design festival June 2023

 

In 2023, the annual design festival in Copenhagen - 3daysofdesign - runs through the 7th, 8th and 9th of June.

Exhibitions, launches for new designs, openings, talks and discussions … will be held in studios, design stores, exhibition venues, embassies and courtyards throughout the city.

Every year I try to emphasise just how important it is to plan your route around the city if you want to see as much as possible. This year there are just under 300 design companies, designers, design stores and museums and galleries participating and, just now, when I looked at the programme, there are 549 events listed.

For the first time this year - the tenth year for 3daysofdesign - there will be three official hubs for the festival …….. in the city it is in 25hours Hotel at Pilestræde 65, out on Refshaleøen the hub is Copenhagen Contemporary - Hal 6, Refshalevej 173A and down at Carlsberg Byen the events are centred around Mineralvandsfabrikken, Pasteursvej 20.

Around these hubs are 13 districts, each with a distinct logo, so events and openings are grouped together.

3daysofdesign
hubs & districts
programme

 

3daysofdesign 2022

This year,  3daysofdesign - a major design event in Copenhagen - has shifted times and days.

In previous years, studios, design stores and venues opened on the Thursday, around lunchtime, with opening parties or launches for new products on the Thursday evening. Friday was a packed day and then Saturday was slower with a relatively relaxed winding down ending mid afternoon.

This year, it seems more focused because events start on Wednesday morning and run through three complete working days .... so Wednesday 15th June, Thursday the 16th and through to Friday 17 June.

In the past, 3daysofdesign was part serious design event - an open house for visiting buyers and professionals - and part a local celebration for people in the city, who work in the design industry, to show off proudly what they have done recently or reveal what is in the pipe line but it was also a chance to see friends and colleagues. People could meet and socialise and I hope that survives.

The official web site for 3daysofdesign is fantastic and it’s absolutely essential if you want to see as much as possible.

This is a design event for and by designers so it should not be surprising that a lot of effort and thought has gone into the web page and the app but they have deceptively simple graphics for what is a very sophisticated guide that has good photographs and a lot of information .... not just addresses and times, but good pen portraits so anyone can track down new companies or just refresh their memory on the hardy perennials. There are also short Journal entries with some interesting interviews.

On the site, Programme is where you start if you want to organise your time around openings or talks or even - just possibly - to find when and where wine and food will be available.

A section headed Search the Exhibitions is the what-is-where section and, even if you think you know which company is where, remember that companies do splash out on some adventurous one-off venues and smaller companies - particularly if they do not have a base here in the city - will open a pop-up shop or will camp out in a design hotel or an embassy.

This year there are 214 sites ... so you can see that - to have any hope of getting around what you want to see - you have to plan your route or your route march with some care .... even if it is only to be in the right place for the right food or the right booze. Your excuse, in that case, is that good design and good food are close cousins that bring out the best in each other.

The entry in Exhibitions will open up a pen portrait of the designer or the design company along with photographs and links to company sites and Instagram pages and so on .... a great way to get the right background information before trying to chat to a designer or the CEO.

There is a useful section on the site where you can Explore the Districts.

Copenhagen may seem compact - if you compare the city with New York or London or Milan - but remember tourists have suddenly been let loose here so, at the very least, plan your route so you only cut across Strøget and not walk along it.

 

Fritz Hansen for 3daysofdesign

Fritz Hansen have relaunched the Oxford Chair that was designed by Arne Jacobsen in 1962 for St Catherine’s College in Oxford.

For 3daysofdesign, store showed not only the new chair but also Oxford Chairs from the companies archive collection. Designmuseum Danmark has a high back version in laminated wood with an oak veneer and steam-bent base that was designed for the high table in the great hall of the college but this was the first time I had seen the lower version of the chair with arms (right).


The current versions of the chair have metal bases with a column and five feet in either steel or powder coated black, with or without castors, and with or without thin and very elegant metal arms.

Upholstered in leather or one of the FH textiles it is a strikingly contemporary chair. It has that distinct, elegant, scroll-shaped profile from the side but unless you recognise that, most would be hard pressed to spot that the design is now 60 years old.

Fritz Hansen,
Valkendorfsgade 4,

Copenhagen

 

Along with the displays about the Oxford Chair, Fritz Hansen set out a number of desks and chairs in the store as their suggestions for possible home work stations as, still caught up with the Coronavirus pandemic, substantial numbers are working from home or splitting time between home and office to reduce the number of people in an office at any one time.

