New publication “Danish Interiors and Echoes from Japan: Strategies for a Spatial Design Connected to Nature”

BLOGPOST: CARMEN GARCIA SANCHEZ / DATE 09.07.2025

Niels Bohr Guesthouse in Tisvilde Hegn (Denmark), spring 2022 ©Carmen García Sánchez

寿月観 Jugetsukan, 修学院離宮 Shugakuin Imperial Villa, Kyoto (Japan), fall 2022 ©Carmen García Sánchez

Danish Interiors and Echoes from Japan: Strategies for a Spatial Design Connected to Nature” has just been published by the Nordic Journal of Architecture Research. It examines how interior design acts as an extraordinary experience of the phenomenon of nature in four post-war domestic buildings in Denmark as an inspiration for contemporary design practice. Intriguing analogies, in terms of how this interaction with nature takes place, with particular traditional Japanese architecture inform the research.

My peer-reviewed research article advances knowledge of nature-based solutions, that have the potential to improve health and wellbeing through daily interaction with nature in communities. Furthermore, the study delivers a new understanding of post-war Danish domestic architecture from a contemporary perspective as well as insights into the impact of traditional Japanese architecture on it.

It is structured into the following sections :

1._ Introduction

2._ State of the Art and Relevance

3._ Methodology

4._ The Biophilic Design Approach

5._ Danish Architects and Nature

6._ The Japanese Approach

7._ Post-War Case Studies

Niels Bohr Guesthouse

The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art

Karen and Ebbe Clemmensen Study-House

Erik Christian Sørensen Study-House

8._ Conclusions

It’s a great moment to reflect on how the design of our buildings and our lifestyles are leading us to an increasing disconnection from nature, depriving us of the benefits of daily interaction with nature, for human. Following my presentation of my EU-funded research project, NATURE-IN, at the Osaka World Expo 2025 , it couldn't have arrived at a better time.

Find the article at University of Copenhagen´s repository

Focused on the 17 UN´s Sustainable

Development Goals (SDGs)

It has received funding from the European

Union’s H2020 research and innovation

programme under the MSCA grant

agreement 896651. The present action

reflects only the author’s view and it does

not engage in any way the views of the

European Commission.