Kengo Kuma’s KAI Water Culture House Opens December 5 on Copenhagen’s Harbor at City Pool Prices
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The 62,000-square-foot building on Papirøen cost DKK 989 million ($148 million), mostly from the Nordea-fonden foundation. It has 10 pools, saunas and a 108°F hot pool, and the City says tickets will match its other pools, where an adult swim costs about $9.
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KAI, the water culture house Kengo Kuma & Associates designed for Copenhagen’s Papirøen, opens on Saturday, December 5, the City of Copenhagen announced on October 22. The 62,431-square-foot building on the Inner Harbor has 10 pools, saunas and a steam bath, and room for 380 bathers at a time. Opening day is free from noon to 6 p.m., first come, first served, and from December 6 it opens every day from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.
The City says admission will match its other pools, where an adult swim costs 58 kroner, about $8.67. KAI hasn’t published its own price list, the City’s ticket shop doesn’t sell KAI tickets yet, and the City hasn’t said whether the swim ticket covers the wellness floor, where the saunas and the hot and cold pools are. Children under 7 swim free on the ground floor with a paying adult. Copenhagen’s private harbor saunas charge about 120 to 350 kroner a session, roughly $18 to $52.
KAI at a glance
- Where Papirøen 47, on the northwest corner of Paper Island in Copenhagen’s Inner Harbor
- Opens December 5, 2026, free from noon to 6 p.m.; then daily from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.
- Size a total of 62,431 square feet, with room for 380 bathers
- Pools ten, including the outdoor Valley Pool between five brick towers and an outdoor onsen over the harbor
- Heat saunas (three, in the City’s release), a steam bath and heated stones; the wellness floor is for ages 15 and up
- Cost DKK 989 million ($147.8 million): DKK 546 million from the Nordea-fonden foundation and DKK 443 million from the City
- Design Kengo Kuma & Associates with Cornelius Vöge; executive architects Vilhelm Lauritzen Architects; built by MT Højgaard
- Harbor bath a free, year-round swimming and plunge zone outside, due in early 2027
A wellness floor with pools from 59°F to 108°F
Upstairs, KAI’s pool list shows a Therapy Pool at 97°F, a Fire Pool at 108°F and an Ice Pool at 59°F on the wellness floor. The Valley Pool, 99 feet long, sits outdoors between five sloping brick towers and is heated to 79°F, and the outdoor onsen next to it runs at 97°F with a view across the harbor. Downstairs are a six-lane, 82-foot exercise pool at 81°F, a teaching pool at 84°F and three play pools at 90°F.
The City’s release counts three saunas, while KAI’s own pool page names “a Finnish sauna.” Neither says how the saunas are heated, how hot they run or how many people they seat. Children under 15 can’t use the wellness floor after opening day.
A ground-source heat pump with ten boreholes, each 820 feet deep, heats the outdoor Valley Pool and cools the Ice Pool, the City says. The building uses 300,000 handmade bricks.
“Copenhagen needs more swimming facilities, so it’s incredibly important that we are now getting new pools for adults, as well as paddling pools for children,” Lord Mayor Sisse Marie Welling said in the release.
City pool prices, next to private saunas at two to six times the price
The City runs KAI. A foundation that Nordea-fonden created owns the building, on land the City provides free for 40 years, and rents it to the City at market rent. At the City’s pools an adult ticket costs 58 kroner, or 31 kroner (about $4.63) in off-peak “Green Time” before 3 p.m., and Valby Vandkulturhus and the Øbro-Hallen pool charge 72 kroner (about $10.76) at weekends. Whether those tiers apply at KAI isn’t confirmed.
The City’s other pools don’t settle it. Valby Vandkulturhus lists Finnish, bio and infrared saunas among its facilities and charges a 40-kroner add-on for its hot-water pool. The spa at Øbro-Hallen is a separate ticket at 144 kroner on weekdays and 198 at weekends, in two-hour slots, for ages 15 and up.
Demand for sauna and cold water in Copenhagen has grown fast. Denmark’s winter-bathing clubs have more than 70,000 members in 184 clubs, according to the national association as quoted by the city’s tourism office, and since 2023 the City has added four floating saunas to the harbor, each for up to 12 people, run by local clubs with public sessions. Private operators have followed, including Plugin Heat Club, and US operators have borrowed the floating format, among them KOS Sauna in upstate New York.
The bill grew from DKK 360 million to DKK 989 million
When the City Council approved the project in 2018, it put the cost at DKK 360 million ($53.8 million), with Nordea-fonden giving DKK 300 million, and expected to open in early 2022. Kengo Kuma & Associates had won the design competition in December 2017. Construction began with a foundation-stone ceremony on April 26, 2022, and the final cost of DKK 989 million is about 2.7 times the 2018 estimate. The City’s share rose from DKK 60 million to DKK 443 million. The release doesn’t explain the increase, but Nordea-fonden’s grant left the City to cover any overrun of the 2018 budget, according to the minutes of the City’s Finance Committee in September 2019.
“It is part of the ongoing transformation of the city and its harbour from an industrial port into a cultural waterfront,” said Yuki Ikeguchi, lead architect and partner in charge at Kengo Kuma & Associates.
The free harbor bath comes next year
Outside, a 164-foot swimming zone and a 72-foot plunge zone along KAI’s timber waterfront deck will be free and open around the clock all year, the City says. They won’t be finished by December 5 and are expected to open in early 2027.
