Arresting copper: a house on Denmark's austere north coast opens to magnificent views of sea and sky.

The top end of Jutland (the bit of Denmark that points northwards from the main mass of the Continent) is very flat and rather sparsely populated. The peninsula is cut across by the sinuous path of the Limfjord, a long sea-water thoroughfare that links the North Sea and the Kattegat with a twisting silver ribbon under vast skies like those seen in Dutch landscape paintings and ones of the East Anglian school. Limfjord widens at its west end into a wide salt water lake or lagoon, Nissum Bredning, before connecting to the North Sea past a sand bar. It was here that KHRAS were asked to make a new cottage to act as guest accommodation for an existing house. The site is magnificent, on the slope of low hills which run down to the water as dunes, grassland and stunted bush. It offers a breathtaking 200 degree view towards the sea that looks much as it must have done thousands of years ago, when the glaciers of the last ice-age had retreated enough to allow vegetation to begin to flourish.

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The architects chose a very simple strategy. A long rectangular plan orders all the accommodation. It turns its back on the slope and opens to the north to draw in views of dunes, sea, and sky. One of the aims of the parti was to make as much as possible of the huge dome of light over the site, so a long skylight divides the living areas from the thin strip of services and storage arranged along the opaque wall against the hill to the south. East, west and north walls are virtually totally of glass. The aim of filling the house with light is amply achieved and, as a result, interiors constantly respond to the ever-changing weather: grey in the mist, dark and thrilling in storms, and sundial-like on fair days.

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Just as the building is ordered by rigorous geometry, it has a very clear constructional programme. A continuous plane of semi-polished black granite runs from the eastern (morning) terrace to west (evening). The basalt is supported on a concrete slab, from which the service strip cantilevers, to be echoed by a similar structure under the long northern glass wall. So the polished black plane is visually emphasized by deep recessions all along north and south sides. Above slab level, the main structure is of steel. It supports a secondary system of prefabricated timber elements that form the basis of the roof and south wall.

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Outside, non-transparent surfaces are clad in copper. This is not quite as grand and expensive as it sounds, for the cladding is a thin layer of copper over building felt, giving at close range a delicately textured dimpled external surface. This will undoubtedly enrich patination patterns, as the damp salt air causes the house to change colour from polished brown to green and black, according to the degree of exposure of each part to the weather. Glazing is as simple as possible, huge sheets of glass alternate with hinged doors. (Sliding doors might have offered more opportunities for relating interior and exterior, and would presumably perform better in high winds, but such doors are prone to performance problems, particularly in sandy areas.)

In the climate of northern Denmark, the simplicity of the whole concept might not be appropriate for a house for continuous inhabitation (though it would work perfectly well in Southern California). But it is that very simplicity that makes the awesome moods of sky and sea so imminent.

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