Rødt og grønt - Red and green

Skuespilhuset - Det Kongelig Teater - and Kvæstbroen

Location: København centrum, ved havnefronten
Tegnet af Lundgaard & Tranberg
International arkitektkonkurrence udskrevet af Kulturministeriet i 2001


One of my favourite occupation in Copenhagen, why? Go there, and you'll know...Interesting, interrogating and exciting plays with quality actors in spaces and rooms challenging the eyes and satisfying the senses.


This time the play, Rødt og grønt, questions the public on the social work in developping countries: how do the "helping immigrants" live, how do they act, how do they consider themselves and the people around them, what is their purpose? Compassion or ego-building? What kind of fake world in between home and abroad have they created in order to survive and get the impression of doing something meaningful in this world? It is more a critical parody on a trend existing some decennies ago but still what do we actually know about those people we send to attend to others? What gives us the impression we need to help and interfere, what gives us the right, and especially who? How far can we go before it is affecting someone else's vital rights?

From laughter to some kind of unpleasant feeling of blasphemy, this piece was greatly produced, everything laying in subtilities and details.


The friendly evening temperature allowed to enjoy the leasure installations on Kvæstbroen, in front of the theater.


See also post from the 27th April 2010

Munch, Warhol and Louisiana

Warhol after Munch - opening to the new exhibition at LOUISIANA Museum of Modern Art

Location: North from Copenhagen, at Humlebæk
Designed by Jørgen Bo and Wilhelm Wohlert
On demand by founder Knud W. Jensen in 1958 : extension for the main villa

Louisiana is this wonderful place: a museum with the finest modern art you could dream of -one of the biggest in Scandinavia!- in a building stating the best of the Danish functionalism and in a natural context that is breath-taking. I trip to Louisiana is always like an energy treat to me! I look forward to any visit and live a long time on the inspiration I gather there!

The founder Knud W. Jensen started up the museum with the intention to offer the Danes a place where they could enjoy the latest performances from the Danish Modern Art world. He had this idea to combine hot rooms and cool rooms on the visitor's road: the hot ones being the traditionnal Modern Art with wellknown and appreciated pieces and the cool ones being the last innovations eventually more complexe or provocative, more difficult to accept and understand. To this day it hosts up to 3000 pieces of post-war art history (after 1945).

The functionalist building which everyone identifies as Louisiana is actually the extension(s) to the original mansion. The dialog between the natural and biological context, the view over the Øresund and the masterpieces makes the art and space experience, one of a kind.

The sobre choice of materials the elegant lines and especially the spaces are typical for the Danish functionalism in architecture. But it is a functionalism integrated in its site and therefore much more succesful than maybe some work of Mies van der Rohe -remarkable buildings but so unfunctional in their functionalism. This integration to the site brings though one unfunctional effect: the museum is a labyrinth for those who aren't accustomed to the "wondering-around" visiting routine. The many meters of corridors -well, it is more than corridors because of the special relation to the nature just behind the window, but it is pure passage function- mustn't be very economical or ecological in terms of heating and maintenance...

picture - source : flickr.com

Warhol after Munch, the exhibition opening

I was among the fortunate ones to see the exhibition in preview with a short presentation speach from one of the people in charge.

For those who do not know Edvard Munch is the painter behind "The scream", which reputation has overtaken his creator. Norvegian painter from the 19th-20th century he is known to reveal through his work the cruel reality of life: illness and death. Tuberculose took his mother when he was 5 and his sister when he was 13 and he was himself weak in health. That could justify why the thought of death always darkens even his most light paintings.
Illness and death are very physical in his expression, linked to the suffering body -the "Madonna" is represented with an ill-looking foetus in the left corner, his self-portrait glows out of a dark space under which lies a skeleton arm, background figures seems like gosts, faces are thin and the eyes hollow. But I mean also physical in the way he uses the brush.
Somehow though I think -I choose to think- that this dark veil doesn't have to be a depressive and pessimistic view of life but rather a stetement of a harsh reality which is to be taken into consideration in order to enjoy and taste more intensively the good moments in life -so that you are conscious about your luck as long as you live.

