Kengo Kuma's 300,000-Brick Bathhouse Opens in Copenhagen in December

A bathhouse built from 300,000 handmade bricks is nearing completion on Copenhagen's harbour, and it opens to the public on 5 December. Japanese studio Kengo Kuma & Associates designed the Kai Water Culture House, a 5,800-square-metre aquatic centre on the artificial island of Christiansholm — known locally as Papirøen, or Paper Island.

The facility will contain ten indoor and outdoor pools, alongside wellness facilities and cultural spaces. Kengo Kuma & Associates worked on the project with three Danish firms: Cornelius Vöge, Søren Jensen and Vilhelm Lauritzen Architects.

Photos released ahead of the opening show five staggered, pyramidal buildings perched on a glazed base, fronted by a wooden pier giving swimmers direct access to the sea. The pier is slated for completion early next year.

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

Ikeguchi added: "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."

How the brickwork works

The tapered volumes carry triangular and square openings that filter dappled light into the indoor pools — a daylight strategy that borrows from Kuma's long-standing interest in perforated facades (outer walls that let light through without exposing the interior).

"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," the firm added.

What sits inside the five towers?

The tallest volume, dubbed the Culture Tower, houses the centre's cultural programmes, including a third-floor events space. The other four towers each contain lofty indoor pools.

Between the brick volumes on the first floor sits an outdoor pool framed by the building's sloped facades, plus an open-air onsen — a Japanese-style hot spring — overlooking the harbour. That pairing of Danish harbour-bath culture with Japanese bathing tradition is the project's clearest architectural argument.

Why Paper Island matters

The building forms part of a wider redevelopment of Paper Island led by Danish studio COBE. Recent projects there include a 20,000-square-metre apartment complex by COBE and Vilhelm Lauritzen Architects, designed in reference to the area's 300-year-old warehouses.

What does the opening change for Copenhagen? It converts one of the harbour's last industrial-era sites into a year-round public attraction, and it gives Kuma — best known for cultural landmarks like the Tokyo Olympic stadium — his water-focused foothold in Scandinavia. December's opening will show whether 403 windows and 300,000 bricks can turn a swim into a civic ritual.