det grønne strøg / the green line - the high-level landscape of Kalvebod Brygge

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An ambitious plan to create a raised landscape at a high level between new buildings on the railway side of Kalvebod Brygge was set out in the local plan of 2006 where it was described as if it was to be a series of hills.

The first part of the gardens, at the north end - with a steep slope up from Bernstorffsgade, between the towers of the SEB offices, was completed in 2009 and the gardens were soon extended on across the roof of a new archive building and through to the Tivoli Hotel and Congress Center. Then the new developments stalled.

The west end of the landscape gardens, through the Nexus building, has just been planted but construction work on the middle section, across the roof of a new IKEA store, has only just restarted.

All these new buildings, that frame the gardens, are between Kalvebod Brygge and Carsten Niebuhrs Gade and, when finished, the high-level landscape will extend for over a kilometre from Bernstorffsgade to a new railway traffic control tower on Otto Busses Vej.

Lokalplan nr. 403 "Rigsarkivet" 2006

the landscape scheme starts at Bernstorffsgade at the SEB buildings
a winding concrete path climbs up a steep slope from the road with well established trees

this sequence of photographs shows the gardens from Bernstorffsgade to Arni Magnussons Gade and the bridges across to Hotel Cabinn

At the city-centre end, at Bernstorffsgade, the landscape starts at street level with pathways twisting from side to side to climb up between the SEB buildings to a point 7 metres above the level of the pavement.

There is then a wide bridge that crosses a service road for the State Archive and the gardens continues between the archive stores on the side towards the railway and a newly-revamped office building, now known as KB32, on the Kalvebod Brygge side. That straight section of garden, 190 metres long and 29.6 metres wide, is 8 metres above the pavement of Kalvebod Brygge.

Maintaining that level, there is a single narrow bridge over another service road before the gardens open out between the towers of the Tivoli Hotel and Conference Centre.

Beyond the Tivoli hotels, there is a slightly odd and over-complicated series of narrow bridges - with handrails that would grace a multi-storey car park - that cross a wider street called Arni Magnussons Gade. It is a dual carriageway that will be the access to a new bus station between Carsten Niebuhrs Gade and the railway.

Here, the landscaped area first forms the canopy over the entrance to the Hotel Cabinn before the garden then climbs up steeply between the two towers of the hotel where it now ends abruptly at a fence before the next section where work has just started on building a new IKEA store.

There, about 17 metres above the pavement of Kalvebod Brygge, the garden or "green lounge" on the roof of IKEA will be level and will cross over Dybbølsbro.

Then, between the two towers of Kaktustårnene or The Cactus Towers designed by Bjarke Ingels, the gardens will drop down at a very steep angle to the entrance level to the two blocks of the new Nexus building and then, between the those two office blocks, drop down again to end at the level of Carsten Niebuhrs Gade.

 

map from 2006 in Kalvebod Lokalplan 403 with the different stages of the development of this area from the SEB site at I through to the IKEA site at IV ….
then, the green line was only to extend as far as the area where Kaktustårnene are, beyond Dybbølsbro, but not the site of the railway control tower

①  Danske Banks Hovedsæde / headquarters for Danske Bank by Lundgaard & Tranberg - under construction
②  SEB Bank & Pensions by Lundgaard & Tranberg 2008-2011 and The City Dune by SLA design studio
③  Rigsarkivet / State Archive by PLH Arkitekter
④  KB32 by Vilhelm Lauritzen Architects and JJW ARKITEKTER completed in 2021
⑤  Tivoli Congress Centre by Kim Utzon 2009-2016
⑥  Hotel Cabinn 2019
⑦  IKEA store by Dorte Mandrup - under construction
⑧  Kaktustårnene / The Cactus Towers by Bjarke Ingels - under construction
⑨  Nexus for Energistryrelsen Trafikstyrelsen and Banedanmark by Arkitema 2014-2019
⑩  Trafiktårnet Øst / Railway control tower by Tranberg Arkitekter 2013-2015

A Bernstorffsgade B Carsten Niebuhrs Gade C Kalvebod Brygge D proposed bus station E Dybbølsbro F Fisketorvet G Metro station opens 2024

 

the gardens on the steep slope where they climb up between the towers of Hotel Cabinn

from the bridge over Arni Magnussons Gade, the gardens climb steeply up to a temporary fence where the gardens will continue on over the roof of a new IKEA store

 

details of the planting and concrete paths on the slope up from Bernstorffsgade between the two SEB buildings by the landscape designers SLA

Planting is well-established between the SEB buildings with a good selection of trees, many with decorative bark, and with some that have grown up through large holes in the prominent concrete canopies of the buildings. Narrow slots in the concrete path channel away rain water that is recycled for watering the trees and shrubs.

