Project Name: Westergaarden Summer House

Location: Sjællands Odde, Denmark

Design Team: N+P Architecture

Total Floor Area: 170 m²

Completion: 2022

Photography: Nicolaj B

Design Features: N+P Architecture has completed Westergaarden Summer House, a 170-square-meter retreat positioned along the southern coastline of Sjællands Odde, Denmark. The project demonstrates a refined approach to contextual design, where architecture responds directly to landscape topography and coastal conditions through careful spatial organization and material restraint.

The residence is distinguished by its monolithic cedar wood cladding, enveloping both roof and façade in a unified skin that will gradually develop a silver-grey patina over time. This natural weathering process reflects the architects' commitment to materiality that evolves with its environment rather than resisting it. The restrained material palette extends throughout the interior, where dark tones and functional finishes maintain architectural clarity while emphasizing the relationship between built and natural elements.

Central to the design is an internal courtyard that functions as the organizational heart of the house. All principal living spaces radiate from this protected outdoor room, facilitating visual connections and social interaction while providing shelter from coastal winds. This courtyard configuration creates multiple outdoor zones at varying degrees of exposure, from covered terraces that extend usability into evening hours to open areas that capitalize on summer warmth.

The building's spatial strategy responds to site conditions through contrasting façade treatments. Toward the public roadside, the elevation remains predominantly closed, ensuring privacy and acoustic protection. Conversely, the private side opens generously through expansive glazing that frames water views and establishes direct connections between interior rooms and surrounding terraces. Living areas and bedrooms alike access outdoor spaces immediately, dissolving boundaries between inside and outside.

This dual orientation, combined with the courtyard's mediating role, demonstrates how strategic openings and controlled transparency can maximize seasonal outdoor living while maintaining privacy. The project exemplifies how honest materials, functional clarity, and sensitivity to landscape can produce architecture that integrates seamlessly with its coastal context. Between the precise design of the structure and the softness of the landscape, the house seeks to be a passage rather than an object: a dwelling that protects itself from street movement to fully open towards the lake and vegetation, where the line of construction extends the line of the horizon and the wooden roof unfolds as a gesture of welcome to nature.

Design Team: Founded in 2005 and headquartered in Aalborg, Denmark, N+P Architecture operates under the guiding philosophy that "our approach to architecture is humility and respect for the surroundings. Good architecture does not need to shout to be seen." The practice is currently led by founding partners Jesper Korf, Lars Bo Poulsen, and Thomas Nørkær, who have cultivated a dedicated team of architects and engineers committed to maintaining elevated architectural standards.

The firm's methodology centers on deriving solutions from client aspirations and user requirements, consistently pursuing design frameworks that prioritize safety, comfort, and functionality through simple, rational formal languages. N+P Architecture advocates for an integrated approach where form, function, and construction operate in synthesis rather than isolation.

The practice's project portfolio spans diverse building typologies and scales, from individual residential villas to multi-unit housing, sports facilities, care homes, and institutional buildings across varying geographic contexts. Each commission receives thorough consideration of environmental context, architectural expression, sustainability principles, and material performance as integral components of the design process.

N+P Architecture's design excellence has garnered recognition through multiple municipal building awards from Aalborg, Jammerbugt, Hjørring, and Randers municipalities between 2009 and 2024. The firm has also received successive Gazelle Company designations from Børsen and honors from the Danish Association of Architectural Firms, affirming its position within Denmark's contemporary architectural landscape. Under the continued leadership of founding partners, N+P Architecture maintains its foundational principles of simplicity, material authenticity, and meaningful architecture while advancing contemporary architectural innovation, through systematic exploration of site-specific conditions continuing to advance architectural solutions that honor humble design tradition while addressing contemporary spatial, environmental, and experiential challenges.