Audo’s Monuments Installation Proves Restraint Can Be as Powerful as Ornamentation.

The Café and Restaurant are imagined as a timeless retreat. Darker tones and soft lighting create an intimate, timeless setting that mirrors the atmosphere of heritage hotels and old-world bistros.

A series of thoughtfully composed nooks, The Workspace explores how Audo’s designs shape the modern workspace—balancing function with atmosphere and structure with softness. Each distinct setting comprises a lounge and café, demonstrating how furniture, lighting, and objects can create environments that foster focus, collaboration, and quiet contemplation.

Returning to Audo House this June for 3 Days of Design felt like stepping into an entirely different universe. Having stayed at this gorgeous Copenhagen design destination just two months prior, I was floored by how dramatically the space had been reimagined for Monuments—Audo’s latest installation in collaboration with Norm Architects and Art Director Christian Møller Andersen.

Where April’s interiors embodied Audo’s signature soft minimalism with warm earth tones and clean lines, Monuments presented something more theatrical. Classical sculptures stood alongside contemporary furniture pieces, while antique elements conversed with modern forms across multiple room settings. The transformation was both unexpected and captivating.

For those unfamiliar with Audo House, this historic Nordhavn building serves as more than just a showroom. Since 2019, it has served as the Danish brand’s physical hub, operating simultaneously as a café and restaurant, concept shop, exclusive residence, event space, and company headquarters, all designed by Norm Architects. Each year, particularly during Copenhagen’s design week, Audo transforms these spaces to explore new creative territories while showcasing their furniture, lighting and accessories collections.

The Audo Hybrid Space in Copenhagen Designed by Norm Architects.

Housed in a 1918 former merchant house in the harbourside district of Nordhavnen, Audo is a 'living gallery' concept store where everything is for sale.

A sanctuary of stillness and contemplation, The Stillness Room transforms furniture into artefacts—each piece positioned like a standalone sculpture. Light and shadow shape the narrative, accentuating form and proportion. Here, minimalism becomes monumental, proving that restraint can be just as powerful as ornamentation. This balance of opposites is central to MONUMENTS, where silence carries as much weight as expression.

Bold yet considered, The Expressive Room transforms a hotel interior into a living space of expressive design through a dialogue of contrasts. This space was a personal favourite.

The Expressive Room, where colour and materiality take centre stage, features rich, saturated hues that contrast with minimalist forms to create a striking interplay. Like the colourful interiors of Classicist Rome, the space nods to the past while reimagining it for the present. The result is an interior that is immersive and sensorial, where design engages the emotions as much as the intellect.

Product details: Chancery Pendant Lamp (global launch October 2025 at audocph.com), Co Task Chairs & Androgyne Dining Table.

Nonna Table Lamp on Tall Plinth. The Co Task Chair sits in front.

This year’s Monuments concept explored the relationship between Neoclassical principles and contemporary minimalism. “The exhibition pays tribute to the enduring presence of monumental form—interpreted through both historical and modern lenses,” explains Jonas Bjerre-Poulsen of Norm Architects, who conceived the installation alongside Audo’s team.

The installation unfolded across Audo House’s diverse environments, each room telling a distinct story. The Concept Shop elevated furniture beyond mere function, presenting pieces as sculptural statements. The Café and Restaurant channelled old-world hospitality with darker tones and intimate lighting reminiscent of heritage hotels and classic French bistros.

The most compelling of all were the three exhibition rooms, each exploring different facets of the monumental theme. The Stillness Room transformed furniture into standalone sculptures within carefully curated spaces, where light and shadow shaped the narrative. The Expressive Room embraced bold colour and rich materiality, creating striking contrasts between minimalist forms and saturated hues. Meanwhile, the Classics Room bridged Audo’s design legacy with contemporary innovations, showcasing the evolution of iconic pieces alongside classical references.

“This balance of opposites is central to Monuments—where restraint can be as powerful as ornamentation, and silence carries as much weight as expression,” Bjerre-Poulsen notes, capturing the installation’s core philosophy.

In The Concept Shop, Audo’s signature designs stand as sculptural forms, complemented by high-end artworks and tactile materials that embody refined restraint. The space elevates furniture beyond function, transforming it into a statement, an heirloom and a modern-day monument to design.

Product details: Nonna Table Lamp (Global launch October 2025). Androgyne Side Table, Tired Man Lounge and Volume Side Table by New Zealand-based Ted Synnot.

Ready Chair, Androgyne Dining Table and Houkime Rug.

Nonna Table Lamp with travertine base.

The journey extended into Audo’s lush courtyard, where the boundaries between interior and exterior dissolved. Referencing classic European gardens, this outdoor space celebrated the monumental through stillness and considered placement rather than scale alone.

Monuments also featured works by fourteen contemporary artists, with four creating bespoke pieces specifically for Audo House. Henrik Glahn, Fanny Schultz, Linda Weimann and Nicolas Mackelberg each responded to the architecture with site-specific commissions that echoed the exhibition’s Neo-classical ideals of proportion, symmetry and restraint.

“In this context, both classical and contemporary pieces are treated as equal contributors to a shared language of design,” Bjerre-Poulsen explains. “They reflect a lineage of thought where function, beauty and restraint are held in delicate balance.”

What made Monuments feel especially relevant was its refusal to simply romanticise the past. Instead, the installation examined how classical principles might inform contemporary design practice. As Bjerre-Poulsen concludes: “It is not a return to the past, but a recognition of its continued relevance.”

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[Images courtesy of Audo. Photography by Christian Møller Andersen and Jonas Bjerre-Poulsen.]