Facing those heavy thoughts about life, you could be surprised to see a light spirit such as Andy Warhol. But the exhibition intends to show how Warhol actually reflects more deeply through his work and, on the opposite, how Munch maybe might be more superficial. The exhibitions traces the two artists' similarities: the choice of subjects as death, fear and sexuality, the use of repetition as a tool for strong and direct communication, the use of prints and gravure, their provocative spirit and critisized work.

In fact, Warhol used four of Munch's gravures, scaled them up and tainted them with those bright colours that are so typical for his work and the work of the publicity industry: Munch's selfportrait, the Madonna, the Scream and the Broche-Eva Mudocci. Their reproduction and sometimes combination -the Self-portrait and the Madonna, as a couple and a condensed life frieze- arrise new interrogations and reactivates the feelings that were at the origin of their making, but within a new era of communication and flashy effects.

Anyhow, the exhibition is fascinating and intriguing both by its object and subjects: the reasons to oppose or unite these two giants of the Modern Art world, aswell as the two painters themselves and their work. So for either one reason or the other, go and have a look. It is definitely worth it.

Farven i Kunsten -The colours in art-, quick review of the magnificent exhibition
I was there at Easter a first time but the quality, beauty and quantity is so overwhelming that review(s) are necessary and enjoyable. The aim of this exhibition is to show the evolution of the use and reflections behind colours in mordern pictural art through the 20th century. The technic is scalled up to show how colour is used, where, in which proportion and which tonalities. The reflactions from the different painters are to read on the walls through the visit. The masterpieces and their many authors are to be enjoyed. I discovered many painters I didn't know, saw some of the gods I knew, was surprised by some sides of others, ravished by the energy they transmit to the viewer: how incredible and wonderful that such a thing as a painting -an object- can be so alive! It is just fantastic! Go if you haven't yet -the exhibition is open till the 13th June!

pictures - source : www.louisiana.dk

Biking between buildings...

...through Holmbladgade and its many times awarded urban renovation project - Holmbladsgade kvarter løft - down Prags Boulevard and to Amager Beach - Amager Strand Park

Again a guided tour organised by DAC and CopenhagenX !

If you haven't tried them yet, I really recommend them!

This sunday, the theme was around the urban lift, or renovation, that Amager East has been achieving during the past years. The whole process has been very long and slow because it integrated a collaboration with the inhabitants of Amager, right from the beginning. This results in a succesful renovation which is now quite recognised and rewarded abroad: the best metro without conductor, the best metro (both prices received in London) and a price for its lighting plan at the City People Light Award 2004 in Brussels.

Among the renovation projects, you'll find the Holmbladsgade kvarter løft, the Amager Strand park and other ongoing projects. Which were the principle/desires behind the projects?
1 to upgrade the city part energy wise and develop a sustainable city
2 to support the existing maritime look and environment
3 to link the city part to the coast and the sea

Brown fields renewal and industrial heritage: several sites with each their characteristics
It is important for the city part to express such principles since it is part of the process of understanding the identity of the site and its inhabitants. Many parts of Copenhagen are witnessing a renewal or uplift after a period of neglect or just ignorance of their potentials. A great deal of the eastern part of Copenhagen -the artificial islands Refshal island, Margretheholmen, Prøvestenen and Amager- were subject to past industrial functions. Many of them have closed down and left some strange noman's land with old -and beautiful, actually-
buildings and factories. Where Amager was more of a factory location, the three other mentionned islands have hosted heavier industry. The trend tends to move slowly the remaining industrial activities to Prøvestenen and start a rehabilitation of the gained grounds: Refshal island and Magretheholmen are to become, one day, a dense city part with creative functions in an industrial heritage.
Such undertakings has been seen already along the waterfront and in the west of Copenhagen with Kødbyen -the meattown or butcher market- and Carlsberg site -the project was won by Entasis.

The tour starts at the Amagerbro metro station. The square at the exit of the metro has been developped as the metro station was planed there. The metro is a very important link of that city part to the historical city center and to the airport. It allowed to start the renewal because suddenly Amagerbro was somehow closer in the city user's mental map.