As the pandemic runs its course, it is unclear just how many workers will return to their offices for a full five days every week. If people work from home then there will be a growing market for, at the very least, chairs that are ergonomically designed, so are comfortable, and chairs that can be moved and that swivel. Sitting on one of the chairs from the dining room or balancing a laptop on your lap for eight hours - even if you think being stretched out on the sofa all day is fantastic compared with the noise and hassle and distractions of the office and even if you can do it in your underwear rather than the normal work outfit, it’s still far from ideal.

Fritz Hansen

 

Being very predictable, for my desk at home, I have an aluminium soft pad chair from Vitra that was designed by Charles and Ray Eames in 1958 but at least I have half a Fritz Hansen work station because my desk is the Plano table by Pelikan Design - the design partnership of Niels Gammelgaard and Lars Mathiesen. *

It’s ideal because although it is relatively compact at 120cm wide, it’s 80cm deep so with the Apple screen pushed to the back, there is still plenty of table space for keyboard, books, papers and so on.

The main frame of the table, a metal rectangle, is inset from the edge of the top but there are diagonally set spurs that take the tubular legs at each corner that can be unscrewed when the table is packed up and moved ….. this is the fifth apartment it has been in in nearly twenty years. Not so much home office as mobile office.

* note: no longer in the Fritz Hansen catalogue

 

Montana for 3daysofdesign

The Danish design company Montana took over the chair and office furniture company Englebrechts in June and they used the design festival of 3daysofdesign to open the Engelbrects store in Skindergade in its new iteration.

When the merger was first announced, my initial reaction was that it was not an obvious partnership but actually, on second thoughts, it sounds like an interesting combination that strengthens both brands. It gives Montana - perhaps the most distinct Danish design brand - founded by Peter J Lassen in 1982 and well-known for their strongly coloured system furniture - greater depth across a wider range of furniture and stronger access to the contract and business market and it gives the strong back catalogue of Englebrechts’ designs fillip.

It looks as if the main store of Montana in Bredgade will stay much as it is but the old Englelbrecht store will represent both brands and the new enlarged company.

Engelbrechts
Montana

the well-known range of Engelbrechts’ chairs

an interview with Niels Strøyer Christophersen of Frama

One of the first events of 3daysofdesign was this evening when Marcus Fairs - the founder and editor of the online design site DEZEEN -interviewed Niels Strøyer Christophersen of Frama.

The interview was live streamed at 5pm

INTERVIEW WITH NIELS STRØYER CHRISTOPHERSEN

After a short introduction to Frama the interview goes on to look at the philosophy behind this small but important design studio that was established in 2011 and then discussed the release of a new book from Frama - PERCEPTION FORM.

Frama produce distinct furniture and objects for the home including lighting, glassware and ceramics, and they have one of the most stylish ‘eateries’ in the city. Their work has a distinct and coherent design aesthetic where they explore form and re examine function but, above all, their designs, although not minimalist as such, keep the working and manipulation of the material to a minimum to retain and show inherent qualities.

Niels talks here about holistic experiences and about welcoming space and about trying to recapture some of the curiosity and imagination of a child collecting found objects that are then imbued with specific and very personal value. He confesses to being a hoarder … but it is clearly not of objects of high cost but objects where their shape and form or colour and texture fit within what appears, initially, to be his spartan or almost monastic sense of style.

Frama makes an exceptionally valuable contribution to our debate about what we own and what we want and what we need in our day to day life.

Apotek 57 at Frama
Frama Permanent Collection


FRAMA
Fredericiagade 57,
1310 Copenhagen

 

3daysofdesign

3daysofdesign is now the biggest and the most important design event of the year in Copenhagen.

This year it runs from Thursday 16 September through to Saturday 18 September with events throughout the city.

Design stores and design studios open their doors to visitors and there will be product launches, openings, talks and receptions.

There are so many events that, as usual, I advise people to look carefully at maps of the city and go through the programme of events and exhibitions to work out what to prioritise and to decide how best to zig zag backwards and forwards across the city to see as much as possible.

Above all, 3daysofdesign is when the design community here celebrate and it’s a good opportunity to find out what is happening and where and what is new and what is on it’s way.

Museums and galleries and embassies in the city also take part. There is always a large banner on the front of the French Embassy on Kongens Nytorv. Graphics for this banner and for the posters and so on for events has been designed this year by Ilse Crawford.

