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A kitchen made five years ago for Josephine Yaa Akuamoa’s File Under Pop workspace has been installed in her new home on Copenhagen’s Paper Island. The ash-and-zinc Garde Hvalsøe kitchen now anchors the ground-floor kitchen and dining area after extensive renovation of the three-level house.
Josephine Yaa Akuamoa has moved a five-year-old kitchen from her File Under Pop workspace into her new home on Copenhagen’s Paper Island, giving the custom Garde Hvalsøe installation a second setting as the centerpiece of the house’s ground floor. The move makes the kitchen’s earlier working life part of the home’s design, rather than replacing it with a newly made unit.
The kitchen is Garde Hvalsøe’s Solid model, constructed from pale ash on a zinc frame. Long, wide planks across its finger-jointed drawer fronts display the wood grain; chamfered drawer sides allow the fronts to sit close together and appear as a continuous surface. The upper cabinets have Koshi-do fronts, developed by Garde Hvalsøe with Copenhagen-based OEO Studio, pairing Japanese-inspired design with Danish craftsmanship.
The kitchen and dining area occupy the home’s ground floor. Bedrooms are on the middle level, with an adaptable room at the top of the three-storey house. Before installation, the existing kitchen and its electrical installations, the bathroom, wooden wall panels and connecting staircase were removed. Garde Hvalsøe also made bespoke ash wardrobes for the home.
Design Milk’s report identifies the project as Akuamoa’s home and describes its materials and renovation. It attributes the kitchen’s original commission to her File Under Pop studio, and reports that the unit was later moved into the house. Zinc, pale ash and a lava sink are among the materials Akuamoa highlighted. The report includes photography by Heid Lerkenfeldt.
A Studio Kitchen Gets a Second Life
The move shows how a custom kitchen can be adapted for a new space instead of treated as a fixed installation that must be discarded when its original setting changes. Here, the piece connects Akuamoa’s former workspace with her home, while serving as a defining element of its shared ground-floor rooms.
Reuse is also a design decision, not just a matter of retaining an object. The existing kitchen had to be incorporated into a renovated house with a different layout and newly rebuilt interiors. Garde Hvalsøe partner and CEO Søren Lundh Aagaard described that work as both a challenge and a statement. The report does not provide cost, environmental-impact figures or details of structural alterations, so the project’s measurable benefits cannot be quantified from the available information.
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Paper Island’s Harbor-Inspired Setting
Paper Island has served different purposes in Copenhagen’s harbor history. According to Design Milk, it was used as an armory under Christian IV and later as a paper warehouse for national newspapers. The newer building draws on the island’s warehouse past through maritime gates and a diagonal roof feature referencing harbor architecture.
Akuamoa’s interior responds to the house’s surroundings: one side faces the sea and sky, while the other looks onto a shared garden. The reported palette uses wood, raw stone and ceramics in nearly equal parts. Ash appears throughout; limestone is described as echoing nearby sandstone harbor walls and yellow-brick buildings. This setting gives the reused kitchen a specific relationship to the home’s materials and location.
““Bringing something previously used and lived in into a newly built space was both a challenge and a statement.””
— Søren Lundh Aagaard, partner and CEO of Garde Hvalsøe
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What the Report Leaves Unspecified
Design Milk’s report does not give the home’s address, the date the kitchen was installed, or technical details about how it was adapted to fit the renovated house. It also does not explain whether any components were repaired or replaced during the move, or provide project costs or environmental measurements. The article describes the kitchen’s new role and materials but does not establish whether this reuse approach is part of a wider program by the designer or manufacturer.
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The Kitchen’s Role in the Finished Home
The kitchen is reported as installed and in use as the central feature of the ground-floor kitchen and dining area; the source does not announce a future construction milestone or scheduled follow-up. Further detail about the renovation, adaptation work or the home’s completion would be needed to establish how the kitchen was fitted into the redesigned house beyond the information already reported.
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Key Questions
Where was the kitchen before it moved to Paper Island?
It was made for Josephine Yaa Akuamoa’s File Under Pop workspace and spent its first five years there before being moved into her home.
Who designed and made the kitchen?
The kitchen is Garde Hvalsøe’s Solid model. Its upper Koshi-do cabinet fronts were developed with Copenhagen-based OEO Studio.
What materials are used in the kitchen?
The unit is built from ash on a zinc frame. Akuamoa also pointed to its lava sink when describing how the materials work together.
What else was renovated in the house?
Before the kitchen was installed, the team removed the existing kitchen and electrical installations, bathroom, wooden wall panels and the staircase connecting the three floors. The report also says Garde Hvalsøe made bespoke ash wardrobes.
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