Holmbladsgade renewal plan is a combination of square renewals, a lighting plan (it seems it is the first lighting plan integrated to a project and not just added on top...quite revolutionnary for Cph, tells one of the guides) and social projects, such as a library, a sport hall, an activity house for the neighbourhood...It is also a plan integrating one of the "green biking roads" in Cph ( on Prags boulevard) and a strategy of small passages and streets going perpendicularly down to the water. Both of them favorises the light traffic: pedestrians and bikes.


Biking down Prags boulevard...
The bike boulevard has been conceived by the landscape architect studio, Kristine Jensens Tegnestue. It links the city to the waterside and integrates 5 activity zones along the way, being small gardens for the neighbourhood -on the elder people's demand- sport and play grounds, outdoor stage. The urban furniture is mainly lamps and chairs: prager lamper and prager stole. The chairs are movable so that groups of friends can gather for an evenig bbq or a little publicum can get around the stage, etc. (they are made in iron though in order to discourage stealing)

Two main stops to observe two buildings by Dorte Mandrup architects: the neighbourhood house -Kvarterhus- and the multisport hall, also known as the Prism.

The first one is a rehabilitation of an old factory from 1880. This city part is packed with old buildings from a previour industrial life. The renewal isn't just tearing them down, but renovates them and give them a function fiting the present demands of th users. In the Kvarterhus, the slabs have been taken out in order to give free height to entrance part and link all functions by around that one space. A wooden structure with niches has been applied onto the facade, functionning as windows between in and out, esthetic and atmosphere bringing to the outside terrasse and -I suspect it but without certainty- a structural role of support for the "slab-free facade". The most known part of the project is the extension at the back: a room for gathering, discussing, meeting...made of wood and glass and a huge bookshelf on the inner side.

The second one, Prismen, closes of a typical "carré" by stretching out the three gables into a huge volume. This method allows more light into the existing backyards than if the "carré" just was closed with buildings of same height. The inner organisation isas described: the ground floor serves sprots such as soccer, handball, volley, etc., while the plateaus higher up are used for observation, gathering or just less space demanding activities such as combat sports, yoga, meditaion. The facade is translucent, revealing to the outside what is happening inside -especially when it is lit at night.
I call the two projects social because they are meant to create a safe frame where young people can exercice and use their energy in a constructive way.

The undone projects...
The citizens have favoured many projects but also layed down veto for too ambitious or "crazy" proposals. Nevertheless they are steps in a greater reflexion on the city, how it functions and how it could look like...
One of those projects, and maybe one of the most discussed, is Kløvermarken. It is a huge green field for soccer and outdoor sport. Many discussions have occured about should it stay as it is -a big outdoor green ground for free recreative use- or should it be built and integrated to the city? When the politician Rit Bjergaard suggested that Cph needed 5000 more housings at a fair price of 5000 DKK -the 5000 til 5000 suggestion- Bjarke Ingels Group came up with the idea to build the perimeter of the field up to a wall of housings. The existing sport fields would be kept in the center and the built frame would work its way up and down depending on the surroun dings and the access to the green center. Politicians were seduced on that rapid and effective answer, but citizens got frighten. The project were never fulfilled but the idea was tremendous, in my opinion (check out on big.dk, KLM 2006).
Since then Vandkunsten has come with another proposal but nothing is sure yet about who or even if there'll be a project there.

Strandlodsvej and Lergravsvej
Still very marked by the ancient functions, this part contrasts strongly with the first visited part.
Here also the metro pops up from its otherwise underground path, creating a dividing wall in the landscape. This less succesful part is at the origin of groups such as the "Metro group" which aims to learn from those mistakes and rectify it by the best means. Again the citizens show to be very active in the making of their city.

The gaz silo, emblem to Amager and its industrial heritage - its is to be preserved and rehabilitated somehow. The municipality is currently trying to find the funds for it. Many examples of rehabilitated silos can be found in Cph. To name only some of them: the Gemini Residence (grain silo from the soya factories in Havnestaden - check out the harbour tour with DAC), the gas silo in Lyngby and the gas silo in Valby. And talking energy, two giant windmills will be established along the shore here and should provide Cph with electricity.

