Brick bathhouse by Kengo Kuma nears completion in Copenhagen

Kai Water Culture House by Kengo Kuma & Associates

Pyramidal towers frame pools at the Kai Water Culture House by Japanese studio Kengo Kuma & Associates, which is nearing completion in Copenhagen.

Set to open on the city’s harbour in December, the 5,800-square-metre aquatic centre will contain ten indoor and outdoor pools, alongside wellness facilities and cultural spaces.

Kengo Kuma & Associates was commissioned alongside Danish firms Cornelius Vöge, Søren Jensen and Vilhelm Lauritzen Architects to realise the new cultural and recreational facility on the city’s artificial island of Christiansholm – known locally as Papirøen, or Paper Island.

Photos revealed ahead of the opening show the facility’s five staggered buildings perched atop a glazed base and fronted by a wooden pier that provides direct access to the sea.

“The Water Culture House is a significant new landmark on Copenhagen’s waterfront,” Kengo Kuma & Associates lead architect Yuki Ikeguchi said. “It is part of the story of the city and the harbour’s transformation from an industrial to a cultural harbour.”

“As the cultural cornerstone of Papirøen, the house is a gathering place with water and community as its focal point, embraced by a public harbour bath,” Ikeguchi added.

Constructed from 300,000 handmade bricks, the tapered volumes are punctuated by triangular and square openings that filter dappled light into the indoor pools.

“The bricks are arranged in a staggered, stepped pattern, giving the building its distinctive texture and sculptural character,” Vilhelm Lauritzen Architects said.

“A total of 403 windows of varying sizes act as viewing apertures, framing the surroundings and creating captivating experiences of natural light as it shifts throughout the day,” it added.

The tallest of the five volumes, dubbed the Culture Tower, houses the centre’s cultural programmes, which include a third-floor events space. Meanwhile, the other four towers each house lofty indoor pools.

Nestled between the five brick volumes on the first floor is an outdoor pool, framed by the building’s sloped facades, and an open-air Onsen – a Japanese-style hot spring – that overlooks the harbour.