Across the roof of the archive, the design is more architectural with low planting and trellis that form a sequence of simple spaces with seating. The gardens help control the temperature and internal climate of the archive.

The section through the Tivoli Hotel has well-established shrubs and trees but the spaces could be better used. This is one area that might be treated like public squares and might even be used to host events. It would also be the one place, along the length of the gardens, that might benefit from a small coffee bar or cafe although, generally, the main character of the gardens is that it is quiet or peaceful ... when taking some of these photographs on a Sunday morning, only two people walked through and there were birds singing loudly in the trees.

The steep path up between the towers of Hotel Cabinn has no trees and although the low planting is good - with a variety of leaf types and shrubs - the plants could be in bolder groups, to create a stronger architectural character against the stark buildings, rather than being scattered. There are benches at intervals up the slope where you can take in the views.

At various points through the gardens there are views out between the buildings to the railway and Vesterbro on one side and through to the south harbour on the other.

There are drawings of the proposed garden on the roof of the IKEA store but it is difficult to imagine how the areas of planting will then drop down the steep slope between the Cactus Towers although Bjarke Ingels has produced planted areas at a similar steep angle on the 8 Building in Ørestad and at Copenhill on the roof of the Amager Bakke incinerator.

Where the garden drops down again between the two blocks of the Nexus building, new planting has established itself quickly and there is an interesting concrete rill or channel to take rain water down through the garden.

Back at the city end, when finished, new headquarters for Danske Bank on Bernstorffsgade immediately north of the SEB towers, will have broad flights of steps up between the buildings to a new terrace overlooking the railway and this will be connected to the main landscaping by a bridge over Carsten Niebuhrs Gade between the SEB building and the Archive.

When finished there will be public access for the full length of the high landscape and with steps up to the gardens at several intermediate points.

new steps up to the gardens with Tivoli Hotel to the left and Hotel Cabinn to the right and with the cross road Arni Magnussons Gade between the two hotels

 

the gardens on the roof over the IKEA store with the two Catus Towers beyond

the far end of the gardens where it drops down between the two blocks of the Nexus building with a view of the new railway control tower beyond

 

Sankt Kjelds Plads and Bryggervangen climate-change scheme - winner of the Arne Prize 2020

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On Friday, it was announced that the climate-change scheme for Sankt Kjelds Plads and Bryggervangen by SLA architects and the engineering company NIRAS has been awarded the Arne Prize for 2020 …. the major annual award from the Danish Association of Architects.

The selection of a climate-change project for the Arne Prize has, if anything, more significance because this year there was a short list of six projects that included very strong contenders for the prize with the extensive work on Karen Blixens Plads - a huge project by the architects COBE that is at the centre of the south campus of the university - and the stunning stations of the new line of the Metro that opened in September.

Sankt Kjelds Plads is at the centre of a densely-built residential area immediately north of Fælledparken so it is about 4 kilometres north of the centre of the city. Most of the apartment buildings here date from the first half of the last century with most buildings of five storeys around attractive but enclosed courtyards and with wide but slightly bare and bleak streets.

Storms with sudden and increasingly severe rain have meant severe threats from flooding both as drains block and streets flood but also as rain-water floods down from the roofs.

This extensive and essential scheme to control storm water in the area was designed in 2015 with construction work and then planting undertaken between 2016 and 2019 and had to include extensive and disruptive engineering works for new drains and for sunken holding areas for water so sewers are not overwhelmed with cloud bursts.