And there lies the sea...
Amager strand park was inaugurated in 2005. Before that the beach wasn't very bathing-friendly: the low waters made it difficult to enjoy a swim or any kind of activity and the so-called beach was more like a sandy grass field. Hasløv & Kjærsgaard Arkitektfirma are behind the project: a 2 kilometers long sand island which pushes the beach part further out and creates recreation lagunes. Connected by bridges, ponctuated by a few concrete bungalows, the island becomes a part of the strandpromenade. Pedestrians and bikers can now enjoy the rich natur - especially the flora-, the panorama view over the Øresund and the crossing ferry traffic. Sports like kite-surfing and wind-surfing are very popular here. Children and amateurs bath and play from the inner beach, in the lagunes, as the professional sportsmen engage with the waves on the exposed side of the island.Amager strand park is also the host for one of the oldest winter bathing club: Helgoland. The club buildings had to be put down during the realisation of the project but have been rebuilt now.

A maritime environment
One of the most published projects must be the Maritime Youth Club, designed by PLOT (BIG+JDS), inaugurated in 2004. A waving wooden deck, under the corners of which class room and workshop spaces have been built, as well as space for storing canoës and kayaks. The remarkable points with this project is how every m² is used and how the architects turned a strong site pollution issue into a boosting element for the shaping of the project. As I mentionned earlier, this city part hosted heavy industry in its early days. This caused heavy metal ground pollution. Digging into the ground would disturb the stability and enhance the pollution effect. Plus, it would cost a great deal to move the polluted earth. So the deck sollution -building over ground- allowed to concentrated the budget on responding to the neighbourhood's needs and avoid a "pollution revival". The deck allows also to profit of m² under and over it. Again the prupose with the project was to give a social and safe frame for kids to use their energy on a constructive way, instead of hanging around and even maybe cause damages.

picture taken 01/01/10 - the deck is very slippery then: take care! I fell badely...

Another maritime project is the beautiful Kastrup søbad -Kastrup sea baths- designed by White Arkitekter and inaugurated in 2005. Like a wooden snail, the protecting wall grows from some 1,5 to 8 meters high and incorporates wooden benches, stairs at different heights, jumping planks at different heights, changing rooms...Accessibility for handicaped was thought as a ramp down to the water (though they would need help to come up and down). The lighting is soft and comes from under/behind the wooden planks giving a warm and smooth glow to the whole project. Definitely one of my favourites since I saw it first time at my arrival to Cph.

Coming soon, the new aquarium designed by 3XN will be situated just a bit more south from the Kastrup see baths. Den Blå Planet -blue planet- will be like a snail or mill with intertwining pools and tunnels for a very special underwater effect...I really look forward to see it realised!

Here ends our tour and it is time to go home and get a good warm cup of tea and crowl out of our wet clothes! Yes, it was raining most of the tour but who cares when the architecture and projects are so interesting and the guide competent!

Guided tour on the marathon...keeping sporty!

Kalvebod brygge and the Metropolzone
Guided tour organised by DAC and cphx.dk

A bit of a surprise when I ran into runners of the Nycredit Copenhagen Marathon this morning. But finally after some slalom between the streets, the runners and the many spectators I got to Søren Kierkegaards plads for the start of the tour. What I didn't imagine was that actually the marathon would follow us during the whole tour or was it us following them...Anyway, the contrast from last week's tour was drastic! So few users on the watersides last week, and a crowd - ca. 12000 runners and probably as many spectators - today!

Brave and courageous we were and especially our guide who had to manage somehow to talk over the cheering fans, the police's little ochestra playing "Under the sea" from Disney's Little mermaid and the sonorous horns and whistles of some enthusiasts.

So, starting at the edge of the Metropolzone, at Søren Kierkegaards plads, our guide presents the projects of the Black Diamond (Schmidt Hammer Lassen) and the Museum for Jewish History (Daniel Libeskind) with a reflexion on the squares at the feet of the two buildings: what are their function? How are they used? Are they used? What weakenesses do they present? The last questions here are especially relevant for the hollow space that Schmidt Hammer Lassen designed out in front of the library. Close to the building, the space is well used thanks to the café who develops its terrasse close to the water. But the rest is a huge empty space for bike-parking and well, it isn't really defined. Like if it wasn't really finished.

