Harmonikahusene

In Frederiksberg, Copenhagen, UMEUS Noli offers 700 student and young professional homes where compact apartments meet daylight-filled interiors, and generous community spaces. The project demonstrates how micro-living can feel spacious – not just through light and materiality, but through a daily connection to community, the city and to nature.

Architecture critic Karsten Ifversen has described the building as an instant classic that lives up to the grand historic residential buildings along Åboulevard designed by luminaries such as Kay Fisker and Povl Baumann. Nicknamed “Harmonikahusene” – the Accordion Houses – for its rhythmic zig-zag façade, the building carefully adapts to Frederiksberg’s urban fabric, echoing the proportions and material warmth of Copenhagen’s historic red-brick blocks while carving out green courtyards and planted terraces within. 

Compact homes, high quality of life
Each apartment is compact yet flooded with natural light, thanks to the building’s sculpted form and custom bay windows. Replacing traditional double-layered “Russian windows” typically used for noise-exposed façades, these bay windows incorporate built-in benches that allow silent night-time ventilation, maximize daylight through single-layer glazing, and create cozy, social niches where residents can sit, read, or enjoy city life.

This solution addresses a common challenge in north-facing micro-apartments: providing generous daylight and far-reaching views that a conventional window wall would not allow. The bay window naturally becomes the apartment’s focal point, inviting residents to gather, socialize, and feel at home, while the traffic outside serves as a lively urban backdrop rather than a distraction.

Connecting residents, city, and landscape
The development emphasizes communal living. Shared public courtyards and rooftop gardens provide spaces for both relaxation and social interaction. The transparent ground floor, with step-free access to the outdoors, hosts cafés, study areas, flexible meeting spaces, and a fitness centre, fostering encounters among students and with the broader Frederiksberg community.

The building is set back from the busy Åboulevard to create a generous planted buffer zone, shielding residents from traffic noise while providing pleasant green views even from the lower-floor apartments. Integration into the urban context is enhanced by connecting the building directly to the green cycle path, allowing students to cycle straight from the basement out into the city with easy access to a number of universities and educational institutions.

The two volumes of the UMEUS + Noli complex are joined only at the ground floor by a transparent entrance, carefully aligned with the axis of the opposite street to allow views through the development. This positioning introduces a sense of openness and lightness, softening the overall scale of the otherwise large building.

Harmonikahusene represent the first phase of a larger master plan for the Frederiksberg City Campus, which includes the large student housing complex, Ny Prins Henrik Skole (designed by Holscher Nordberg) along Rolighedsvej, as well as a sports hall and green spaces in between. With outward-facing functions, the campus is designed to engage with the wider city and to become a lively, car-free, green urban space.