This year, timing aligned perfectly for the Studio Prineas team to spend seven days together in Copenhagen during 3 Days of Design. It was a first for every one of us, and experiencing the city with fresh eyes made every discovery feel that much more significant.
What makes 3 Days of Design so remarkable is that it unfolds not within the walls of an exhibition centre, but across the city itself. Private homes, workshops, showrooms, museums and public spaces open their doors, inviting visitors into the places where design is imagined, made and lived. There is an extraordinary generosity to the festival – not only in the access it provides, but in the time people are willing to share.
We found ourselves welcomed into lunches and conversations with designers and makers, meeting people such as Anne Boysen at dk3 and Kirsten Møller, Director of JL Møllers Møbelfabrik and granddaughter of Niels Otto Møller, one of Denmark’s most influential design pioneers. There were moments of celebration and delight, moments of quiet reflection – like sitting in the Fritz Hansen Sound Club – and moments of homecoming, joining the celebration of Claire Delmar’s exhibition of Australian makers and artists in the heart of Copenhagen. Together, they revealed that design is ultimately sustained by people, relationships and a willingness to share ideas.
At Studio Prineas, travel is an investment in curiosity. It is an opportunity to step away from the demands of practice and immerse ourselves in the places, buildings, homes, landscapes and objects that quietly shape the way we think. Just as importantly, travelling together creates space for conversation – for sharing observations, challenging one another, discovering unexpected moments and returning with a richer collective perspective than any one of us could have gained alone.
The memories that follow are not a travel diary, but a collection of moments that stayed with us. Some are grand, others almost imperceptible. Together, they show that inspiration rarely arrives as a single revelation. More often, it is gathered slowly – through experience, reflection and the privilege of seeing the world together.
– Eva-Marie Prineas, Studio Prineas LFRAIA
Grundtvig Church
Peder Vilhelm Jensen-Klint
Arriving at Grundtvig Church, the surrounding neighbourhood makes its presence even more profound. Rising above modest brick houses, the church anchors the suburb with quiet confidence rather than monumentality.
Constructed from more than five million Danish bricks, every surface speaks to extraordinary craftsmanship. A deliberately compressed entrance gives way to the soaring volume of the nave, where repeating brick arches, soft natural light and gentle acoustics create an atmosphere of remarkable calm. There is no ornament to distract – only material, proportion and light, demonstrating that the most enduring architecture often relies on restraint.
– Grace Tetley
Nærheden
Home.Earth
Our first day in Copenhagen began with a visit to Home.Earth, where founder Rasmus Nørgaard shared a refreshingly optimistic vision for housing – one that places people, cities and the planet at the centre of every decision.
Touring their first completed build-to-rent development with project architect Kasper Guldager, we learnt that each project is viewed not as a finished outcome, but as part of an ongoing process of refinement. Every building informs the next. As a fellow B Corp, this commitment to continual improvement resonated deeply with us, reflecting our shared belief that thoughtful design and long-term stewardship cannot be separated.
One quote stayed with us all: “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” – R. Buckminster Fuller
– Angela Beshaw
Kjærholm Residence
Hanne Kjærholm & Poul Kjærholm
Passing beneath a curtain of fragrant wisteria and into the Kjærholm family home felt less like a house tour and more like being welcomed into someone’s story.
Guided by their son Thomas Kjærholm, we experienced the beautifully restrained architecture of Hanne alongside furniture designed by Poul specifically for the spaces – and often for Hanne herself. Among the many memorable details was a single Spanish tile, quietly concealed within a hallway wall, continuing Hanne’s tradition of embedding a treasured tile from each of her travels into every home she designed.
It was an intimate illustration of how the most meaningful architecture is often deeply personal.
– Lisa Gervay
Louisiana Museum of Modern Art
Louisiana Museum is as much an architectural experience as it is an art museum. The sequence of spaces expands and contracts with effortless rhythm – low glazed corridors giving way to soaring galleries before leading back into intimate, darker rooms.
The architecture continually reveals and conceals, framing glimpses of the landscape before drawing you back towards the art. It is a building that rewards curiosity and invites exploration at every turn.
The Sophie Calle exhibition provided the perfect conclusion – heartfelt, humorous and deeply human, leaving us reflecting as much on emotion as architecture.
– Alice Larkings
Bellevue Theatre
Arne Jacobsen
Bellevue Theatre is a reminder that architecture is never just about the building. Every detail – from the furniture and lighting to the striped walls inspired by the nearby beachside lifeguard towers – was carefully considered as part of a complete architectural experience.
Our wonderfully theatrical guide only added to the occasion, but the highlight came when the theatre’s retractable roof slowly opened above us, revealing the grey Copenhagen sky – and a little rain. Functional, poetic and quietly joyful, it perfectly captured Jacobsen’s ability to transform the everyday into something memorable.
– Eleni Carolan
Long Table Dinner
One of the most memorable evenings was when we joined an event called Artisan Bites in Islands Brygge – a Long Table Dinner inspired by the Danish tradition of communal dining. A collaboration between craft and food, the evening brought people together through an interactive dining experience where guests were eventually seated at random around the table. The result was something increasingly rare: genuine conversation, unexpected friendships and the understanding that sharing ideas often begins by simply sharing a table. Like the best architecture, the evening wasn’t really about the incredible food or the elegant setting, it was about creating the conditions for people to connect.
– Eva-Marie Prineas
Looking back, what stayed with us most was not a particular building or object, but the people we met along the way. Every visit became a conversation, every conversation an opportunity to learn. It echoed something we have always believed at Studio Prineas: that architecture is ultimately about relationships – between people, places and ideas.
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