3daysofdesign
EXHIBITIONS
EVENTS

Censuum … a new design store on Nørre Farimagsgade

 

A new design store has opened on Nørre Farimagsgade - close to Israels Plads and the food halls of Torvehallerne but a block away towards the lakes.

It is an interesting space in what looks, from the outside, like a relatively familiar style of large Copenhagen apartment building from the late 19th century. It looks as if it will have relatively low spaces in a half basement just down from the street level that would have been either for commercial use or simply services and store rooms for the apartments above. In fact the interior is much more interesting and much more dramatic because the space that runs across the whole of the half basement was previously a printing house with large areas that were double height.

There are relatively small windows along the street frontage that are at pavement level with an entrance door, at one end of the front, with steps down into a low space that is now an area for a coffee and a food outlet but then there are steps that go on down to the rest of the space along the front that has high ceilings so there is good natural light and interesting spaces.

Here, within the retail area of about 500 square metres, there are products from 40 small independent companies who are generally at that intermediate stage between selling on line or at design fairs and markets but before they expand to open a dedicated shop of their own.

Here you can find a good range of clothing, beauty products, jewellery, linens and items for the home. In terms of style, the range of products here reminds me of what can be found in the FindersKeepers design markets. Note …. that’s praise and not veiled criticism - the FindersKeepers markets are great but are only held once or twice a year.

Censuum describe themselves as a new form of department store because they focus on products that are responsible, sustainable, and climate friendly and they work with brands who can show that they are socially conscientious.

The cafe is good, serving coffee from the specialist roaster Prolog - now in the Meatpacking District - as well as craft beers and bread from the Andersen Bakery so they are setting their level high. There are tables and chairs inside and small tables and chairs set up along the pavement. 

Censuum, Nørre Farimagsgade 47, 1364 København

 

Slangestolen by Poul Henningsen - new photographs

Slangestolen was designed by Poul Henningsen in 1932 and is one of the most remarkable chairs produced in Denmark in the 20th century.

It is relatively unusual in having a tubular steel frame. Several designers in the pre-war period produced chromed metal furniture that was in part inspired by designs from the Bauhaus in Germany but the Danish domestic market has always preferred wooden furniture rather than furniture with metal frames that can appear to be overtly industrial.

What makes the design of the Snake Chair remarkable is the sinuous curve of a single length of metal tube that requires not only an incredible understanding of 3D form and space on the part of the designer but also considerable technical skill in bending the metal in a smooth curve through such a complex shape … there is an almost-complete circle set horizontally for a base and then a sweep up to a second, almost-complete circle, for the seat and then on up to a loop in the vertical plane for the back rest.

The frames of the chairs are now made in Switzerland and the precise technique for bending the steel tube is a carefully-guarded secret.

I am very grateful to Søren Vincents Svendsen, the founder and CEO of PH Furniture, and to his staff who generously gave me time and space to photograph in the store in Bredgade.

Photographs in the entry on the chair in Danish Chairs 1900-1999 have been updated.

Slangestolen / The Snake Chair by Poul Henningsen 1932

PH Furniture, Bredgade 6,
1260 Copenhagen

 

news from the Anders Petersen gallery

 

Today a newsletter from A Petersen Collection & Craft - the gallery in Copenhagen of Anders Petersen - dropped into my mail box.

With the lockdown of the pandemic, the whole gallery has been closed but the display and retail area on the ground floor has just been allowed to reopen.

It will be several weeks before the gallery and exhibition area on the first floor can reopen - all museums and public galleries in the city are closed - but the really good news is that Anders Petersen has managed to extend the period for the exhibition that shows the work of the Swedish designer Åke Axelsson.

This is an amazing exhibition. The designer has just celebrated his 89th birthday and is still working. Although it is fairly common for galleries to mount 'retrospectives' for living painters or sculptors and even for major potters - for people to see and appreciate the full range of work of the artist through their working life - it is still relatively rare for the works of a furniture designer to be gathered together in this way.

It is a rare privilege to be able to see how the ideas of an amazing imagination develops or evolves to bring designs to realisation and how certain themes reappear as alternative solutions to a problem are explored or as new materials are employed that dictate different forms or require different techniques.

 

once the government allows galleries to reopen,
Welcome Home Åke!  will continue at A Petersen / Bygning A until Sunday 1 August 2021

Frama Permanent Collection

The catalogue for Frama Permanent Collection includes interesting quotations and some short comments or statements that hint at the ethos of the studio and stress the use of natural materials and the ‘simple geometries’ of the designs ‘resulting in a uniquely warm and honest aesthetic’.