A crucial part of the scheme was to rationalise on-street parking for cars and to reduce and slow down through traffic so large areas of what had been tarmac could be replaced with pedestrian areas with seating and with dense planting more like urban woodland than simply shrubbery around newly excavated hollows that act as temporary water-holding tanks but are otherwise planted with vegetation that can withstand occasional flooding.

Shale has been used around water pipes to slow the water that cascades from down pipes in a storm and there are large domed sumps with wide vertical drops to deal quickly with water from street gulleys.

What is already clear is that there has been major social gain from the work with new cafes and new businesses attracted to the square and to the nearby and related climate-change scheme for Tåsinge Plads just 80 metres to the east of Sankt Kjelds Plads.

initial assessment posted to Danish Design Review in April 2019
Tåsinge Plads

 
 
 
 
 

note:

Each year, alongside the main Arne Prize, there is a second award - the Lille Arne or Little Arne Prize - that recognises excellence across a broader range of work associated with architecture. This year the Lille Arne was awarded to Sydhavnens Folkmøde that provides a platform for local residents to have a democratic involvement in the on-going development of the south harbour.

Sydhavnens Folkemøde

 

update - Sankt Kjelds Plads - climate change landscape

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Sankt Kjelds Plads in July 2018 - looking towards Hahnemanns Køkken - the cafe on the north side of the square

 

the same view in April 2019

Sankt Kjelds Plads is in a densely-built area of older apartment buildings about 4 kilometres directly north from the city hall.

Many of the buildings here date from the 1930s but there are large modern office buildings and large and relatively recent industrial buildings and a large supermarket to the west.

The area has a distinct urban character with relatively wide streets but little planting and not just on street parking but also fairly heavy through traffic. From the air you can see that most of the large apartment blocks have extremely pleasant courtyards with planting but the real problem for this area is that climate change has meant occasional but very destructive flooding from sudden rain storms with traditional street drainage unable to deal with surface water on the streets and with rain running off the roofs of the large buildings.

The solution has been to put in fast-flowing storm drains, surface channels to take water away to tanks or sumps where it can be controlled, and, where necessary, filtered and then released into the drainage system but at an appropriate rate. These sudden storms may last for only an hour but in that time there can be a depth of 30 centimetres of water across the road that stops traffic, floods basements and ground-floor apartments and businesses and takes road-level pollution through the drains and to the harbour and the sound.

Along with this hard landscaping of drains and surface gullies, the other solution is extensive planting that absorbs rainfall - apart from the most severe storms - and adds considerably to the amenity value of the street scape.

Here at Sankt Kjelds Plads, seven roads converge at what was a very large traffic round-a-bout. That was planted with shrubs and trees but it certainly was not a place to sit. In fact, with the heavy traffic, it was not a place where many people even cut across.

With the current scheme, small areas of pavement in front of the buildings have been pulled forward and the traffic discouraged and the round-a-bout reduced significantly in size. The new areas are densely planted and have pathways curving through them with seats . Sunken areas will flood when there are storms, to act as holding tanks, but have planting that will cope with short periods of partial submersion.

This will be the first full growing season for the trees and shrubs and ground cover so it is not fair to judge the scheme until everything becomes more established but already the transformation is obvious.

This large open space links through with the climate-change landscaping of Tåsinge Plads, about 85 metres away to the east, and the main north south road through Sankt Kjelds Plads - Bryggervangen - is also being planted to form a green corridor from the large park - Fælledparken - to the south and continuing through to an open area and pond to the north beyond Kildevældskirke.

more images and map

post on Sankt Kjelds Plads July 2018
post on Tåsinge Plads July 2018

looking across Sankt Kjelds Plads from the south side - although it is hard to see through the new planting, the traffic island is still at the centre but has been reduced significantly in size

 

aerial view of Sankt Kjelds Plads after the main landscape work on Tåsinge Plads had been completed - the thin triangular street space on the right towards the bottom - and just before construction work on Sankt Kjelds Plads began so this shows the original traffic island and areas for people to walk kept to the edge immediately in front of the buildings

the rain is coming - Sankt Kjelds Plads

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Sankt Kjelds Plads looking south from Æbeløgade and the view up Bryggervangen towards the Plads with the new areas for planting under construction in July 2018

new storm drains going in along the road edge (above)
drawing from SLA showing the extent of the scheme from Sankt Kjelds Plads and north and south along Bryggervangen  (below)

 

Less than 100 metres from Tåsinge Plads is Sankt Kjelds Plads - a second phase of work for new drain systems with hard landscaping and appropriate planting to cope with the inundation of water from rain storms. 

