That house is laid out as a simpler version of Le Corbusier’s ‘Citrohan-series’. It has the entrance, hallway and

staircase of a multi storey building, with the three outer walls functioning as load-bearing walls. On top of the

house is a roof terrace that is an ideal location for experimenting with colours, furniture styles and planting.

In other words: the rooftop terrace is designed not to let in the view, or the wind, but as an oasis. This conscious

choice is a clear manifestation of the inspiration that Lassen drew from Southern Europe and his desire

to create a fluid transition between indoors and outdoors.

The rooftop terrace has two-metre-high walls to the north and

south, decorated with ‘Villa Savoy’ windows, a clear reference

to his muse and mentor Le Corbusier, who defined functional

architecture in part by including long, narrow window bands.

Inside Lassen’s house, the overall architectural approach is to let

the light naturally create and define spaces around the central

chimney with its open fireplace. Lassen continued to alter and

transform the house while he lived there. ‘Light and shadow

are harmonised through openings and niches working closely

together with texture and the thickness of the walls until this affects

your soul. It is these impressions, free of intellectual reason and

ideology, that are important. You have to use your senses,’ he

said. Initially, in Christiansholmsfortet, Lassen’s goal was to create

a village for artists. His own house was intended to have a studio

in the basement and an atelier with a window facing south.

Although the atelier started out as a drying room, it did eventually

become a workshop. Sadly, though, the dream of establishing an

artists’ village was never realised.