Photographs show the furniture in stark and simple interiors so in a strongly defined space but not in an obvious room to blur any sense of a specific place.

The full catalogue has simple, neat, useful, outline drawings and basic information about designers and materials and dimensions but not, significantly, the date of the design. Presumably, it is called the Permanent Collection because the intention is to remove any sense of a specific time.

My impression is that, having brought together a substantial body of work, Frama will now add to or edit this collection with well-measured discernment.

There are four sections in the catalogue with:

ESSENTIALS
described as "utilitarian pieces" that includes the hall-mark, metal-framed, stools by Toke Lauridsen; the low aml stool in wood by Andreas Martin-Löf; benches; Chair 01 by Frama; a daybed; Shelf Library by Kim Richardt; box units in aluminium by Jonas Trampedach and the round and the rectangular trestle tables by Frama Studio. These are the key pieces.

SIGNATURE
pieces are marked out for their ‘extra sophisticated appearance’ and for more challenging and demanding knowledge for manufacture including the Skeleton 021 Chair designed by Elding Oscarsen Architects and the Triangolo Chair by Per Holland Bastrup

HOME GOODS
are ceramics - robust glazed stoneware by Frama Studio - and glassware for the table from 0405 Glass with some kitchen to table pieces such as cutting boards

LIGHTING
is distinct and a very interesting range of pendant lights, free standing spots and a take on the strip light and all with simple, but clever and elegant, geometric shapes in brass or copper, polished steel or aluminium and powder-coated steel or powder-coated aluminium

The Apothecary Collection and the free-standing units of Frama Studio Kitchen are dealt with separately but can all be seen on the Frama site

FRAMA - the apartment

FRAMA Permanent Collection

 

apotek 57 EATERY at Frama

Frama Studio Store in Copenhagen is in what was an old apothecary shop, in a fine 19th-century apartment building on the corner of Adelgade and Fredericiagade, across the road from a row of the Nyboder houses and close to the church of Sankt Paul.

On 1st October, alongside the store but also with it’s own entrance from the street, Frama opened Apotek 57 Eatery under the chef Chiara Barla.

There are two rooms but also tables and stools on the pavement with views across the quiet street to the famous ochre-yellow 17th and 18th-century houses of Nyboder.

Eating here is a good way to not just see but to use or try out furniture from Frama and to eat from and drink from their ceramics and glassware.

The food preparation and serving area has Frama shelving and units from the Tea Kitchen range but the revelation was to see the main table at the centre of the room - a large oak rectangle on Frama Farmhouse Trestles - with eight Chair 01 in light, dark and black-stained finish.

Somehow, for some reason, I had filed away the design of the chair in my mind as a statement piece …. as a chair to be used on its own in a hall or in a room as a desk chair … so hence as a special or statement piece of furniture.

But, of course, at the centre of most Danish homes, and at the centre of entertaining in the home, is the table where you feed family and friends and that means that the dining table and it’s chairs are important and a serious investment.

As apartments get smaller and family demographics are changing - Denmark has more single-adult households than any other European country - so I was beginning to wonder if the idea of the dining table as the centre of the home could be changing. But here, as the main feature of the Eatery, with eight chairs around the table and space for more, this is furniture that justifies and occupies the dining space.

If you are lucky enough to have a large dining room then this is a strong design but because the table top is on trestles and the chairs stack then they could take over a general or a relatively small room for an occasion but be moved back or moved out for the space to be used in other ways.

The menu and opening times for the Eatery are on the Frama site.

Nyboder

Frama Studio Store
Fredericiagade 57
1310 Copenhagen

 
L1165204.JPG
 
 

&Tradition, Kronprinsessegade 4 for 3daysofdesign

&Tradition have their main showrooms and offices on Kronprinsessegade in a fine 18th-century townhouse at the corner of the King's Garden.

Here, for 3daysofdesign, they showed their collection "creating a more balanced working environment."

As at Lindencrones Palæ, the furniture from &Tradition looks good in the setting of the historic interiors of the house.

3daysofdesign should be taken as an opportunity to see the buildings occupied by the showrooms and offices, meeting rooms and display spaces of these major Danish design companies. Many critics and even many designers talk about Danish design as if it first appeared in the 1960s but looking around these fine town houses of the professional middle and upper classes of Copenhagen society, you can see how comfortable, light, well appointed and how comfortably furnished Danish homes have been for four or five hundred years.