Here there is a large traffic intersection with Bryggervangen running through from north east to south west and three other roads - Nygårdsvej from the east, Æbeløgade from the north west and Sejrøgade from the south west - meeting at a large space that was until recently laid out as a large traffic round-a-bout.

A new scheme with holding tanks for rainwater, new storm drains and a series of water features and extensive planting have been designed by SLA.

New areas of paving and traffic calming with new marked bays to control car parking is well in hand.

It is not just the road intersection that will have new planting but the long diagonal run of Bryggervangen is part of the work and this will form a new green corridor from a small lake and open ground several blocks to the north at Kildevældssøen and continuing south towards the open space of Fælledparken.

the new climate district - by Tredje Natur

 

A local store has a window covered with a huge illustration of the finished scheme.

 

Bygningspræmiering / Building Awards 2018

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On the 7th April 1902 the city council of Copenhagen voted to make awards annually for "beautiful artistic designs for construction projects on the city's land."  

There had been some discussion with the Association of Academic Architects about creating an award that recognised the best designs for new buildings in the city but from the start the awards were also to provide guidelines or a model and an incentive for owners and clients when they commissioned work. 

It is important to understand that the council appreciated fully the importance of historic buildings in the city so the awards were, in part, to encourage the design of new buildings of an appropriate quality to stand alongside the historic buildings but they also went further to include awards for major projects for the restoration of existing buildings and to recognise improvements to the townscape or urban scape that provided the best and most appropriate setting for those buildings.

Nor did the awards just focus on major or prestigious buildings but over 115 years they have also recognised the best private houses, new apartment buildings and commercial buildings, factories and schools in Copenhagen. 

For 2018, eight buildings have been recognised with an award but, for the first time, these will all go forward for the selection of an overall winner by a public vote.

That winner will be announced at a ceremony at the City Hall on 3 May. 

 

 

 

Axel Towers, Axeltorv 2
Lundgaard & Tranberg Arkitekter A/S

Five circular towers, tightly grouped and interlinked, with shops and a cafe at the lower level, a new public space at an upper level between the towers, offices and a restaurant at the top overlooking the city. The nomination for an award appears to be in part for the quality of the exterior and for the new or rather the replanning of the public space running back from the street across the west side of the new buildings.

 


Carlsbergfondets Forskersboligerne / Carlsberg Foundation Graduate Housing, Bohrsgade 7-13
Praksis Arkitekter ApS

Apartments on an important and sensitive site overlooking the JC Jacobsen Gardens. The award appears to be for the quality of the design, attempting to set a standard for the redevelopment of this area, previously the site of the Carlsberg brewery. There is an interesting loggia across the street frontage that takes its form from covered links between and across the front of original brewery buildings and the form of the brickwork, with panels of bricks set diagonally to create a zigzag dog-tooth pattern, shows a clever and sympathetic and appropriate respect for the facade of the adjoining brick building on the garden side by Eske Kristensen that dates from the 1960s and was itself an award-winning design.

 

 


Konstabelskolen, Luftmarinegade 1
Vandkunsten

New youth housing in buildings on Margreteholm that date from 1939 - an early and important concrete post and beam construction that has been derelict for some years.

 

 
 

Mærsk Tårnet / Mærsk Tower, Blegdamsvej 3B
C F Møller Architects
Landscape SLA

Prominent new building for medical research - for the university Panum Institute and the Novo Nordisk Foundation Centre on the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences site. The award, in part, seems to recognise the technical aspects of the building, particularly energy saving for such a large structure; in part recognises the complex planning for such a complicated high-tech role and in part is for the landscape around the building that takes into account controls for surface water - as cloud bursts become more common, and potentially much more destructive with climate change - but also has interesting planting and a dramatic use of elevated public walkways to encourage people to enter the site or cut through.

