Kengo Kuma's KAI Water Culture House Opens in Copenhagen in 2026

KAI Water Culture House, a 5,800 m² public bath and cultural facility on Copenhagen's Papirøen (Paper Island), will open on December 5, 2026. Kengo Kuma & Associates designed the building with Cornelius Vöge Atelier for Architecture and Vilhelm Lauritzen Architects, and it packs ten indoor and outdoor pools, wellness spaces and cultural programming into one waterfront block.

The most striking number here is the masonry: the five brick towers took approximately 300,000 handmade bricks. Each tower is shaped around the pool beneath it, which produces distinct interior spaces and an uneven roofline across the complex. Below the towers sits a glazed base, and its windows frame views of Copenhagen Harbour while pulling daylight into the building.

What can visitors actually do there?

The programme splits across two levels. The ground floor holds a 25-metre fitness pool, a teaching pool and three children's play pools. The first floor carries the recovery and heat end of the spectrum: a therapy pool, a hot pool, a cold plunge pool, plus two outdoor pools. There are also three saunas, a steam bath and a heated stone.

The centrepiece is the Valley Pool, an outdoor pool set between the towers on the first floor where visitors swim under open sky. An outdoor onsen pool on the same level overlooks the harbour directly, tying the Japanese bathing tradition the name suggests to the Danish waterfront.

What happens outside the building?

Swimming doesn't stop at the facade. Designated swimming and dipping zones are planned along a timber boardwalk, with views toward the Royal Danish Playhouse and Opera Park. Those harbour-bathing facilities will open in early 2027, a few months after the building itself.

How did the project come about?

The origin story runs back to 2015, when the City of Copenhagen invited residents to propose ideas for a cultural and leisure facility on Paper Island. The call drew 160 proposals, many asking for a swimming facility that could double as a place for relaxation and community life. An international architectural competition followed in spring 2017, and Kengo Kuma & Associates won it.

The team structure shifted over the decade of work: Cornelius Vöge Atelier for Architecture collaborated through concept design, while Vilhelm Lauritzen Architects served as executive architects from detailed design to completion. The Paper Island Water Culture House Foundation developed the project in partnership with the City of Copenhagen, with support from the Nordea Foundation.

Where does this fit in Copenhagen's bigger picture?

The building is one piece of a wider conversion of Copenhagen's harbour from industrial and shipping use into public recreation and cultural space. The city was named the world's most liveable city for the second consecutive year in the 2026 Global Liveability Index.

More architecture is coming. The second Copenhagen Architecture Biennial runs from September 9 to October 15, 2027, under the theme "Elements," examining architecture's relationship with fire, earth, air and water. In parallel, Danish practice AART has won the competition for Rigets Skatkammer (The Royal Treasury), a 1,300 m² underground extension to Rosenborg Castle that adds exhibition space beneath the historic moat and partially restores the water around the Renaissance castle. KAI's 2026 opening sets the stage for a waterfront that keeps compounding.