretches across the entire back wall of the store in a nod to the neoclassical architecture of Copenhagen. Within each of its recesses sits a travertine plinth with a glass vitrine displaying an individual piece of jewellery or artwork.
      At the back of the store is a private room where customers can try on jewellery, alongside a separate kitchen space and restroom.

      A colonnade runs along the store’s back wall
      “The quality craftsmanship with which the jewellery has been designed is reflected in the carefully selected choice of finishes and elegantly feminine, balanced tonal palette,” said the Danish practice.
      Founded in 2008 by Jonas Bjerre-Poulsen and Kasper Rønn Von Lotzbeck, Norm Architects is renowned for its understated design and sensitive use of natural colours and materials.

      Linen curtains and suede-clad display cases feature throughout the space
      In Tokyo, the studio renovated a pair of formerly light-starved apartments to create “transparent” living spaces with concrete walls, wooden floors and simple furnishings.
      Meanwhile in Hamburg, the practice used oak, grey stone and yellow-tinted glass in a minimal makeover of a department store’s menswear section.
      Photography is by Jonas Bjerre-Poulsen.

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      Archipelago House by Norm Architects is a minimal family getaway in Sweden

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      Norm Architects has completed Archipelago House, a pine-clad holiday home on the coast of Sweden that’s designed to embody both Scandinavian and Japanese aesthetics.Copenhagen-based practice Norm Architects created Archipelago House, which is located just north of Gothenburg, for a couple and their four children.
      It’s a stone’s throw away from a holiday home that the mother of the family frequented when she was younger.

      Top image: the interior of Archipelago House. Above: the exterior of the home is lined with pine wood

      Archipelago House comprises a quartet of pine-wood volumes that stagger in line with the site’s rocky terrain.
      Each of the volumes features gabled roofs, subtly mimicking the form of the boathouses which appear along the nearby seashore.

      The kitchen features oakwood cabinetry
      “We like to consider the spirit of a place and integrate a new building structure more or less flawlessly into its surroundings,”  partner at Norm Architects Frederik Werner told Dezeen.
      “The building should look natural to the site and put the focus on the beautiful surroundings and the life unfolding in the place rather than the building itself,” he continued.
      “It is important for us that architecture does not feel alien to a site – especially in a place like this where there is a perfectly harmonised small village on the shore with other wooden houses around.”

      At the heart of the floor plan is a double-height lounge
      Inside, the practice has used natural materials to devise a sequence of muted, pared-back living spaces that nod to traditional Scandinavian and Japanese aesthetics.
      Handleless oak cupboards feature in the home’s kitchen, at the centre of which is a jet-black breakfast island with in-built drawers. Stone tiles have then been used to line surfaces in the bathrooms, which have been finished with dark-wood vanity cabinets.

      Furnishings in the lounge were designed by Norm Architects and Karimoku Case Study
      The influence of Japanese design can be observed most clearly in the home’s double-height lounge, which is dressed with furniture that Norm Architects has produced in collaboration with Karimoku Case Study – the sister brand of Japanese manufacturer Karimoku.
      This includes a pebble-grey sofa, stone-topped coffee table and pair of armchairs that boast arching backrests upholstered in creamy fabric.
      Archipelago House is the third project that the brand has worked on since its launch in 2019, joining the Kinuta Terrace apartment block in Tokyo and the Blue Bottle Coffee cafe in Yokohama.

      Japanese lanterns appear throughout the holiday home
      The home’s living area also has a delicate cone-shaped lantern that was created bespoke for the project by Kojima Shouten, a Japanese brand that has been making lanterns for over 230 years.
      Crafted from washi paper, the lantern’s peaked form is meant to act as another reference to the architectural form of Archipelago House.

      Johan Sundberg builds Swedish holiday home that takes cues from Japanese architecture

      More squat lanterns that balance on four-legged stands appear in the home’s tranquil sleeping quarters. Here there are also book-like storage boxes that Norm Architects designed alongside Danish brand August Sandgren, where inhabitants can tuck away their personal trinkets.

      Book-style storage boxes hide the inhabitant’s belongings
      Beyond the home’s dining room lies an expansive outdoor deck where the family can play games or enjoy alfresco dinners with views of the adjacent sea and small, rugged islands.
      “Nature plays an important role in our soft minimalist approach, where we believe that buildings should be a functional backdrop and structure for human engagement,” added Werner.
      “It might be a romantic relationship with nature – but after all, that is why we want to escape the city once in a while and reconnect with nature in our holiday homes.”

      The home includes an outdoor deck
      Norm Architects was established in 2008 by Kasper Rønn Von Lotzbeck and Jonas Bjerre-Poulsen.
      The practice’s Archipelago House joins a number of getaway homes in scenic Sweden – others include Summerhouse Solviken by Johan Sundberg Arkitektur, which is raised up on steel stilts, and Villa Vassdal by Studio Holmberg, which boasts minimal plywood interiors.
      Photography is courtesy of Jonas Bjerre-Poulsen of Norm Architects.

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      Blue Bottle Coffee cafe in Yokohama spotlights natural materials

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      Oak chairs sit amongst paper yarn-wrapped columns within this Blue Bottle Coffee cafe in Yokohama, Japan created by Keiji Ashizawa Design and Norm Architects.The Blue Bottle Coffee cafe occupies a glass-front building in Yokohama’s bustling business district, Minatomirai, and looks out across a leafy public park.
      This setting became a key point of reference for Tokyo-based studio Keiji Ashizawa Design, which has exclusively decked out the interiors of the cafe with natural materials.

      Top image: Paper yarn wraps around the cafe’s columns. Above: A curved bar is at the centre of the floor plan
      “We have aimed to create an atmosphere which welcomes the local community by mainly using wood, inspired by the park located by the Blue Bottle Coffee Minatomirai,” said the studio’s eponymous founder, Keiji Ashizawa.

