Sustainability and architecture in Copenhagen

Superkilen was designed by BIG, SUPERFLEX and Topotek 1 and is a multicultural public space in the city’s most diverse neighbourhood Nørrebro. Designed in tandem with local residents, the idea was to engage them and bring together the best of their cultures with a focus on usage and social sustainability. Today it includes 99 items from more than 50 countries worldwide, from Chinese signs to a Thai boxing ring and Moroccan fountains. For more information read here.

Rooftops are used to create leisure spaces, long after the workers in the offices below have left for the day. This utilises space without the need for more buildings and improves local areas by making spaces that are in use all day. Examples are Østergro, Denmark’s first urban farm, which sits on top of an old car auction house; Konditaget Lüders, a playground and gym on the top of a multi-storey car park; and CopenHill, a ski slope, hiking trail, bar and meeting space on top of an industrial power plant. For more information read Østergro, Konditaget Lüders and CopenHill.

Timber buildings offer a sustainable alternative to concrete construction, lowering carbon emissions overall; architecture practises Henning Larsen and Cobe are among the Copenhagen firms championing the use of timber in their buildings in Denmark and abroad. Henning Larsen Architects is currently building one of the country’s largest timber buildings, a multi-use office building for the Danish pension fund, AP Pension, in the formerly industrial area of Nordhavn. For more information read here.

Østerbro is the site of one of the city’s pioneering sustainability projects, Klimakvarter, meaning the climate neighbourhood, which seeks to develop and showcase new initiatives to help with increasingly common heavy downpours and cloudbursts, along with other climate issues. This includes designing future-proofed spaces, greener streets and landscaped areas that carry rainwater away from the neighbourhood towards the harbour, and luxuriant courtyard gardens that can manage everyday rainwater and store it in rain beds, and water columns or storage tanks. It is now a mandatory requirement for all new urban development projects to design spaces to accommodate heavy downpours. For more information read Klimakvarter.

Designed by 3XN, the regional headquarters of the UN in Copenhagen is one of Denmark’s most energy-efficient buildings. It uses solar panels on the roof, a rainwater recycling system for toilets, and a seawater cooling system, among other innovations. The building was awarded the highest LEED certification and the European Commission GreenBuilding Award in 2012. Guided tours are available. For more information read here.