Our first stop was the district-street of Stroget. Stroget was one of Europe’s first pedestrian streets and is the world’s longest pedestrian street today. The street is lined with many shops, restaurants, and bakeries full of wonderful breads and pastries. This street carries 80,000 people a day, which is more than the city’s busiest main car artery, which only carries 65,000 vehicles a day. We then took a short walk over to Straedet, which runs parallel to Stroget. Straedet is another street characterized by enticing shops and restaurants. This street, however, is open to vehicular traffic as well as pedestrian traffic. It is also the city’s longest shared space.
After visiting Stroget and Straedet, we biked to Amager Torv for a brief stop. Amager Torv is the historic square that is home to the famous Stork Fountain. We then returned to our pedals and rode to the Potato Rows Residences. This neighborhood is considered to be one of the most livable communities in the world. This street maintained a peaceful tranquility consisting of chirping birds and children playing. Each house in the two rows has a personalized outdoor space in the front different from the typical front yard of an American residence. These personalized spaces were not perfectly organized and prim and proper, but had a more natural, charming personality to each. They are intended to be used by the residents, not to show off to the neighbors.
Next on our tour was the street, Dronning Louises Bro. This is a testament to the city’s stride towards more sustainable living in an urban setting. Directly on the street, there is an electronic counter that tracks each cyclist that rides by. Bianca had us know that an average of 37,000 cyclists pass by each day! This is made possible by generous bike lanes that go throughout the city, encouraging people to bike to and fro rather than drive a car.
We rode down the street to Norrebrogade, one of the city’s newest success projects. Norrebrogade formerly was a throughfare street that is now one of Europe’s busiest bicycle routes. Today, it is a thriving business area characterized by unique ethnic shops. We found that there were 16 business entrances on a 100m stretch.
Bianca then led our group to a small street that only two years ago was a very violent and scary area. Upon arriving, however, the street was very commercialized and busy. It felt quite safe. This transformation was called for by the residents of the street. They made their own call of action and decided to attract businesses to the street level. All businesses on the street have to be approved by a head association of residents and must contribute to the family lifestyle character to the street today. This was clearly seen at the small café that we had lunch at, which used bread from the bakery down the street for its sandwiches and coffee beans from the coffee shop across the street.
The next stop on our tour was Bananna Park. Bananna Park is highly used by its users, which is evident by the worn down grass on site. It has been well-received by local users since its opening in 2009. Three surrounding institutions—a day-care, grade school, and after school activity center—have contributed to its success. Children from each come to the park daily to lie in the sun on the “banana” or climb the rock wall, which is the largest public outdoor rock wall in Copenhagen. One reason for the park’s success may rest in the fact that the firms designing the urban space consulted children living in the surrounding area during the design process to understand firsthand what the kids wanted.
After the Bananna Park, we continued on our bicycles to Superkilen, an urban space designed by BIG. The intent for the design of this space is to include many different cultures. Features in the space represent many, many countries all over the world. While the idea is good, our group found the space to be somewhat sporadic and unsuccessful. Bianca pointed out that a student of hers did not know what to do upon arriving at the park.
Finally, we ended our tour at the Sjaellandsgade Skole, a public grade school with an awesome playground. This urban space featured low cement blocks with slots indented into them. The slots act as parking for bikes, while the segments in between serve as seating or a fence between public domain and the school’s property. Originally, the school had been surrounded by a fence, but that fence was replaced by these “bike rack-benches”, which make the playground and surroundings much more pleasing to the eye. After climbing on jungle gyms, playing on rolling logs and all five of us adults had gone down the spiral slide at this playground that was about 30’, it was time to say goodbye to our tour guide Bianca and head back to our hotel before heading to dinner with Johanne Riegels Ostergard, the Program Director of Architecture & Design at the Danish Institute for Study Abroad.
Upon arriving at DIS, wet from walking in rain, we were graciously greeted by Johanne and three interns: Parker, Sammer, and Ashley. They fed us a delicious meal and provided us wonderful conversation. We talked about different programs and student life at DIS as well as typical Danish culture. Our hosts were very knowledgeable about the current urban design and architecture projects that are happening currently in Copenhagen and Denmark. The evening and the whole day in general were filled with new knowledge and learning for all of us provided by great people who are passionate about design and their city, Copenhagen.
-Kristy
