Positioned between an industrial district and the tranquil landscape surrounding Glisholm Lake in Odense, Denmark, BIG’s design for Dymak’s new headquarters conceptualizes the modern workplace through sustainability, material innovation, and employee well-being. The 2,800-square-meter building combines offices, showrooms, and communal spaces within a circular form centered around a lush courtyard.
Certified with DGNB Gold, Heart, and Diamond, the headquarters functions as a workplace and a living catalogue of Dymak’s natural material portfolio.
A Circular Workplace Rooted in Nature
Located at one of the main gateways to Odense, the headquarters marks the transition between expanding industrial development and the city’s surrounding forests and lakes. The building’s circular plan encloses a sheltered green courtyard that becomes the social heart of the workplace, encouraging interaction while protecting occupants from nearby highway noise.
Its distinctive undulating roof rises toward the north to frame panoramic forest views while stepping down toward the south to provide natural shading, reduce heat gain, and improve indoor comfort. This sculptural roof also accommodates approximately 880 custom-shaped photovoltaic panels, maximizing on-site renewable energy generation.
Designed as a showcase of low-carbon architecture, the headquarters incorporates mass timber construction, clay tiles, clay mortar, and eelgrass to reduce embodied carbon while creating a warm and tactile interior. The resulting form recalls the geometry of a Möbius strip that combines architectural expression with environmental performance.
Material Innovation Meets Everyday Functionality
Dymak’s headquarters serves as more than an office, as it operates as a permanent exhibition of the company’s material expertise. Visitors enter through a dramatic double-height lobby, where the ground floor houses a showroom, photography studio, and fitness facilities, while the upper levels accommodate open-plan offices, meeting rooms, and collaborative lounges.
Throughout the building, natural materials including wood, clay, cork, and eelgrass reflect Dymak’s product portfolio, while ceilings made from recycled paper fibers introduce warmth and improved acoustics. A gridded timber-and-glass façade carefully balances transparency and solar control, becoming denser on the south-facing elevations and more open toward the north.
This rhythmic arrangement regulates daylight and indoor temperatures, creating comfortable workspaces while reinforcing the building’s identity as a living catalogue of sustainable materials.
Landscape Design Creates a Green Community Hub
The surrounding landscape has been designed by BIG as an extension of the architecture, seamlessly integrating parking, access roads, and native planting into the natural terrain. Earthworks create protective green buffers from nearby infrastructure while opening views toward Glisholm Lake. Rainwater is collected through open channels and landscaped basins, transforming stormwater management into a visible ecological feature.
At the center of the headquarters, the circular courtyard acts as the building’s green heart. Visible from nearly every workspace, the courtyard design connects different floor levels through broad seating edges that create an amphitheater-like landscape for informal meetings and social gatherings.
Freestanding trees, flowering perennials, ornamental grasses, and seasonal planting establish a sensory environment that changes throughout the year. Hard-fired brick tiles extend seamlessly from the interior into the courtyard in circular patterns, reinforcing the continuous relationship between architecture and landscape while strengthening the building’s sense of community.
Project: Dymak HQ
Architect: BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group
Size: 2,800 m²
Location: Odense, Denmark
Client: Dymak
Collaborators: Cj Group, OBH Gruppen, Henry Jensen, ZERO Engineering
Photography: Rasmus Hjortshøj