L1260671.jpg

 

Dehns Palæ / Dehn’s Palace, Bredgade 54
Wohlert Arkitekter A/S

An 18th-century palace - designed by JG Rosenberg and close to the royal palace and the Marble Church - has been restored for Danmarks Apotekerforening / Denmarks Pharmaceutical Association following an extensive fire in 2010. The award recognises that because the building is so important, restoration work was completed using original materials with original working techniques.

 

Åbenrå 16
Entasis A/S

Apartment building constructed on a plot in the historic centre of the city close to the King's Garden that has been vacant since 1970 when a number of old houses were demolished ahead of a major scheme to rebuild the street that was then abandoned.

 


The Silo, Lüdersvej 15
COBE

Prestigious apartments and a roof-top restaurant in the conversion of a concrete silo for grain that was the largest industrial building in the North Harbour. The challenge was to give the building a relevant and financially viable function to justify its survival; respect the scale of the building, with what are exceptional heights between the floors, and to retain qualities and the drama of the raw concrete of the original building but bring the spaces up to current standards of insulation. 

the two silos in May 2015

 

Frihavns Tårnet, Helsinkigade 18-20
Praksis Arkitekter ApS

Housing in the conversion of a former DLG silo close to the Silo. The industrial building was given a distinctive framework of balconies on three sides and the award recognises the quality of the apartments - “the decor and the choice of materials” but also appreciates that the design has created “liveable” homes particularly in terms their orientation to the natural light.

 
 

note:

There is a page on the web site of Københavns Kommune - under Housing, Construction and Urban Life - on the Building Awards that has information about each of the nominated buildings with photographs, including some interiors, and a short video for an assessment of each of the projects by the City Architect Tina Saaby (in Danish).

it's all downhill from here

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SLA have published plans and drawings for the ski slope and the planting that are to be added in the final stages of the building works for Amager Bakke - the new incinerator and waste processing plant in Copenhagen designed by Bjarke Ingels. The plant is now up and running but still without the promised smoke rings.

 

View of the incinerator at night taken in December ... the ski run might not look that daunting in plan but that's not a bad angle. If you don't ski, there will be steps and a pathway for walking (or maybe that should be climbing) up to a cafe at the top which will have pretty amazing views over city and out over the Øresund.

SLA Copenhagen

 

Belvederebroen

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A new bridge for cyclists and pedestrians was opened in the south harbour area of Copenhagen in October last year. 

Constructed over the Belvedere inlet - a narrow cut at the end of Frederiksholmsløbet - it connects Frederiks Brygge with Enghave Bryyge and completes a 13 kilometre circuit around the inner harbour for walkers, runners and cyclists and allows local cyclists to avoid heavy traffic on Vasbygade.

Designed by the architect SLA, this bridge is 25 metres long and is a generous width at 6 metres across. 

The sides or parapets are formed with large but thin tabs of steel that appear to have been folded upwards at different angles so they are close to vertical at the centre of the span but drop outwards and downwards in stages until they are almost horizontal towards the banks. It feels as if the bridge is open and welcoming as you approach and then gradually encloses you and protects you as you cross before opening out again as you reach the far side.

This folding is reminiscent of origami, of course, but it also looks a bit like the effect you get as pages of a book drop open.

There are three folds … the first just up from the bottom to form vertical at the bottom where the panel is attached to the side of the deck of the bridge so the next part is angled out. Then there is a fold up to form a vertical section that is more pronounced towards the centre and then, except on the outer tabs, a fold for a narrow almost horizontal section outwards to make what is, at the centre, the handrail of the bridge.

There is a striking contrast between the colour of the outside of the parapet in deep shiny iron-oxide red - rather like a Chinese lacquer red - and a matt grey inner surface and deck that is rubberised to reduce noise and provide better grip for bike tyres.

Sydhavnen - South Harbour - is an extensive area of new and ongoing redevelopment below HC Ørstedsværket - the power station at the south end of the harbour. The bridge is actually temporary and will only be here for about eighteen months before a permanent bridge - designed by the architectural practice COBE - is built to cross Frederiksholmsløbet to connect Enghave Brygge and Teglholmen.

SLA