&Tradition have a collection of furniture and lighting that has a growing number of good new designs balanced with the reissue of a number of historic pieces and around the house are shown some of the original drawings for these classic designs.

More than many other furniture companies, &Tradition use heavily textured fabrics for upholstery to contrast with the beautifully finished wood of frames or backs. The Betty Chair designed by Sami Kallio and Jakob Thau has an option stained black with a woven seat using broad linen tape in a natural colour and there is a low bench to match which show well this use of the contrast between wood and the natural linen.

The Drawn Chair by Peter Hvidt and Orla Mølgaard Nielsen, designed in the 1950s but just rereleased by &Tradition, has an elegant frame in either oak or walnut with the seat in natural paper cord.

&Tradition catalogue 2020

 
 

3daysofdesign - UKURANT OBJECTS

UKURANT was founded in October 2019 by Josefine Krabbe Munck, Kamma Rosa Schytte, Kasper Kyster and Lærke Ryom and they describe themselves as a community and a platform to provide support for young designers across disciplines.

They are questioning the mass production of design where large and well-established companies aim primarily for low manufacturing costs or rely on a back catalogue where an old designs can be given a new life.

The exhibition has “Experimental furniture and design objects by 24 young designers showing how a new generation challenge traditions, experiment with materials and technologies, question cautious aesthetics and challenge commercial design.”

Some of the aims of the group are set out in the catalogue for the exhibition so "UKURANT acknowledges design objects as functional and sculptural. We find that the industry undermines this statement. UKURANT insists on combining an artistic practice with commercial products and challenge the biased notion of commercial design." 

Many of the designs challenge conventional forms and all experiment with materials either by using standard and well-established materials in less conventional ways or by using new materials for different outcomes for standard design products such as chairs. Several designers here are doing what all good designers should do and that is working with a specific material to understand what can or can't be done and to experiment with new techniques or new tools to push that material to new possibilities.

What is common to most of the works is a move towards strong textures and the use of bold and solid shapes that are a clear rejection of minimalism in recent Danish design where the aim so often seems to be to pare down or reduce structure so that designs, for furniture and household objects, can become thin or flat so appear to lack bold confident form or distinct character. Many of the works in the exhibition have a sense of drama and a scale that occupies space in a way that is closer to the theatre and closer to the baroque style of the 17th century than to the rationalism of Danish design from the 1820s or the functionalism of modern Danish design since the 1950s.

The exhibition was designed by Emil Qvist for the basement space of Nyt I bo in Store Kongensgade in Copenhagen and was one of the major events of 3daysofdesign that was moved on to early September from the Spring because of the pandemic. Normally, through 3daysofdesign, this design store makes space available throughout the ground-floor shop area for smaller design companies to show their products but this was a major exhibition and establishes Nyt I bo as a significant gallery venue.

photographs and basic information about the designs

3daysofdesign
UKURANT
Nyt i bo

When Waters Retract - Lars Ryom
Smoke Cloud Chandelier
- Christian and Jade
Artificial Formations - David Ronco
Illusory Functions - Margarida Lopes Pereira
No. 13 - Therese Hald Boesen

 

Foame - Bonnie Hvillum

3daysofdesign - 2020 edition

3daysofdesign is a major event in the calendar for designers and design companies in Copenhagen. It is when people open their doors to visitors, fellow professionals in the design business and to colleagues and friends in the city. It is the best time to see the design community of Copenhagen at home and at their very best.

Normally, events are held over a Thursday, Friday and Saturday in the late spring/early summer but the pandemic has disrupted so much and, for this year, 2020, 3daysofdesign will be on 3rd, 4th and 5th of September.

The theme is Eco Conscious Concepts and graphics for 3 days are by the artist Alfredo Häberli who is based in Zurich.

In normal times, some events need either registration or booked tickets but this year, because of the exceptional circumstances, events will be open and free …. many using the streets and squares of the city.

3daysofdesign
on instagram

 

the staircase in the south range of the Arsenal

If you go out to the Arsenal to check out the new Ferm store then make sure you look at the main staircase that is just inside the entrance at the east end of the building.

This has turned balusters with closed strings and a very substantial wooden handrail and it rises from the ground floor to the first floor with a straight flight of steps but with a landing half way up.

The style suggests it should be from the original construction of the building in the 1760s although contemporary plans indicate that then the staircase was at the other end of the building - at the north-west corner - and with a different arrangement or plan that was a tight dogleg with half landings.

