Sorte Hus is an innovative and affordable single-family residence in Copenhagen; it combines intelligent use of prefabricated materials to minimize costs, while utilizing a simple spatial composition to maximize room. The result, a saddle-roofed house, provides an answer to the growing demand of small family dwellings in the dense urban landscape of the Danish capital.

Transition from the public realm to the private sphere happens at the front door, located atypically in the exterior garden wall: Once entering, the first “room” encountered is in fact the garden – over 100 sq meters of enclosed, private greenery. The structure itself consists of three interlocking materials: a self-heated floor of concrete, prefabricated wooden panels and double-glazed windows; the three essential materials form the shape of an extruded, slanted-roof house, -the maximum allowed volume determined by local building regulation.

The provided 80 sq meter home is divided directly in the middle: an imaginative east-west axis parts the home between shared and private spaces, each utilizing its provided 40 sq meter footprint to its fullest extent: The south-facing living room is constructed as a wide  open space around a free-standing “island” which hides the household’s appliances, pipes and other utilities. Completed by wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling windows, the room opens up to the vast garden, which serves as an immediate extension of the interior space.  As a contrary, the North-facing living quarters are constructed as large and private alcove retreats. Lastly, the slimmer west and east-facing facades are punctured by high-positioned windows, catching the first and light of dawn and the last rays of dusk.