Djernes & Bell

Menu
Djernes & Bell is an architectural practice based in Copenhagen with a special interest in what already exists: built, material, human, and natural. Founded in 2020 by architects Justine Bell and Jonas Djernes, the practice builds on the partners’ 15+ years experience working with transformation and restoration projects in Denmark and the UK.
Read More

Explore

AllNewsBuiltSite-BasedMaterialsTransformationArtEcologyHeritageWordsExhibitionWorkshopResearch
Who we are

Djernes & Bell is an architectural practice based in Copenhagen with a special interest in what already exists: built, material, human, and natural. Founded in 2020 by architects Justine Bell and Jonas Djernes, the practice builds on the partners’ 15+ years experience working with transformation and restoration projects in Denmark and the UK.

Djernes & Bell work to preserve and improve existing built, natural, and social structures through reparative design, careful restoration, and the use of low-carbon materials. Cross-disciplinary methods fuse artistic and scientific research—from ancient crafts to ecological innovation. Intersecting material science, traditional building knowledge, and nature-based design, the practice transforms buildings and landscapes with the aim of supporting life in all its forms.

Collaborating across scientific, artistic, and civic sectors, Djernes & Bell bring extensive experience in adaptive reuse and transformation, working across both rural and urban contexts.

This website is a catalogue of the studio’s projects and working processes.

How we work

Djernes & Bell work across all stages of a project—from early concept and feasibility to detailed design, construction, and long-term adaptation. Architectural services include the reparative transformation and restorative reuse of existing buildings, as well as landscape strategies and low-carbon new construction systems. Each project is developed with a deep sensitivity to context, history, materials, and use, resulting in spatial solutions that are technically rigorous, materially grounded, and culturally meaningful.

Work often begins with strategic analysis, participatory workshops, and feasibility studies that bring users, stakeholders, and local communities into the design dialogue. This early-stage approach ensures that spatial strategies are rooted in real needs and the actual possibilities of a given site, creating long-term social and ecological value.

Alongside architectural design, Djernes & Bell engage in cross-disciplinary research into materials, agro-ecology, nature-based solutions, and restorative value chains. Material mapping, hands-on workshops, and experimental prototyping are used to develop innovative approaches to construction—from biobased materials and circular systems to the revival of traditional craft techniques.

Projects span both rural and urban contexts and often sit at the intersection of built environment, landscape, and community life. The aim is to create architecture that supports ecological resilience, strengthens local cultures, and enables places where life—human and more-than-human—can thrive.

Studio

Nyvej 16C, 1.sal

1851 Frederiksberg

Copenhagen

Team

Awards

  • EU Mies Award Nominee, HEdeskov Living Lab, 2026
  • Dezeen Awards Longlist, Hedeskov Living Lab, Sustainability Category, 2025
  • Renoverprisen, shortlist, 2025
  • The Danish Arts Foundation, working grant, 2025
  • The Architectural Review, New Into Old Award, shortlist, 2025
  • Licitationen, Building Awards, finalist, 2024
  • Danish Ministry of Culture, New National Architecture Policy, 2024
  • The Danish Arts Foundation, working grant, 2024
  • Realdania & Ny Carlsberg Fond, Stedet Tæller X, 2024
  • Realdania, Funding for research & dissemination, 2023
  • The Danish Arts Foundation, working grant, 2023
  • Dreyers Foundation, START, 2022
  • The Danish Arts Foundation, project grant, 2021
  • Dreyers Foundation, new practice grant, 2020
Apply

We are always open to architects, students, and collaborators who want to be part of the rebalancing. If you see architecture as a means to repair, rethink, and regenerate—while shaping a more symbiotic future—we would love to hear from you. Please note that we receive many thoughtful applications, and unfortunately we’re not able to reply to every one.