The range was originally part of the Arsenal where cannons were stored on the ground floor and other weapons and equipment kept on the first floor but in the 19th century the building was modified by the navy to be used as a gymnasium and the staircase may have been rebuilt or moved and reconstructed here at that stage.

What is interesting about the staircase is that, with the restoration work, the sub structure has been left exposed and this shows hefty or robust and high-quality timber framing below the staircase with heavy posts, cross beams supporting three strings below the steps and substantial cross braces. Clearly it was designed for heavy use.

Ferm has a new showroom and offices in Copenhagen

 

Ferm Living - the Danish design company founded in 2005 - has recently moved into a large showroom and with space for their offices and design studios above.

The impressive brick building with a high and steeply-pitched tile roof and the large courtyard behind have recently been restored. With a matching building to the north, now occupied by the lighting company Louis Poulsen, and two long ranges on the west side in line and looking towards the harbour and with an ornate gateway in the gap between them, this was the 18th-century Arsenal of the Danish navy. It was designed by the important and influential architect Philip de Lange and was where the guns and arms for the warships of the Danish navy were stored.

Surviving inside the high space of the showroom are the massive timber posts and braces that supported the structure of the floors and roof above.

Ferm Living are now just over the harbour from Nyhavn … 250 metres from the Christianshavn side of the inner harbour bridge.

Louis Poulsen moves to Holmen

Ferm Living
Kuglegårdsvej 1-5
1434, Copenhagen K

 

Arne on the lino

If I come across a curious image of a building or an interesting interior then it goes into a scrapbook folder.

This struck me as a period piece and a good example of how classic designs actually can’t stay the same and even when, looking back, designers and stylists ‘mine’ a period for inspiration then it never looks the same. Any revival has to pay lip service to the fact that time and taste have moved on.

I’m not sure of the date of this British advert but I would guess sometime around 1970. The Ant Chair, designed by Arne Jacobsen in 1952, and the Super-Elliptical table, by Piet Hein, Arne Jacobsen and Bruno Mathsson, from 1968 are still in production but what a peculiar mash-up of ceramics and cutlery and table decorations. It looks as if there is a special dish or tray for the French stick and that the wine is to be served in tumblers or larger glasses. Was that ever a fashion? And this is from Liberty - the London design store.

I tend to think that stylists on photo shoots go too far but this shows just how far most have come.

Thelma seems an oddly cozy name for a trade association and when the copywriter says “exciting new things are always happening in linoleum”, the model hardly looks convinced.

a new catalogue from Fritz Hansen

If the corona virus means that you are in lock down - in social isolation at home - the end of the crisis may seem to be a very long way in the future but surely we should not let it stop us day dreaming.

Fritz Hansen have just released their new catalogue and it's available now on line.

There are the room settings for the furniture that we now take for granted but they seem to have a slightly different style …. something more of the 1950s or 1960s. Maybe that is the colour tone of the photographs that seems to be moving towards that distinctive look of Kodak Ektachrome or maybe it’s because some of the models are wearing what look frighteningly like trouser suits or flares.

Of course there is the traditional catalogue of all the furniture but it looks as if all colour options are shown rather than simply listed under a single photograph and this fits with the policy from Fritz Hansen for releasing classic designs in new colours. Those colours seem to be following the current and distinct move from white walls and pale wood to much stronger colours.

the new Fritz Hansen catalogue

 

KAFFE Cobe

 

When work started on the new development on Papirøen / Paper Island at the centre of the harbour opposite the national theatre and the warehouses there were demolished then Cobe - the planning and architecture studio of Dan Stubbergaard - had to move out and they moved to Nordhavn to former warehouses on Orientkaj.

This is more than appropriate for Cobe produced the masterplan for this major area of redevelopment and, of course, designed the restoration of a concrete silo here that is now apartments and slated to become possibly the iconic building of contemporary Copenhagen.

At the old site, behind the popular food halls, they had a fairly open house and here, to encourage visitors, as the new community out here grows, they have opened a café at the entrance from the quay.

In partnership with Depanneur, they serve good coffee, basic but good rolls and cakes and beer and so on. There is a long communal table and also low seating and Cobe show models and photographs of their work around the space and there is a carefully-selected range of books and design items for sale.

Depanneur
Cobe

 
 
 
 

shopping in Jægersborggade

 

 

In the middle of December The Guardian newspaper published an article that listed ten "cool shopping districts around the world". These were "readers tips" so not exactly a methodical survey but nevertheless interesting. Included in the list was Jægersborggade in Copenhagen.

 read more

 

select any image to open in slide show