We did this complete redesign of iconic Danish porcelain brand Royal Copenhagen’s flagship store in the center of Copenhagen.

The store is housed in a historic Renaissance building from 1618 and has seen numerous reimaginings since the brand first moved in, back in 1911. In this most recent iteration, we have drawn on some of the earliest designs for the place, in an attempt to point towards the historic heritage while at the same time striving to be a contemporary gallery-like space.

Most of the surfaces are kept in shades of white, hinting at the materials in the Royal Copenhagen production: the glossy white porcelain as well as the powdery matte plaster of the casting moulds.

This contrast of the glossy and the matte, reappears throughout the design, creating a bright backdrop to showcase the brand’s numerous colorful and eclectic collections.

All floors are new: terrazzo with Carrara marble specks, mimicking shards of broken porcelain. The contrasting details we designed with inspiration from the ornamentation of one of Royal Copenhagen’s most famous collections – Flora Danica.

Another inspiration was the Wunderkammer feeling we wanted to bring out in the central vertical room, by mounting several hundred plates and dishes from various Royal Copenhagen collections on the wall.

Above is an etching of the Wunderkammer of Ole Worm, the curiosity cabinet of the 1600s Danish physicist.

Early sketches for the design also included a new spiral staircase, to gain access to a previously closed-off space in the renaissance tower.

The jigsaw-shaped display furniture was inspired by the interlocking pieces of casting moulds.

Below is an example of a mould, with the characteristic jigsaw lines, made to allow for easier alignment of the various pieces of the mould.

The shelves follow this same jigsaw pattern, a modular system we designed for the space, with layers that stack and unstack easily and according to changing needs in the space.

Credits:

Royal Copenhagen team:
Jasper Toron Nielsen
Selina Halvgaard

Mentze Ottenstein team:
Mathias Mentze
Alexander Ottenstein
Stine Müller

Photos: Claus Troelsgaard