Urbic
CONTACT
A studio table seen from above, spread with colour swatches, a rolled drawing and a pair of hands marking up a plan.

Notes from the studio.

Material notes, site diaries, and the odd second thought — written between site visits and occasionally revised after them.

MaterialMarch 2025

Lime plaster, and what it does to a north-facing room

A north-facing room gets one kind of light all day — flat, blue, and unforgiving of anything with a sheen. Lime plaster is the only wall finish we have found that gets better in it.

READ THE NOTE

Recent notes

Seven years of site diaries, material tests, and the ones that never made it into a project.

Note layout
Why we draw the joinery before the plan is signed

ProcessJanuary 2025

Why we draw the joinery before the plan is signed

The cabinet decides the room more often than the wall does. Drawing it early is what keeps the budget from being discovered on site.

Four projects a year, and the arithmetic behind it

On siteNovember 2024

Four projects a year, and the arithmetic behind it

Twenty projects means a studio of managers. Four means the person who drew it is the person who picks up the phone on a Tuesday.

Oak, and the three finishes we keep coming back to

MaterialSeptember 2024

Oak, and the three finishes we keep coming back to

Soap, lye, and hardwax oil. Each ages in a different direction, and only one of them forgives a wet glass left overnight.

What a survey costs you if you skip it

ProcessJune 2024

What a survey costs you if you skip it

Eight thousand kroner and two days, against a joinery run that arrives 40mm proud of a wall nobody measured twice.

Kitchens are plumbing before they are cabinetry

On siteApril 2024

Kitchens are plumbing before they are cabinetry

The island goes where the fall allows, not where the drawing wants it. We find the stack before we find the layout.

Why we stopped specifying matte black

MaterialFebruary 2024

Why we stopped specifying matte black

It shows every fingerprint and every fitter's mistake. Brushed steel ages into a room instead of against it.

What clients say once they've lived in it.

Henrik Storm in a navy suit and glasses, hands on his hips, in a bright office.
“A summer house takes real punishment — sand, salt, wet towels, fourteen people at Easter. Mira specified for that, not for a photograph. Three years on the floors have gone the colour we were told they would, and the house looks better than the day we got the keys.”
Henrik Storm — Sommerhus Tisvilde, 2024
Sofie Bang smiling on a green sofa in a plant-filled living room.
“We'd been through one renovation where the drawings and the invoices were clearly different documents. Here the joiner quoted from the same set we'd designed with. The price we agreed in February is the price we paid in September, and I still don't quite believe it.”
Sofie Bang — Apartment K, 2025
Tobias Reng in a cap and black denim jacket, seated and smiling, in a dim room.
“Taking only four projects a year sounded like a constraint when we signed. It turned out to be the reason we could call on a Tuesday and get an answer that day. We were never a file someone had to reopen.”
Tobias Reng — Studio Vester, 2024

You asked, we answered

ASK US YOURS
What does a project cost?
Design fees run as a percentage of the construction budget, typically [10–15]%, with a minimum engagement of [DKK X]. We quote a fixed fee after the first visit, once we've seen the space and the scope. Construction and furniture are contracted separately, and you pay those suppliers directly.
How long does a full renovation take?
An apartment is usually [6–9] months from first visit to handover, a house closer to [12]. Roughly a third of that is drawing and approvals before anyone lifts a tool. We hold four projects at a time, so the dates we give you at the start are dates we can actually keep.
Do you work outside Copenhagen?
Yes, anywhere in Denmark, and we have worked in southern Sweden and northern Germany. Beyond about two hours from the studio we add travel to the fee and visit site less often but for longer — which in practice changes the rhythm of a project more than the price of it.
Can we keep our own builder?
Gladly, if they will work from our drawings and quote against them. We will meet them before anything is agreed. Where we have no history with a contractor we usually ask for one comparison quote, not to undercut them but so everyone can see what the drawings actually cost to build.
Do you do kitchens and joinery only?
We do, and it is often how a longer relationship starts. A kitchen or a run of built-in storage is a real project on its own — measured, drawn and detailed the same way — rather than a trimmed-down version of a whole-home commission.
What if we already have an architect?
That works well. We come in on interiors, joinery and material specification while they hold the building, and we join their site meetings rather than running a second set. What we ask for early is one clear line about who decides what, so you are never asked the same question twice.
Do you buy the furniture for us?
We specify everything and we can procure it, in which case you pay the supplier and we manage the ordering, lead times and delivery. Some clients prefer to buy from the schedule themselves. Either is fine, and we do not take a commission from suppliers in either case.
Will we see it before it's built?
Always. Every room is modelled and rendered before joinery is ordered, and you get physical samples of the finishes — the timber, the stone, the paint — to live with at home for a week. Nothing goes into production on the strength of a screen.

Enough reading.Let's go and look at the room.

PORTFOLIOBOOK A VISIT