North of bustling Copenhagen city centre, Norm Architects has completed a comprehensive renovation of a private family home overlooking the water and a grand pier. The architects focused on showing the inherent modernist qualities of the house, so the house is now a peaceful place to live, made up of clean lines and natural materials, that can retreat from busy work into everyday life.

As an early modernist building, Waterfront House initially combined stucco details and clean lines, daring not to fully commit to modernism, resulting in a directionless style. Therefore, the firm decided to remove the stucco and other superfluous parts in order to show a streamlined quality in the structure, ultimately allowing the house to achieve its minimalist potential.

The entire interior of the house is custom made. When architecture becomes a framework for People's Daily life and health, then what is around it is crucial in terms of light, materials, colour and scale. The interior layout concept of the house has been changed to create a residential core. The kitchen is now the centre of the house and everything revolves around it, creating a natural flow and connection between the different functions on the ground floor.

The studio believes that the characteristic details of the original house will either be reconstructed or reinterpreted into contemporary elements suitable for current needs. So they replaced the original mullion Windows with larger Windows with modernist features that let light in without disrupting views, while the staircase is a replica of its predecessor.

The living room is divided into different areas for the family life that unfolds within the space; A sofa in the middle provides space for guests to have a comfortable view of the fireplace, while a sofa embedded in the room extends the length of the room, allowing people to snuggle together to read a book or gaze out to sea. Through balanced tones, warm oak and cold marble elements are used to contrast, giving the room a tactile feel.