In recent years, international design enthusiasts have flocked to Copenhagen for 3daysofdesign, a large-scale exhibition spanning many districts of the Danish capital. The city itself, with its blend of historic, modern, and contemporary architecture, offers an exceptionally inspiring backdrop.
SAS Royal Hotel
In 1960, Arne Jacobsen designed the SAS Royal Hotel (now the Radisson Collection Royal Hotel), a 360-degree project where nothing was left to chance. The great architect and designer specified the length of the shutter rods to the millimeter. This masterpiece has been well-preserved; visit room 606, which has all of its original furnishings.
BLOX/Dansk Arkitektur Center
Designed by the Dutch studio OMA, the multifunctional BLOX building overlooks the city’s harbor and houses offices and workspaces specifically designed for creative industries, as well as the cultural hub of the Dansk Arkitektur Center. It is an architectural destination visited by more than 250,000 people a year.
Copenhill
The Amager Bakke waste-to-energy plant is one of the symbols of the Danish approach to architecture, bringing together spectacularity and environmentalism. Designed by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), the monumental building is known as ‘the hill of Copenhagen’ despite the city actually being flat. Its roof is used as a ski slope. The building also houses a climbing wall and two cafés.
Meatpacking District
Since the 1990s, the vast complex that housed the city’s slaughterhouse has gradually transformed into a leisure citadel, where performance spaces and a plethora of venues coexist with warehouses and professional activities. Places to see include: Åben (an XL brewery designed by Pihlmann Architects) and Folk Kombucha (a bar, restaurant, and event space designed by Spacon & X).
Nordhavn
Formerly the city’s industrial port, the Nordhavn area is being transformed into a large-scale recreational hub. It is a place to come and bathe, as well as an area of showrooms (Vitra has its space here) and professional studios, such as BIG’s neo-brutalist headquarters.
Louisiana
The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, often called simply ‘Louisiana,’ is located in a residential suburb north of the city. With its permanent collection and busy schedule of temporary exhibitions, it is the most visited modern and contemporary art museum in Scandinavia. The building is designed to blend into the garden, which, with its sculptures, functions as an open-air museum. It is a total project overlooking the sea.
Designmuseum Danmark
This institution chronicles a pivotal chapter in design history with its collection of Danish objects and furniture from the 1920s to the 1970s. It includes style icons, timeless pieces, and debunked clichés. It traces a spectacular and illuminating path to the roots of contemporary taste.
From Højbro Plads to Kogens Nytorv
A short distance from the royal palace, the city’s historic heart is a maze of streets where eighteenth- and nineteenth-century architecture alternates with twentieth-century and contemporary styles. This unique blend of architectural periods is surprisingly harmonious. Between the two squares of Amagertorv and Kongens Nytorv are the main commercial spaces dedicated to high-end design, including the flagship stores of Boffi | De Padova and Carl Hansen & Søn on Bredgade and the spaces of brands born here and known worldwide, such as Hay, Normann Copenhagen, and &tradition, which occupy entire buildings, to extremely interesting multibrands, such as Rue Verte and Paustian.
