nordic zen

Scandi style meets refined Japanese design at Masahiro and Mette’s Danish summerhouse, where life moves to a more natural rhythm

- Rachel Ward

Our lives in the city are so busy, we needed a tranquil place to relax,’ says Japanese-born Masahiro Katsume of the beautifully black zen-style retreat he built with his Danish wife Mette Fredskild. Both architects, the couple spend the working week in their Copenhagen apartment; the rest of the time, they can be found here, enjoying simpler pursuits such as gardening and fishing. ‘It’s a summerhouse, so we didn’t need to make it fancy,’ says Masahiro. ‘We could just focus on the essentials.’

Set in Kulhuse, an hour’s drive outside the Danish capital, the tree-filled plot borders a graveyard and the reflective waters of Ise Fjord. When the couple bought the land in 2016, it came with an old house, which they lived in for a year before deciding to pull it down. ‘We learned a lot about the area in that time,’ says Masahiro. ‘The wind direction, where the daylight comes in – that all determined the design of the building.’