Tuesday · August · 11 · 2026
DST“Look not mournfully into the Past; it comes not back again.”
— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Sun & daylight
The sun rises at 05:34 and sets at 20:57 in Copenhagen today, giving 15h 22m of daylight. Solar noon is at 13:16.
05:34
Sunrise
13:16
Noon
20:57
Sunset
Midnight
01:16
Sunrise
05:34
Solar noon
13:16
Sunset
20:57
Solar midnight
01:16
Daylight
15h 22m
Daylight runs about 17h 32m around the June solstice and 7h 1m around the December solstice.
Daylight saving time
Copenhagen observes daylight saving time. In 2026, clocks move forward to UTC+2 on March 29 and move back to UTC+1 on October 25. Copenhagen is currently on daylight saving time.
Mar 29
Forward · UTC+2
Oct 25
Back · UTC+1
Aug 11
Today
The shaded band marks the daylight saving period.
Public holidays
Denmark has no public holidays in August 2026.
Architecture
Copenhagen has spent two decades testing whether a building can carry a public programme it has no obligation to carry. The answers here tend to be unusually literal.
Completed 2019
BIG
A waste-to-energy plant in Amager with a public roof. Bjarke Ingels sloped that roof to follow the height of the machinery inside, then surfaced the slope as a dry ski run and hung a climbing wall on the end elevation. The aluminium facade is stacked as oversized bricks with windows set between them. The plant's function is unchanged, and the roof is the argument that infrastructure should give something back.
Completed 2018
Rem Koolhaas
A cultural and office building on the harbour front, built over a road. Rem Koolhaas stacked the programme as interlocking glass boxes so a museum, offices, apartments, a car park and a public route share one volume. The building bridges the traffic rather than avoiding it. It was criticised for its bulk on a low waterfront, which is the tension the stacking creates.
Completed 2010
BIG
A housing block in Ørestad laid out as a figure eight. Bjarke Ingels ran a continuous ramp from the street to the tenth floor along the outside of the block, so upper flats are reached on foot from ground level. The block is pinched in the middle to form two courtyards of different character. It puts a street on the outside of a building instead of a corridor inside it.
Completed 2005
Henning Larsen
An opera house on the island of Holmen, set on the axis of the royal palace. Henning Larsen laid a flat cantilevered roof over a glass foyer, with the maple-clad auditorium standing inside it as a separate object. The alignment with the palace was a condition of the private gift that paid for the building. The architect later published his disagreements with the donor over the facade, which is unusual for a finished building.
Completed 1976
Jørn Utzon
A church in a suburb north of the city, plain outside and shaped within. Jørn Utzon wrapped the nave in curved concrete vaults that fold like cloud forms and take daylight from hidden side openings. The exterior is a rectangular shed in precast panels and glazed tile with no ecclesiastical sign at all. The entire design is one interior kept behind an industrial box.