The waterfront in Denmark’s capital has undergone impressive redevelopment in recent decades and transformed into Copenhagen’s new recreational hub.
Today, you can almost read the chapters of Copenhagen’s harbor from fortress and trading port through shipbuilder and business center to a modern, creative knowledge city with integrated urban districts. The Copenhagen waterfront has been transformed into a vibrant public space with recreational activities and residential developments.
The urban regeneration of the harbor has been in progress for nearly two decades. Politicians, landowners, and investors have jointly succeeded in redeveloping these urban districts thanks to a totally new mindset. The result is a totally new area which attracts new residents and businesses as well as home-seekers, tradespeople, creative entrepreneurs, and visitors.
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A host of cultural institutions and recreational hotspots have been built on the harbor, transforming it from a highly polluted industrial port into one of the most popular destinations in the Danish capital.
The plans for the harbor have included creating more activities for visitors to engage with, improved access to the waterfront and more public space by the water. New tendencies in society were a major boost for the start of the harbor’s transformation. There was recognition that the future of Copenhagen should be perceived in terms of a knowledge-city with authentic, idiosyncratic urban districts, which could attract new residents and businesses, but also hold onto people, who already populated the city.
The development has provided space for events, introduced nature to the site and made the area cleaner and friendlier. The latest addition to this ever-evolving urban landscape comes courtesy of local architecture Studio Cobe, which was tasked with creating parking facility for the Opera House. The Opera Park has become a lush space on top of the requisite underground car park.
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It took about twenty years for Copenhagen to become one of Europe’s most popular cities. It is modern, fashionable, safe, democratic, business-friendly, family-friendly, recreational, green and clean.
Over the recent years, many of the buildings around Copenhagen’s port have been abandoned, which has provided an opportunity for new initiatives to develop an increasingly recreational harbor.
The unused plot for the Opera Park was originally meant for housing, but the client scrapped the plan in favor of a new recreational spot for everyone to use. The park features winding paths that cross through six gardens with vegetation from different parts of the world, inspired by the area’s history as an international trade hub. At the heart of the green space is a glass pavilion with expansive views of the surroundings and water.
It is probably the areas lining the harbor that give the clearest picture of the city’s general development.
As part of the harbor’s transformation, a portable dipping zone was added by Sharing Copenhagen with the aim of creating a safe space where people can submerge in the harbor’s water. The dipping zone can move to different points along the harbor to test bathing zones and correlate with events going on in the area.
Although all of the new urban districts along the waterfront share a close relationship with the water, at the same time they could not be more diverse. All have been inspired by the geography of the setting, the existing buildings and their former use and the different ways they related to the water.
Inside the Opera Park’s glass pavilion there is a restaurant and café offering seasonal dishes, while a garden of tropical vegetation, including a 12-meter-tall tree, leads to the underground parking lot.
Another recent development is a floating community center developed in the area of Nordhavn.
Designed by local architecture practice Spektrum Arkitektur, the building is used as a shared common area for sports association Nordhavn IF and is made up of a meeting room, bathing facilities, sauna and changing rooms.
Harbor baths, bathing beaches, mooring points for canoes, kayaks and motorboats, recreational pursuits both next to and on the water, cultural venues, restaurants and cafes are already inviting Copenhageners and tourists to come and sample the pleasures of the harbor.
The Danish capital is the only capital city in Europe that has an industrial harbor that people can both swim and fish in without health risks, thanks to a modernized sewer system that has kept the harbor water clean since 2002.
And every day sees the appearance of new facilities and functions.
Copenhagen’s New Recreational Hub, written by Tor Kjolberg.
Feature image (on top): Islands brygge. Photo © Wikimedia commons.