What happens when a house slated for demolition is allowed to remain, while at the same time being given a new life? What happens when we move our lives out of the city, and what kinds of spaces, needs, and dreams should a new country house accommodate?

As part of this project, the Architecture programme welcomed architect Leonora Krag from the architecture studio Norrøn. Using Norrøn’s project The Danish Country House as a point of departure, the students developed their own proposals for what the country house might look like today.

Working from a shared starting point, the existing white house ruin, the students explored transformation through addition: the old structure remains in place, while new spaces and constructions emerge around it, on top of it, and within it.

The result is a series of different country houses in which the existing and the newly added meet, sometimes gently, sometimes radically. Together, the projects form a collection of personal interpretations of The Danish Country House 2.0.

The project is a collaboration between Krabbesholm, Norrøn, and the Utzon Center, and can be experienced as part of the exhibition Afterlife: A Tribute to Difficult Buildings at the Utzon Center from 7 October 2026 to 4 April 2027. Following its run in Aalborg, the exhibition will travel to DAC (Danish Architecture Center).