DRAPES
FOR DAYS
DURUP HELPS TRANSFORM A HISTORIC BUILDING INTO A GLOBAL HUB FOR CONTEMPORARY SCANDINAVIAN DESIGN
Audo Copenhagen first opened its doors in 2019, sending a ripple of excitement through Denmark’s design community. Inside the historic Nordhavn building was an entirely new and extremely chic concept space, comprising a café, workspace, showroom, boutique, and hotel with eight unique rooms. Each space in this design multiverse blended seamlessly into the next, delineated by – you guessed it – Durup drapes.
This was Durup’s first commercial project of such magnitude and we were honored to be invited by Audo as a founding design partner, along with a luminary roster of luxury Scandinavian lifestyle brands like Bang & Olufsen, Dux, St. Leo and Geberit. To bring our vision to life, we worked closely with the stellar team from the renowned design practice Norm Architects.
From the get go, Audo Copenhagen was an ambitious project that aimed to bridge the rich heritage of Danish design with a global, forward-looking mindset - the very definition of the Durup ethos. Our mission is rooted in a commitment to upend conventional ways of thinking by using imagination, self-expression and the transformative power of textiles to create luxurious, atmospheric interiors. At Audo Copenhagen, we did exactly that.
And this would be one for the record books: we had never before (nor, it should be noted, ever since!) made drapes so long and flowing as these: 6 meter-long swaths of thick, structured linen beautifully draped from Audo House’s lofty ceilings.
Elsewhere across the Audo multiverse, we employed ingenuity to express individuality. Our color palette was a strict Scandinavian neutral: think fifty shades of greige. But what a lot of character you can add by playing around with the weave and the weight! In a sense, this became a study in texture and materiality as we moved with intention through each space.
In the boutique, we used sheer linen to bring in more light. In the lobby café, our heaviest thread count linen created the structure we needed to anchor the cavernous space. In the workspace, we employed the latest technology for motorized blinds. In the hotel, we kissed each room with a different fabric, playing around with weight, texture and color - even sneaking in one subtle pattern into this otherwise monochromatic world! - to underscore each chamber’s unique character.
“Sometimes it is the projects with the strictest guidelines that allow for the most creativity,” said designer Nicoline Durup. “You have to really tap your imagination and dig deep to find inventive design solutions that say something different while sticking to the overall narrative. For me, our work with Audo Copenhagen will always embody what we mean when we say drapery is the cornerstone of good design.”
