In 1887 he began his career as an architect and in 1892 he was appointed the Royal Building Inspector of Northern Jutland and he moved his family to Aarhus.

The building appears symmetrical from the outside but on the inside the layout of rooms and walls are highly asymmetrical, a typical component of villas in England during this period.

Villa Kampen was constructed on a small hill between forests and the ocean and it was designed in cooperation with the landscape architect Edvard Glæsel.

The overall design seeks to incorporate and complement the surroundings in an unobtrusive way; the hilly terrain has been preserved and used to make it seem as if the building rises out of the bedrock, shapes are irregular with oriels and arched windows and the estate is enclosed by a wall of small boulders.

It is roofed in red glazed tile and the outer walls are bricks of lime and sandstone, plastered and originally painted white (grey today) with espalier.