Original featurekengo kuma’s brick towers frame open-air pools at copenhagen’s upcoming bathhousedesignboom · 28 October 2026 →

Architectural Language and Form

Kengo Kuma & Associates has conceived the Water Culture House as an extension of the industrial harbour landscape, utilizing vertical brick volumes to break down the scale of the civic facility. Rather than a monolithic institutional block, the structure reads as a cluster of porous towers that allow views to pass through to the water.

Open-air pools are slotted between these masonry forms, offering bathers the experience of swimming under the open sky while remaining sheltered within the urban fabric. The interplay of heavy brickwork and water creates a dynamic thermal and visual contrast that defines the visitor experience.

Materiality and Craft

The primary material choice—brick—anchors the project in Scandinavian building traditions while allowing for contemporary tectonic expression. Kuma’s approach relies on deconstructing solid materials, arranging the bricks with varying densities to let natural light filter deep into the interior bathing halls.

This emphasis on tactile surfaces moves away from the sterile, high-gloss finishes typical of modern aquatic centres. Instead, the rough texture of the exterior masonry meets humid, stone-clad interiors, creating a sensory environment that prioritises human scale and material honesty.

Context Within the Studio's Portfolio

This Copenhagen commission sits alongside a growing body of civic and cultural projects by Kengo Kuma & Associates across Europe and Asia, where the studio consistently explores the boundaries between landscape and structure. Known globally for projects like the V&A Dundee and the Japan National Stadium, Kuma applies the same philosophical rigour here on a municipal scale.

The design reflects a lifelong preoccupation with porosity, light, and local context, translating timber-heavy Japanese vernacular sensibilities into a robust European masonry vocabulary suited to a northern maritime climate.

Related reads

• kengo kuma’s brick towers frame open-air pools at copenhagen’s upcoming bathhouse (Designboom, 28 Oct 2026)
• Kengo Kuma & Associates’ Water Culture House to Open in Copenhagen on December 5, 2026 (ArchDaily, 28 Oct 2026)
• Swimming Among Brick Towers by Kengo Kuma in Copenhagen (Archiproducts, 26 Oct 2026)
• Kengo Kuma’s New Aquatic Centre in Copenhagen to Open in December (Archilovers, 23 Oct 2026)
• Kengo Kuma’s KAI Aquatic Center Opens in Copenhagen 2026 (Parametric Architecture, 28 Oct 2026)

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