DK Arkitekter has opened. We are an architecture practice in Copenhagen, specialised in residential architecture, home renovation and house extensions.
What we are working towards
We have set ourselves a long task: to document a thousand historical buildings across Denmark.
Each one is published as an architecture study — a close reading of the building, from the building archive and from the building itself. The first is Copenhagen City Hall. It covers the competition, the bricks that were turned away on delivery, and a tower built without bond to the walls it touches, which is why the building has no cracks after 120 years.
The reason for the work is straightforward. We want to understand Danish architecture of historical significance as thoroughly as it can be understood, and to be useful to it. And in time we would like to leave buildings that deserve the same attention — as Martin Nyrop, Hack Kampmann, P.V. Jensen-Klint, Ulrik Plesner and Anton Rosen left theirs.
It is a large undertaking and we are at the beginning of it. The studies are free, in Danish and English, and they carry their sources.
What we do
- New private houses
- Extensions to a house you already own
- Renovation of houses
- Full renovation of apartments
How a project starts
We start with a study of the property.
The report sets out what your plot or your home allows: what may be built, how large, how tall, and what the local plan and any listing say. It is free, and it needs no visit.
From there we prepare a design proposal. That is where the architecture begins — the character of the building, the materials, how it sits on the plot and how it meets the street. Nothing is settled before that conversation.
How we design
Every project is drawn for its plot, its street, and the people who will live there. We do not reuse a design from another client.
We are drawn to the Danish National Romantic tradition: buildings made from what the place is made from — brick, wood, tile, stone — and detailed by people who knew the material well. We work in that spirit with today's materials and today's rules, so a house we draw is warm and quiet to live in, and built the way houses are built now.
Where a street has a character worth answering to, we answer to it. Where it has none, we propose something in what we call new National Romanticism: the same tradition, built with today's technique and today's requirements.
What we deliver
We take care of the design and the documentation. You keep responsibility for the construction.
Our part runs from the first sketch to the finished paperwork:
- The first drawings — where the idea of your new home takes shape
- The design proposal — the design worked through, so you can see what you are getting
- The permit drawings — what the municipality needs, and the building permit itself
- The construction drawings — what the building is made from
- Tender documents — so the work can be priced properly
- As-built documentation — a record of what was actually built, once the work is finished
During construction we visit the site each week. If you would like us more closely involved than that, we can be — as assistance to you, not as manager of the site. That responsibility stays clearly with you and your contractor, and we think everyone is better served when the line is drawn plainly.
Where to start
If you own a plot or a home in or near Copenhagen and are thinking about building, the property report is the first step.
It is free, it needs no visit, and it tells you what your property allows before anyone talks about a design or a price.
If it looks right from there, we would be glad to talk.