      “The building acts as the main character of the park and provides a feeling of kindness with the natural materials in the industrial-looking landscape.”

      A local park inspired the natural material palette of the cafe
      The open floor plan of the cafe is dominated by a huge half-moon service bar, behind which staff prepare drink orders. Its base is clad with slats of light-hued timber, while its countertop is made from flecked grey stone.
      Pale timber has additionally been used for the cafe’s flooring and its circular tables. Timber also forms smaller decorative elements like the menu board and a couple of oversized, ring-shaped lights that have been suspended from the ceiling.

      Norm Architects designed the seating throughout the cafe
      A series of white, spherical pendant lamps that hang above the cafe’s high counter provide extra light as evening falls.

      Keiji Ashizawa Design and Norm Architects pare back Tokyo apartments

      In keeping with the natural material palette, braided paper yarn has been wound around the lower half of the grey support columns that run along the periphery of the room.

      Some of the chairs are upholstered in creamy leather
      Keiji Ashizawa Design asked long-term collaborators, Copenhagen-based practice Norm Architects, to devise a range of seating for the project.
      The practice designed three chair models made from Japanese oak wood: a traditional cafe-style chair, a tall bar stool and a slightly more formal dining chair that’s partially upholstered in creamy leather – its low, curving backrest is meant to draw subtle reference to the cafe’s architecture.

      The frames of the chairs are made from Japanese oak
      All of the pieces were produced by Karimoku Case Study, the sister brand of Japanese manufacturer Karimoku which collaborates with architects across the world to design furnishings.
      Norm Architects and Keiji Ashizawa Design had first worked with Karimoku Case Study back in 2019 on the launch of its inaugural Kinuta collection.

      The facade of the cafe is made from glass
      “For us, there couldn’t be a better partner to team up with than Karimoku,” explained Frederik Werner, partner at Norm Architects.
      “They uphold a unique quality and approach to the manufacturing of wooden furniture, maintaining a focus on the craftsmanship combined with the latest robotics, making sure that their philosophy of ‘high-tech, high-touch’ is truly embedded in each furniture piece leaving the factory.”

      Customers can spill out onto an outdoor seating area
      This is one of several Blue Bottle Coffee cafes in Japan, with others located in Tokyo, Kyoto and Kobe.
      The coffee brand was founded by James Freeman in 2002, starting out as a small roastery in Oakland, California before growing into a network of cafes across the US and Asia.
      Last year saw Blue Bottle Coffee open its first branch in South Korea, which was designed by Schemata Architects. The cafe is situated in the artsy neighbourhood of Seongsu and features sparse interiors dotted with timber furniture and red-brick display plinths.
      Photography is by Tomooki Kengaku.
      Project credits:
      Design: Keiji Ashizawa & Norm ArchitectsConstruction: #TankFurniture: Karimoku Case Study

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      Norm Architects balances “richness and restraint” in refresh of Alsterhaus' menswear department

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      Oak, grey stone and yellow-tinted glass are some of the materials that Norm Architects has used in its minimal makeover of the menswear section of German department store Alsterhaus.Alsterhaus is situated at the heart of Hamburg and first opened its doors in 1912. Spanning 24,000 square metres, the department store offers a mix of fashion, accessories, beauty products and homeware.
      Norm Architects was tasked with refurbishing the long-standing store’s menswear section, which featured lack-lustre white walls and herringbone walls.

      The practice was keen to create a “unity of different universes” across the men’s section that would offer customers a richer experience than shopping online – but also wanted the architecture and material palette of the space to look inherently “pure”.

      The work of American-German architect Mies van der Rohe and Austrian-Czech architect Adolf Loos became a key point of reference.

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      “A department store is a visually busy place and we realized early in the process that the design needed to be pared down and clear conceptually – ruling out strong patterns and ornamentation,” said Sofie Thorning, associate partner at Norm Architects.
      “We looked to Mies van der Rohe and Adolf Loos for inspiration on natural materials with inherent characteristics that form textures and colours while evoking sensations of warmth, cold balancing feelings of soft and hard to the touch,” she told Dezeen.

      The menswear section is now orientated around a colonnade comprising a sequence of oakwood frames.
      It leads off to various brand concessions that are each fronted by gunmetal signs denoting their name.

      While some areas boast plush carpeting, a majority of the floor has been clad with pale-grey Ceppo di Gre stone tiles.
      “This balance between richness and restraint affords the user a unique and engaging shopping experience, relying on a considered quality of materiality and space,” added Thorning.

      Garments hang from rectangular black-metal frames that descend from the ceiling, while smaller accessories like shoes or lifestyle items are presented on bespoke steel or dark-wood shelving units.
      Pops of colour are offered by yellow-tinted glass clothing stands and blocky display plinths crafted from milky-green natural stone.

      Norm Architects has been established since 2008 and was founded by Jonas Bjerre-Poulsen and Kasper Rønn Von Lotzbeck. Its most recent projects include the creation of a Copenhagen hotel that doubles as a showroom and the refurbishment of a pair of Tokyo apartments.
      The practice also is longlisted in the interior designer of the year category in this year’s Dezeen Awards.
      Photography is by Jonas Bjerre-Poulsen of Norm Architects.

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      The Sculptor's Residence installation lets you step inside an artisan's home

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      Norm Architects has worked alongside furniture brands Menu and Dux to curate an installation that resembles eclectic living quarters as part of Stockholm Design Week. A “staged fantasy” intended to “immerse guests in the mind of an artisan”, The Sculptor’s Residence is peppered with an array of design-focused objects. The four-room installation takes over an […] More