Approach

We are here to
build future-proof
urbanism, landscape
and architecture

Future-proof architecture
We want change. Today, the building and construction sector account for 40% of the world’s CO₂ emissions. We are aware of our responsibility and our opportunity to impact. Our ambition is to create architecture that exists only to contribute; buildings that benefit, spaces that enrich and cities that catalyse positive progress. It’s a collective act, so we join and share. We have much to learn and a long way to go, but we take a stand and we take the lead.

Future-proof architecture is extraordinary design
We choose to push the boundaries of how architecture can be shaped. We aim for design that transforms, empowers and engages. Places that captivate because of their innovative aesthetics and intrinsic beauty that stand the test of time.

Future-proof architecture generates value for everyone, every day

We design for life — for people and for communities. We shape enduring architecture because it’s rooted in reality yet open for change — for new uses and users. We aim to bring life to spaces that work from day one and for generations to come.

We are shaped by
Copenhagen,
and Copenhagen
is shaped by us

Based in Copenhagen, we have played a major role in the transformation of the Danish capital into a bustling, democratic city designed for living. We are shaped by Copenhagen, and Copenhagen is shaped by us.

010 cobe approach copenhagen from above

Nørreport Station and Israels Plads are located in the heart of central Copenhagen.

Spend an hour walking through Copenhagen, and it's likely you will run into a building or urban space touched by Cobe. We see Copenhagen as a 1:1 laboratory of our work in human scale. Visit our metro stations and bicycle paths, green urban spaces and central squares, transformed industrial areas, seaside promenades and buildings for living, culture and work.

Design for life

At Cobe we create architecture that improves life, and through architecture we ensure that each existing city, building or landscape that we transform is a better place than it was before. That is the true measure of our work and our accomplishments as architects.

010 cobe nothwest library exterior
050 cobe approach the library

On the site of a former gas station, The Library in Copenhagen’s north-west district offers a much needed place to meet and socialize across cultural barriers.

We create places rooted in reality. Cities, buildings and landscapes that fit in and stand out. When building, we believe that the most resilient solution is to create something long-lasting and beautiful.

170 cobe rode kors exterior

Shaped as a triangle with a publicly accessible roof surface, the Red Cross Volunteer House is designed with the ambition of providing an inviting space and encouraging passers-by to enter and explore what the structure has to offer.

We transform cities, buildings and landscapes into compact, performative and healthy settings. Our built environment must reflect and help us change our habits and behaviour in order to meet current and future environmental challenges.

040 cobe israel plads history
170 cobe israel plads exterior

From the 1950s to the 1990s Israels Plads was a parking lot. In 2014, Cobe revitalized the space, turning it into a vibrant, diverse urban space for all kinds of people and activities, functioning as a schoolyard during the daytime and as a performative, active, social gathering space during the afternoon, with up to 1,192 cars parked underground.

Transforming existing
structures and settings

Recognizing that the best option is to reuse existing resources, we challenge the desire to build new.

090 cobe silo exterior

In Copenhagen’s Nordhavn district, we have transformed a former grain silo into housing, repurposing 2,740 m³ of existing concrete structure, which stores more than 400 tons of embodied CO2.

We help convert former industrial areas into resilient and liveable mixed-use neighbourhoods and give former industrial buildings renewed relevance.

070 cobe approach roskilde
060 cobe approach roskilde

Situated in a former concrete production facility, Roskilde Festival Folk High School utilizes the spans and durability of the robust concrete structures to create a flexible setting for education and unlimited creativity.

Materials for life

We insist on having an open and spirited dialogue when choosing materials in our projects. We aim for long-lasting and beautiful materials that minimize the carbon footprint. We promote a circular approach, investigate the potentials of recycled alternatives and design healthy indoor climates.

020 cobe approach lund science center

The future Science Center in the heart of Science Village Scandinavia in southern Sweden will be a 6,000-m² timber building with a loadbearing glue-laminated and CLT structure and wooden façades.

We believe engineered wood is the building material of the future. Designing contemporary buildings in timber has the potential of reducing the embodied carbon footprint during the production phase.

090 cobe ladestationerne detail
171 cobe ladestationerne detail woods

Our Ultra-fast Charging Stations for Electric Cars are designed for disassembly using prefabricated timber modules. The canopy modules are constructed with FSC and PEFC-certified timber.

Material use in buildings accounts for a significant share of the carbon emission globally and one third of the waste produced in Denmark. We persistently investigate the potential of transforming abandoned and wasted resources into new uses.

030 cobe approach maritime museum
070 cobe porsgrunn exterior

The Maritime Museum in the Norwegian city of Porsgrunn is a celebration of the city’s shipping and industrial history. The façade is clad in 70% recycled aluminum produced locally.

The future of
mobility

We are engaged in all aspects of contemporary mobility solutions, ranging from intermodal mobility hubs to soft mobility planning and infrastructure for new electric alternatives. We believe that inspiring people to change behaviour and modify their personal transportation habits can have a huge positive impact on our climate.

081 cobe norreport gif
080 cobe approach isreale plads

The new Nørreport Station has become a public square with ample bicycle parking, benches and glass pavilions.

We work with urban-scale strategies and help design public spaces, buildings and neigbourhoods to help cities achieve the transition from private cars to shared, public or soft mobility alternatives.
It is our aim to create social interaction in all our projects by creating the physical conditions for people's lives and their social interaction.

070 cobe karen plads aerial view
100 cobe karen plads exterior bike bridge

At Karen Blixens Plads, we have created a quality solution for high numbers of bicycles in a space that also invites students, neighbours and passers-by to meet and play.

At Cobe we work with attractive intermodal hubs that inspire commuters to choose more public-transport alternatives.

090 cobe koge nord station exterior wide view

Hovering above the motorway, the 260-meter-long covered pedestrian bridge at Køge Nord Station serves as a visual invitation to thousands of car commuters to choose an alternative option: To park the car and take the train, saving both time and money and reducing their carbon footprint.

Performative
landscapes

We are experiencing growing pressure on the open spaces in our cities. At Cobe, we design cities with great sensitivity towards the fragile balances between city and nature while designing functional infrastructural and technical landscapes to perform urban tasks, such as handling stormwater, providing parking, reducing heat island effects and meeting basic human and social needs. For us, creating great landscapes is not a matter of a certain style or form, but more importantly its adaptability to the local context, its social life and its users.

120 cobe israel plads exterior

Historically, Israels Plads is a transition between city and nature. This is where the green belt of parkscapes meet the Copenhagen city blocks.

The increasing frequency and severity of extreme weather events present a challenge to cities to balance protection from stormwater and rising sea levels with the obvious recreational assets the coastline offers people in the city. Cobe‘s portfolio includes a wide range of harbour-related projects, from urban-scale strategies and plans to buildings in transformed harbour areas and urban spaces dealing with local rainwater mitigation and water as a source of leisure activites.

490 cobe nordhavn swimmers
090 cobe approach nordhavn

The high water quality of the Nordhavn harbour offers a potential to use this 300-hectare water landscape as a resource for leisure and exercise.

Urbanization is known to be one of the biggest threats to biodiversity. Our work involves dense and performative landscapes that meet the potentials and challenges of densification and urbanization and raise the percentage of greenery in our cities.

090 cobe operapark model trees

The future Opera Park in the Copenhagen harbour area will be a new two-hectare public park on the Copenhagen waterfront designed for recreation, contemplation and socializing. The Opera Park will feature more than 80 different species of trees, plants and flowers.