House Between Walls
Courtyard residence carved from urban fabric
- Location
- Nørrebro, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Year
- 2024
- Status
- Demonstration project — concept design
- Program
- Single-family residence with studio annex
Summary
A narrow Copenhagen infill house that turns party walls into calm interior volumes and a sheltered garden court.
Context
House Between Walls reinterprets a constrained urban plot as a sequence of luminous rooms organized around a central courtyard. Existing masonry party walls become the primary spatial armature, allowing new timber insertions to remain lightweight and reversible.
Challenge
The site offered only 4.8 metres of width between existing structures, with limited southern exposure and strict heritage sightline requirements.
Concept
We treated the party walls as found objects—textured, load-bearing surfaces that define room proportions. A single-storey link bridges front and rear while a double-height dining void draws northern light deep into the plan.
Outcomes
The completed demonstration scheme shows how a small footprint can feel generous when daylight, material warmth, and vertical connection are prioritized over floor area alone.
Architectural response
Materials
- Reclaimed brick party walls
- Douglas fir CLT
- Oiled oak joinery
- Lime plaster
- Zinc standing-seam roofing
Collaborators
- Lumen Atelier — daylight analysis
- Studio Mørk — landscape concept
Gallery
