Client: Hans Egedes Sogn
Location: Nordhavn, Copenhagen, DK
Programme: Church
Gross floor area: 76 m2
LCA-Value: 2.8 kg CO²-eq/m²/year
Year: 2025 (won in competition, 2023)
Budget: DKK 4.2M
Structural engineer: Holst Engineering
Contractor: Fryd!
A Tabernacle for Nordhavn
Twelve facets, each embodying one of Christ’s apostles, encircle a symmetrical, light-filled space crowned by a central oculus — a skylight that opens the sanctuary to the sky and imbues the interior with a quiet sense of transcendence.
The design emerges from a brief calling for a temporary church in Nordhavn — a growing Copenhagen neighbourhood in flux, without permanent ecclesiastical infrastructure. Rather than mimic traditional church typologies, the proposal reimagines the sacred space as something both archetypal and adaptable: a tent-like structure that could be disassembled, moved, and reassembled as needed, yet retain its spiritual gravity.
The church was envisioned not as a fixed monument, but as a contemporary tabernacle — grounded in Christian symbolism while responsive to the demands of mobility, ecology, and scale. The twelve-sided plan references the apostolic circle, while also offering a non-hierarchical geometry that supports communal gathering and liturgical flexibility.
The interplay of precise geometry and irregular, tactile materials gives the church a human expression — at once monumental and delicate, expansive and intimate — where the sacred emerges not through opulence and images, but through presence, proportion, and care.
Anchored in Ambiguity
Located in the area known as "Fiskerihavnen" — an improvised, Klondike-like enclave marked by rough charm and distinct character — the church positions itself with quiet confidence in its surroundings. It stands centrally on its plot: a lush, terrain vague where tall, resilient grasses rise from nutrient-poor soil. Slightly shifted northwards, the building makes room for a generous outdoor space to the south, where the main entrance is located — accessible via a broad stair or a gently sloping ramp.
To the west, a secondary entrance reached via a smaller stair allows the building to function as a porous boundary — enabling fluid transitions between interior and exterior during communal gatherings, ceremonies, or informal events. The surrounding flora has been preserved as found, maintaining the site’s natural character. Surfaces paved with gravel ensure accessibility for wheelchairs, bicycles, and ceremonial vehicles such as hearses.
A humble but compassionate bench.
The slight bend turns those seated toward each other, making comfort, consolation, and embrace feel effortless and natural.
Touching the ground lightly
To minimize impact on the terrain, the church rests on 17 screw piles, eliminating the need for excavation. It is designed for disassembly and relocation, with a non-directional geometry and temporary character that allow it to adapt to a wide variety of contexts — much like a tent.
Between the outer facade and the inner ring of columns lies a narrow, low-ceilinged zone — a spatial buffer that traces the perimeter of the central space. This ring-like zone, nestled between the inner colonnade and the outer facade, forms an interior threshold that mediates between the sanctuary and the world beyond.
Though enclosed, it evokes a sense of transition — modulating light, acoustics, and temperature — and lends a measured rhythm to the visitor’s movement, allowing for a gradual attunement to the spatial and spiritual atmosphere of the sacred core.
Within this zone are three double glass doors and three curtained niches. One holds repurposed stacking chairs, the custom-built foldable Douglas fir communion table, and the baptismal font when not in use. Another contains a modest kitchenette constructed from leftover floorboards. The third provides access to an accessible toilet that also serves as a changing space for priest and assistant, along with built-in cupboards for cleaning supplies, vestments, and technical installations.
Resource awareness
Tolvkanten explores the potential of low-impact architecture through the use of biobased and renewable materials. In conscious contrast to the mineral- and carbon-intensive traditions of stone churches, it embraces a timber-based structure that achieves a verified LCA of just 2.8 kg CO₂e/m²/year (A1–A3, B4, C3–C4). The result is not only a structure with minimal environmental footprint, but one with a warm, tactile atmosphere that reimagines the spatial qualities of the sacred.
Cooling tower
Photographed by Hilla & Bernd Becher
Building type of the industry
You can almost picture the remarkable space that unfolds inside the photographed industrial building.
The architectural language of industrial buildings – straightforward yet impactful – feels like an appropriate reference for a church in this part of Nordhavn.
It becomes both something that belongs and something that stands apart as something distinctive.
The material palette is humble yet distinctive, drawing from the site’s industrial shipyard context. Exterior timber is finished with a matte, black lime-based paint that provides both protection and gravitas in the local coastal climate. Inside, the walls are coated with earth-toned silicate paint, while the central ceiling is clad in whitewashed facade boards, identical to those used externally. The natural knots are left untreated, allowing resin to bleed over time — seen not as imperfection, but as chance encounter ornamention.
The floor is made from soap-treated douglas fir planks in varying widths, with offcuts reused for skirtings and door reveals. The roof is finished with traditional roofing felt.