Heading to Copenhagen for 3 Days of Design? Take our Modernist Travel Guide With You!

If you’re heading to the 3 Days of Design festival in Copenhagen soon — it runs June 17-19 this year — we’re guessing your schedule is already packed with exhibition visits and design aperitivos, not to mention the obligatory meals at La Banchina and Apollo Bar. But there’s also a good chance that, if you’re anything like us, you always carve out at least a little time for mandatory design sightseeing, too? With Scandinavia being a goldmine for mid-century anything, it’s definitely folly to go to a place like Copenhagen without digging for architectural gems, and this year, we’re making it incredibly easy to find them with our Modernist Travel Guide. ICYMI, Adam Štěch, the architecture photographer behind the popular Instagram account @okolo_architecture, distilled two decades of his work documenting over 10,000 Modernist landmarks into a handy, pocket-sized travel guide covering 363 buildings (with addresses!) in 30 cities around the world, and luckily for all of us, Copenhagen is one of them.

There’s still time to order a copy of the book to take with you to Denmark — and wherever else you may be traveling afterwards — so you can pre-scope out your spots and, if necessary, book advanced tickets to visit them. In case you still need convincing, we’ve excerpted three of the guide’s 12 recommendations for Copenhagen (with Adam’s text) below. See you there!

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Frederiksberg Rådhus, 1952

“Gentle Neoclassicism and soft Modernism meet in the interior of the Frederiksberg Town Hall, designed by architect Henning Hansen and completed after his death, in 1952, by Carl H. Nimb and Helge Holm. The glass chandeliers and lights were created by Hansen in collaboration with Carl Fagerlund, a lighting designer at the Swedish heritage glassworks Orrefors.”

Radiohuset, 1930s-1972

“The Radiohuset complex is one of the most important examples of Danish modernist architecture. Wilhelm Lauritzen started designing it in the mid-1930s, and the first phase of the project — a concert hall — was completed in 1945, with further expansions made until 1972. Lauritzen collaborated with Finn Juhl to design furniture and light fixtures for the building.”

Ved Volden, 1930s

“At first glance, the unique details on the door and façade of this 1930s residential complex by architect Tyge Hvass aren’t even that noticeable. Closer inspection, however, reveals unconventional,lyrical artworks created by the painters Vilhelm Bjerke-Petersen and Elsa Thoresen, with sculptor Olaf Staehr-Nielsen.”