Copenhagen-based architect and designer David Thulstrup, who specialises in Danish architecture and interior restoration interventions, has embarked on its latest project, Strandgade 104. This heritage conservation initiative breathes new life into a building over two centuries old, transforming it into an apartment complex featuring four contemporary design homes, including a double-storey penthouse. Thulstrup, known for his timeless designs that endure and evolve with time, believes in the importance of preserving, adding, “We have a responsibility to work with existing buildings, not just knock stuff down."

The harbourside building was built between 1800-1810 in Copenhagen’s Christianshavn, which was a hub for ships that arrived from the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Iceland. The multi-level warehouse was used to store and dry hides by hanging and it remained vacant for nearly a century. Being a heritage listing with Denmark’s Agency for Culture and Palaces一an organisation that manages and maintains state-owned palaces, gardens and cultural heritage sites一the transformation of the building required a strict approval process and rigorous conservation work, which took five years to complete.

The project diverges from the Danish architect’s usual works, yet he approaches it by immersing himself in the user’s perspective, analysing their expectations and potential behaviour patterns, to derive concepts to fabricate the built environment. “My process is grounded in an analysis and understanding of place, the history, the surroundings and what brought us to the current state,” states Thulstrup on how the context and rich past of the project informs his approach to design spatial experiences. “I wanted to reveal the beauty of it all, using a small palette of original materials out of respect for the building, such as rendered walls, simple pine planks and Finnish stone, but putting them into a more relevant context,” he reveals.

Thulstrup began the project by treating the structure and the shell to reveal the original surfaces, highlighting the history and materiality of the building. Years of encrusted paint and chalk build-up on the pine wood beams were stripped by hand and the drooping floors were meticulously levelled without damaging the existing structure. The new floors used Douglas pine wood planks of varying sizes, finished with a layer of white soap to give them a lighter appearance. Decades of surface treatments and additions to the brick architecture were removed and finished with Danish Rødvig, which is a mixture of chalk and sand. The original foundation of the building revealed Finnish baltic brown granite, which was used as cladding for the bathroom walls.

The architect added interventions in the building while considering the lifestyle of the residents. Built-in benches and an outdoor shower were installed outside the building for use after a swim in the harbour at the Krøyers Plads, where a berth for a small boat was also added. The ground floor of the building was turned into a communal space, featuring wine rooms, storage, a sauna, a kitchenette and a large dining table. The architect worked around the limitations that came with renovating and renewing the heritage building and made the most out of them. “I was not allowed to put in any walls to make rooms, but I inserted two cores, one around the stairwell with a fitted kitchen at one end and the other for a bathroom,” informed Thulstrup. With no walls and doors throughout the floor area of 220 sqm, the two cores played a pivotal role in creating privacy and segregating spaces. Additionally, the cores provided an enclosure for every apartment’s entrance foyer and a lift that connects all the floors for ease of access.

“When you have something as prominent as the central axis of the building with the two big windows looking out一one to the canal and the other to the city一the whole idea is to respect that and make the space as structured and uncluttered as possible, keeping it light,” says the architect. The apartment designs have a contemporary flair that of luxurious city apartments with its open plan layout and big windows that facilitate ample natural light, contrasted by the rustic charm of the heritage architecture. The brick walls and timber architecture add character to the interior spaces that feature simpler and lighter surface treatments, low ceilings and minimal design, adding openness, warmth and comfort to the built environment.

“When I do new architecture I am very focussed on how to use the material as a volume rather than superficially,” comments Thulstrup, taking cues from the building’s past and translating them into the details of the residential design. “For instance, cladding the lift enclosure in leather creates a new narrative around the history of this building as a hidden warehouse,” he says. Bricks are incorporated into the window sills and internal surfaces of the building to establish a sense of consistency and dialogue between the facade design and interior design. “We could have chosen a standard bathtub, but making it from one solid block of the same stone from the original building connects it directly to the history,” he adds.

Having initially embarked on a series of retail design projects, the architect now leans more towards restaurant design, residential architecture and interior design transformations. “Strandgade 104 is a perfect example of how I work in transformations, showing the beauty of the old building in a new light with contemporary gestures but not overplaying it, either in terms of honouring the old characteristics or inserting the new,” says Thulstrup.

The architect’s ‘contemporary gestures’ for the Strandgade 104, grounded in a deep respect for the history of the building and its context create a distinctive living experience in the middle of Copenhagen. The residential interiors are spacious, minimal and prioritise ‘quiet luxury’, featuring a variety of textures, materials and colours to provide a visually interesting and tactile experience.