Danish company Vipp, best known for their iconic metal trashcans, has taken the company in a new, much larger-scale direction. They designed the Shelter, a minimalist prefab concept located in Copenhagen. The driving ambition of the Danish company means that you can now match your kitchen and its accessories to your nature retreat. The result is a modern escape.

A 55 square meter steel object emerges in a rugged landscape framed by naked trees and a silent lake that mirrors in the sky frame window facade. The shelter stands as a solid rock in sharp contrast to its surroundings. Yet, with its steel frame embracing the large glass surfaces (skyframes by PanoramAH!), the rock becomes transparent and transforms into a shell projecting the landscape into the interior. The landscape is purposely framed, turning it into the predominant element of the interior space.

A shelter has connotations of basic living serving a merely functional purpose and attending to our primal need of having a roof over our head. The starting point of the Vipp shelter is going back to basics; back to nature with basic functions defining a dense, compact space yet wrapped in the Vipp DNA with a clear aesthetic coherence and use of solid materials. In this way, the shelter becomes a tool that facilitates a nature escape.

As the main designer Morten Bo Jensen says,the biggest difference between this getaway compared to anything else on the market is the fact that he is not an architect. “The shelter is conceived more like a product than a piece of architecture that melds seamlessly with its surrounding. We didn’t start with a piece of land on which we customized a house taking into consideration the natural surroundings.”

Architects: https://vipp.com/en-us/

Location: Denmark

Project Year: 2014

Area: 55 sqm

Photographs: Courtesy of VIPP

Courtesy of VIPP

Courtesy of VIPP

Courtesy of VIPP

Courtesy of VIPP

Courtesy of VIPP

Courtesy of VIPP

Courtesy of VIPP

Courtesy of VIPP

Courtesy of VIPP

Courtesy of VIPP

Courtesy of VIPP