Steensen Varming was well underway with its international expansion in the 1950s, but smaller local projects were no less special to the company. One such project was Varming’s House, a heritage-listed, humble yellow brick house located just north of Copenhagen that is celebrated for its iconic architecture and innovative engineering.
Designed in the 1930s by Steensen Varming’s founder, Jørgen Varming, in collaboration with architects Niels and Eva Koppel, the house was constructed as a private residence for the Varming family.
One of the most notable features of Varming’s House is its air heating system, which was a groundbreaking innovation at the time of its construction and has been preserved to this day. Despite its age, Varming’s House remains and exemplar of innovative design and engineering. The building’s clean lines and minimalist design are characteristic of modern Danish architecture, while its unusual engineering solutions have made it a source of inspiration to architects, engineers, and design enthusiasts around the world.
It might not come as a surprise that Varming’s House has a special connection to Arne Jacobsen, one of the most renowned Danish architects of the 20th century. Jacobsen was Varming’s close friend and business partner, and it is said that Jacobsen was inspired by the design of the house when he created some of his own iconic buildings. In fact, Jacobsen himself was responsible for the first renovation of Varming’s House in the 1950s, which further solidified the building’s reputation as a masterpiece of modernist design.
Today, visitors to the house can still see many of the original features, as well as the updates made during a more recent renovation in 2014.
In this renovation, Steensen Varming was involved in the refurbishment, retaining the original control system. The renovation included upgrading the windows and adding additional insulation, resulting in a 50 percent reduction in energy usage.
Overall, Varming’s House is an important landmark in the history of modernist architecture and engineering, and its enduring appeal is a testament to the timeless elegance of its design.