But hopefully this will change with the new building on the Bryghusgrunden, the Brewhous ground, (Rem Koolhaas - OMA) and the square would be activated by both sides. Also, Gehl architects are investigating and working on the square. They are architects but consider themselves most as urban planners and urban quality consultants. Read the famous Life between buildings by Jan Gehl and you will understand why: this is THE reference in terms of urban space and creating urbanity.

The Bryghus project is for the moment being validaded. If everything goes well the building process should start in 2011...The project is huge: a combination of offices, housing, cultural institutions, conference center, public spaces and exhibitions, urban promenade, squares and play-grounds etc. Very exciting in terms of life and flows generated and intertwining on the site.

Next stop is the Nycredit Glaskuben building and the Crystal (both by Schmidt Hammer Lassen). It must be the third or fourth time I am told about the Crystal and if I hadn't checked it out in a guide or on the architects'website, I would be able to define its function: extension to the Nycredit bank head-quarters. It seems that the most important here is the "crystal" allegory, the twisted structure touching the ground in three points and allowing public flow to pass under the building. The liberated ground will receive the Cloud landscape project (SLA, who has recently received one of the most reknow prices in the Danish architectural world): focus has been set on the different type of streams on the site, rushing businessmen, wondering tourists, Sunday walkers, bikes... each moving at their speed on their path.
All those projects are situated only 10 minutes walk from the City Hall, Rådhuspladsen and the central station. But too few notice it. Therefore the City is aiming to develop access to the waterfront, to the cultural buildings - e.g. by creating a cultural axe - and connecting the wity centre with the new dynamics happening on the watersides, as they are developping the Metropolzone.

Kalvebod brygge, which is the name of the city part we are exploring, is about to host the Kalvebod bølge project (Julien de Smedt), in a year or so. The purpose here is to create activation/activity sites in the city and on the water. In a mainly business dedicaded area, where quite some projects have risen without a logic and harmony to their context, those interventions mean to saw together the parts, and provide the area with a regained urban quality.

We arrive slowly to the end of the tour with the SEB bank building, designed by Lundgaard & Tranberg. True to their reputation, the detailling is as beautiful as the buildings plasticity! In fact, it appears through my observations that the plasticity can only be right when the detailling is right. Lundgaard & Tranberg are the perfect example for that!

Here, between the two buildings starts also a green corridor leading down to Dybbelsbro (well, it should lead further down, in to the big DSB railway ground but no concrete plan or initiative exists yet). This green path extends from the "blue one", the main canal and waterfront. They profit from each other and should work together to bring life and quality to Kalvebod. The green path will be a part of the new green biking paths passing through the city. If I am right, the landscape architects from SLA work on this project too.

The green corridor develops up to 7 meters height, corresponding to the second floor of the SEB complex. It works as the foyer for the two buildings, as a green lung for the city and as a roof for the new part of the national archive, Rigsarkivet. More of Rigsarkivet can be seen behind the SEB buildings. A huge monolith block without windows, protecting and keeping a national treasure and heritage and the scientists and searchers working on it. The only expression outwards is the brick wall, which paterns apparently are extracted from the very first writings found in Denmark, zoomed up and applied into the facade's plasticity.

Finally we arrive at the Wake Up Hotel and Tivoli Congress Center (both by Kim Utzon). This last building is also the ending of the green floating gardens.

It was interesting to see and get some more details about a part of the city we already had a sneak-peak at last week tour, discovering more of the considerations behind the architecture and plans along the waterside. Copenhagen is really growing constantly. It is really good to see that the growth also is within the city borders, not expanding out on nature and agriculture landscapes, but working on the inner spaces and holes, getting more dense, more alive, and thereby also more sustainable.

I hope to be able to get to the next tour: a bike tour through Amager. We'll be seeing the neighbourhood development at Holmbladgade and Prags Boulevard, as well as biking down the whole Amager Strand Park.

