Danish architect Julius Nielsen has completed an innovative small timber church in Copenhagen featuring a distinctive 12-sided hall that symbolizes the 12 apostles. The 75-square-meter building, located in Copenhagen's North Harbour district, is named Tiny Church Tolvkanten after the Danish word for a dodecagon, or 12-sided polygon.
To emphasize the unusual geometric design, Nielsen created an austere yet warm atmosphere, deliberately avoiding traditional religious ornamentation and instead focusing on the timber structure and finishes. The project was developed in collaboration with flooring manufacturer Dinesen, showcasing high-quality wooden craftsmanship throughout.
"The 12-sided geometry is both pragmatic and symbolic: referencing the 12 apostles while establishing a non-hierarchical order that gathers the community around a shared center," Nielsen explained. "The design shifts focus from the use of religious iconography to emphasis on atmosphere, testing whether architecture carefully considered and distilled to light, geometry, and material is enough to sustain the gravity of ritual."
The church's 12-sided hall is framed by slender spruce columns beneath an oculus skylight. The lower level features wool and cotton drapes, while the upper ceilings and roof are finished with lime-washed spruce boards. The hall's floor is constructed from surplus Douglas fir planks from Dinesen, with varying widths and lengths laid in a radial web or "cake-slice" pattern to optimize material use.
Pared-back metal sconces are attached to each column, and exposed bulb lights hang from the ceiling above, emphasizing what Nielsen describes as a "spartan ethos." Surrounding the central hall is a 12-sided veranda framed by timber columns, which serves as a narthex—the entrance porch of a traditional church building.
This outer ring of the church discreetly houses a kitchenette, storage, washroom, and service areas, allowing the central hall to remain as open and uncluttered as possible. In contrast to the warm, lighter tones of the interior, the exterior of Tiny Church Tolvkanten features spruce boards with a matte-black finish.
"The surrounding colonnade transforms the act of arrival into something heightened," Nielsen said. "More than a doorway, it offers a spatial depth that allows the mind to shift from the everyday outside toward the focused atmosphere within."
This project represents a broader trend in Danish religious architecture, where architects are exploring new approaches to sacred spaces. Architecture studio Henning Larsen recently completed the Højvangen Church in Skanderborg, using pale brickwork, exposed timber, and gridded screens that filter daylight. Other notable recent church designs include a fluted-concrete building by Studio Bright in Australia and an "open and free" cube in Sweden by Elding Oscarson.
