Exquisite craft: Garde Hvalsøe

Crafts and philosophy.

“The goal is to allow customers to read our story on the surface of the wood. In all honesty, much more simply, ours is a team effort”, says the owner. “Only by showing ourselves for who we are, we will be able to be appreciated today and by the generations to come”, and contribute to the definition of a better world. So it doesn't clash with the fact that right here in Copenhagen, where the slow life that intertwines edible berries and cycle paths, a brand that moves small but solid market volumes, gathers support, especially in the world of architectural firms.

The news.

It is the studio Bunn, the pair of designers who have returned to the city after spending a few years in New York, to transform a former car factory (later a photographic printing studio) in showrooms.

We are in the center of Copenhagen, inside a private courtyard in the København area: 400 m2 of contemporary art gallery is the space cut out in the light in which the wood of the bespoke furniture by Garde Hvalsøe finds its dimension. At the entrance, the monumental table in ash wood by David Thulstrup stretches out, around it, the narration continues by chapters: the important kitchen furniture is counterpointed by the walk-in closets, thresholds that cut the space to define the day and night areas.

A discreet dialogue that opens up to the works of the Danish artist Sara Martensen.

“Despite the central location, we are in a protected area, sheltered from the frenetic city life”, says Søren, “here guests can immerse themselves in our world, cross it and listen to the material”. Which vibrates with its natural imperfection stimulated by the architectural sensibility of Louise Sigvardt and Marcus Hannibal (the Bunn Studio): “It was important for us to stress the kitchen idea, make it really the protagonist.

Not only to show the quality of the craftsmanship, but above all the infinite customization possibilities that the company is able to create".

Savoir faire and complicity: this is the secret of a choral operation. “The staging of a project, its representation, is essential to restore the authenticity of an idea”, an effective, all-analog way of interpreting the concept of an immersive environment.

The witnesses.

Susanne Rützou, one of Denmark's best-known ceramists, chose Søren's former home as her living and working space. Here, a few steps from the company showroom, the owner of Hvalsøe Garde lived with his sister.

Her elm kitchen still dominates the ground floor: “she is over fifteen years old and it was one of the reasons why I fell in love with this building from the 1930s. Because it has a soul, like my sculptural bowls in stoneware and porcelain”.

The clients.

Artists, potters and architects. Among them Henning Larsen Architects, the studio that designed the summer residence in Tisvilde, an area north of Copenhagen overlooking the sea. The style is typical of the Scandinavian studio for which it has been known since the early 1960s when it was founded.

The owners, who prefer to remain anonymous, have decided to open their doors to share their vision of the house.

For them it was essential to create an environment permeable to nature, to the marvelous landscape typical of the northern coast of the Danish island of Zealand.

Dunes and wild nature could not remain just a skyline to be admired through the large windows, so Larsen, appreciated for his never radical sustainable approach, builds a residence in harmony with man and the environment. Through rooms, light and oak wood. That of Garde Hvalsøe, worked not far from here. Because in nature, everything adds up.