(Un)sunny Sunday in Copenhagen harbour

København havn op og ned - Copenhagen harbour up and down
Guided harbour tour organized by DAC and cphX
(check out the next dates on their website cphx.dk)

Rain was pouring down on Saterday and Sunday wasn't looking much brighter but nonetheless I jumped on my bike and went to the first free summer tour of DAC, a harbour tour from north to south, from Søndre Frihavn to Sydhavn. Our guide took us on a journey exploring all the thoughts, discussions, masterplans, projects and buildings - aswell the realised ones that you see today along the waterfront as those that stayed on the drawing board.


The harbour of Copenhagen has been the center for a very strong and dynamic development the past years. The industrial waterfront was emptied from life and no interest nor recognition was shown for the waterspace as quality bringing element to the city.

Since several years, the renewal of waterfronts has become a trend in post-industrial cities, such as the renewal of their brown fields. The question is: what to do with the left-overs of industry, which are parts of the city -sometimes very central and huge areas- suffering from a very negative image. Among those, the most drastic example is Liverpool waterfront!

Usualy, harbours and waterfront are planned to become the center for art and creative production, combined with culture and a dynamic mix of functions. Here I refer back to the conference of Eva de Klerck on NDSM in Amsterdam northern dockyard.

As starting point, an enquiry was made about the kind of buildings and functions that should be hosted in the harbour and what kind of typology. Henning Larsen architecture office came with the conclusion that it should be big cultural buildings, justifying the typology of the new theater (Lundgaard & Tranberg), the opera house (Henning Larsen), the Black Diamond (Schmidt Hammer Lassen) or the coming Brewhouse (OMA). The city of Copenhagen has also decided that watherver will be built down to the waterfront, it should always bee possible for citizen to walk the whole way up and down, on a public deck or promenade. This means that all projects, even housings, have to deal with complex and interessant topics such as the delicate private-public transition. The city also has developped a special institution, By & Havn, which is concerned with the development of Copenhagen harbour and Ørestad and has continually an overview on the continuity and unity between the masterplans.

Sailing North...
With much detailled explanations we sailed passed Papirøen -"Paper Island", artificial island where you find the storage for the magazine and daily news -, Holmen - old military area developped into artistic and living islands with the school for architecture, conservatory for rythm instruments and the Torpedo hall (Vandkunsten) as well as the famous Opera house (Henning Larsen) -, Refshaløen - industrial island where the underground loud and exciting parties and which is to be developped into a recreation and sports island -...

... into the Søndre Frihavn and Marmormolen - where Copenhagen hosts the ferries coming from Oslo and Poland, recently developped and supposed to become a very lively and busy area in the future due to the hopefully growing interest from firms and professionals, and due to the coming FN-project (3XN) and tour projects (Steven Holl) on Marmormolen.

Before turning south, our guide introduces us to the coming project on the northern harbour: Nordholmernes delta, by COBE. A sustainable city part where the main objectives are on:
1. an energywise sustainable city (technicaly and materially),
2. a green mobility plan with rail connection to the center,
3. a city for bikes with the first "bike highway",
4. life in the citypart with diversity and mixity,
5. the historical connection to the maritim world as identity,
6. a city for all and for every hour of the day with diversity in typologies, functions, lifestyles and atmospheres.

Down again...
Down Langelinie, where the mermaid should be when she isn't visiting Shanghai, we observe the dockhouses, old, restaured or just newly built, positionned along the water as heavy blocks. The tour continues passing the Kvæsthus bridge - old dock for the ferries and where you can enjoy today during the summer Copenhagen biggest beach -, the new Theatre house (Lundgaard & Tranberg), the temporary urban spaces created by citiznes along the old harbour and close to the custom house, the extension to the Royal Library, the Black Diamond (Schmidt Hammer Lassen), the museum for Jewish History of their escape from Denmark to Sweden (Studio Daniel Libeskind), the Brewhouse site where hopefully OMA's project soon will stand - a mix of cultural institutions among which DAC, offices e.g. Real Dania one of the biggest fond for the building business in Denmark, conference rooms, sun decks along the water and on the roof, housings, play ground for children and young people of all ages -, the metropole zone where a bunch of offices, hotels and conference centers (firms as Lundgaard & Tranberg, Kim Utzon, PLH has been at work there with Ticoli conference center, Wake Up Hotel, Copenhagen Island Hotel, a new bank and other firms and production offices) has popped up between the waterside and the railway.

