climate change and sustainability in Denmark? - information on line

/
 

Many of the major reports on new policies to tackle climate change and directives on sustainability from the Danish government and by city councils and by organisations such as Realdania or Danish Industry are published on line and often published in English although it is now relatively easy to translate even pdf files from Danish using Google.

read more

Here the images of the report cover are links to the on-line site where the report can be read and, in most cases, downloaded as a pdf file.

 
 
 

Lokalplanner i København

For the city of Copenhagen, plans for proposed developments - including extensive schemes to deal with flooding from rain storms - are published on line as part of the public consultation process and, for planners and architects from other countries, these readily-available reports provide a useful introduction to developments in planning and major engineering projects for climate change mitigation in the city.

The front page has a map where the reader can zoom in to find a specific report for a district or city block or square or specific building and the map is live or active so take you to the on-line pdf reports.

More recent reports have extensive research on historic context and function so they are as much an impact assessment as a public consultation document

 
 

Enghave Parken - restoration and climate-change mitigation

/

Enghave Park was laid out in the 1920s on land that had been allotments. The overall design for the park was by the City Architect Poul Holsøe (1873-1966) who designed the brick apartment blocks around the large square and work was completed by 1929.

An original band stand and pavilions on either side, with shelters and toilets under a pitched roof covered with wood shingles, were restored in 2016 and the original pale-green colour on the pavilions reinstated along with trellis for climbing plants. Research for the restoration work was undertaken by Bente Lange and drawings in the city archive for these buildings have been attributed to Arne Jacobsen (1902-1971) who had just graduated and was then working in the office of Poul Halsøe before going on to establish his own architectural practice in 1929. These are therefore some of the architects first known works.

More important, in terms of the later architectural style of Jacobsen's work, are two small stone and glass pavilions that flanked the main entrance gate. They were demolished in the 1970s but have also been attributed to Jacobsen and reinstated or reconstructed as part of the most recent work on the park. These have stone side walls and shallow pitched roofs with the gable ends to the road and to the park but the front and back walls are glazed.

Extensive engineering work has just been completed for one of the largest climate change mitigation projects in the city and the park was formally reopened on 14 December 2019.

Engineering work has been by Cowi with landscape design work by the Copenhagen studio Tredje Natur.

additional photographs and read more

 

Langelands Plads - a new underground car park with climate landscape

/

aerial view from Google Earth shows Langelands Plads while the new underground car park was exposed.
The south end of Axsel Møllers Have is to the right with the roof of public swimming pool and public baths bottom right. The baths were designed by AAK Lauritzen and opened in 1934. Apartments around the squares would have had toilets but would have used the public baths.

Langelands Plads in Frederiksberg is about 400 metres north of the main shopping centre and Frederiksberg metro station.

Work on a extensive scheme to remodel and develop Langelands Plads began in the Spring of 2017 and was completed and the square was reopened at the end of May 2019.

A new underground car park was excavated across the east side with three levels below ground that has parking for 200 cars. Access is down a ramp at the south-east corner of the square but with separate access points for pedestrians leaving or retrieving their cars.

Mature trees were kept on the west side of the space and the area was resurfaced and paved and is now tightly packed with features with raised steps for seating across the north-east corner; a large, shallow pool; seating, including picnic tables and, of course, play equipment including a slide; a sand pit and an area for ball games enclosed by high fencing.

The square is also part of storm water planning for the district so the paving tiles are actually a permeable surface and there are holding tanks for water below the square.

The design was by the architectural consultants RUM

additional photographs and read more

RUM

 

climate change - Scandiagade

/
 

Rain storm works at Scandiagade were completed and formally opened in June 2019 and I visited a few days later to take some photographs and explore the area but have only just got around to writing the post.

I'm not sure why it has taken so long and it now feels like a serious oversight because this is a brilliant piece of landscape planning and the designers - the architectural studio 1:1 Landskab - have created a beautiful and really quite amazing new public space.

read more

20180503_Plan farve_0.jpg

Sankt Jørgens Sø - planning for climate change

/

Planning for one of the most dramatic and extensive climate-change schemes in Copenhagen has been put on hold for more detailed consideration.

This is a proposal to change Sankt Jørgens Sø - the southernmost of the three lakes that form an arc around the west side of the historic city - so that it can hold back flood water when (not if) there is a major rain storm.

read more