We arrive to the southern part of the harbour with the new Havneholm and the Fisketorvet on Kalvebod Brygge. It isn't the nicest part of town, architecturally seen. The reason is that many projects have just risen there without any propper consideration of its neirghbour or context. The grounds were sold in the 1990's by the City when it was almost bankrupt: prices were low and big firms just bought the sites. No masterplan was designed and you can definately tell by the general look of it. Fisketorvet, the shopping mall and cinema, is comparable to an American mall, huge labyrinth where consumtion is the purpose and only logic: no interaction with the particular surroundings, a complicated box with a black shiny shell, no genius loci! But passing the bridge and you'll see the seducing housings from Lundgaard & Tranberg where privacy and public spaces are delicately marked via the plan, the volumes and the use of inner yards and canal.

Passing the bridge of Dissing+Weitling - known also for the Storebælt bridge - we move slowly down to Sydhavn.

Sydhavnen : Teglholmen and Sluseholmen
This part of Copenhagen weren't thought to be developped once: people would never live that much south from center. So you still find some heavy industry and production buildings.

But it is also the site that was given to Soeters van Eldonk in order to create a canal city inspired by Java eilanden in Amsterdam. The Dutch studio designed the masterplan and in collaboration with Arkitema developped the typology that would suit the plan and express the differenciation between inner and outer parts, more private and more public exposed facades. At least 5 architecture studios were set on each block in order to assure variety in the facade design, probably an expression for a hoped social diversity.

Housings by Vandkunsten on Teglholmen (old production site for bricks in Cph, tegl) - designed as houses on piers so that the ground floor is free for social-water-outdoor activities. Boats can be parked under, people can fish and clean it in the outdoor kitchen thought for that purpose...

Passing by Metropolis, designed by an Indian firm and rising in the middle of the waters, we take a quick look at the last bit of ground that should receive one day the continuation of the masterplan for Sluseholmen. This part of the city is still very monofunctional and lacks easy connections to the city centre. Therefore the city has open a competition for a basic school along the water. This was won by JJW architects: their project will take as much advantage of the presence of water and is designed so sportive and recreative activities will be possible along and in the water of the canals, that way cultivating the children's relation to water. Furthermore, a bridge, designed by Hvidt arkitekter, will connect Sluseholmen with Teglholm and allow easy access by car to the city center.

Easter waterfront, the natural side...
As we sail back we pass Amagerfælled, the biggest protected green zone in Copenhagen. Behind it, lies the Ørestad and its experimental architecture. This piece of nature is used partly by garden collonies and self-builder society, Nokken. A plan is in making that would connect that pre-Christiania part of town to the city by low houses and studios, getting higher as they get closer to the Havnestad, or "Harbour city".

The Havnestad was the place for soya production in earlier years. An explosion put a stop to the production. Now the old dock buildings have been reused, the silos are transformed into appartments and office spaces have been created. The Gemini Residence is a work of MVRDV and JJW architects.

The old grain silos, the Diesel house and the red brick silos house are the three remaining silos from the soya industry. Further up, a park has been created along the water, again integrating the industrial past of the harbour: an old wagon stands in the middle, railway tracks crosses the pavement, an old wooden boat has been turned upside down and is now a kind of kiosk or scene with a roof.

And then of course we have the well-known harbour bath by PLOT. Julien de Smedt, co-founder of PLOT before they parted to JDS and BIG, is developping a new harbour bath at Kalvebod brygge and another one will come in the southern harbour.


After two hours we are back, slightly wet and very cold...
But what a good overview I have now about all the projects in the harbour. So exciting! I just wish they were as lively, busy and dense as they are on paper. Of course the bad weather, the cold month of May and their young age can justify this. It takes time before a new city part is wriggling with life. I still miss maybe the physical connection between all those projects, the actual continuity that seems to be so important for both architects, urbanists and By og Havn actors. My belief is that it will appear with an even more active use of the water and not just its sides. Time will show.

Thanks to the guide!