Danish urban design

 

It was a beautiful day today, warm and sunny. I went around Nørrebro in Copenhagen, where I live, and took some pictures of vibrant urban life. Here are some shoots.

The place where I live is very alternative and people have very different lifestyle here.  There is no any similar quarter with the same buildings, people background. Every 500m it seems that you are in  a totally different place. Many foreigners, hipsters,  students, young families with children of all races and creeds. There is a pile of snack places with very different food, which are kept by the locals.

Recently, there were developed many public spaces, made by famouse danish urban designers. For example The Red Square, with all shades of red on the pavement, on the walls, on the swings and so on. Life on the area is in full swing.
Literally next door is another park , which was conceived with the young living in the nearby quarter, that is the most criminal in the area. Park is brightly painted, stocked climbing wall, bars, skate pool, etc. m. There is full of people on of all ages in a sunny day.

Grafitti art is a quite an issue in the area, it is just everywhere.  Discharged special walls for painting,  “free artists” paint everywhere. In my photo guys are refreshing their graffiti painting and a sceptical girl is watching from the bike stroller. By the way, they are painting on the building site fence and all those drawings are updated regularly.

So how do you like this urban design? Is this something you would enjoy in your living area?
The last picture is me, looking very sceptical. I criticize the design space due to the lack of greenery and an overabundance of hard surfaces: asphalt, concrete, this is not sustainable urban design in my book. 🙂

Therapy Garden Nacadia

Many of us know that a walk through the woods and along the beach works well on our mood and health. We might do not know how it works but all of us can feel it. Some green places are made to investigate how different green spaces can cut the stress level and eventually prevent stress condition, and help to get on track after illness. The places are known as therapy gardens.

In this post I describe a new therapy garden Nacadia that was open in 2011 in Hoersholm, a town north from Copenhagen. I have been in Nacadia in May, with my colleagues that work on the idea to set up a therapy garden in Copenhagen. We all want to see this new green area to get inspired, talk to founders and enjoy the nature. It took us around 30 min by bus to get there but nature surrounding us has changed remarkably. From the dense noisy city we arrived to peaceful fresh smell environment. And I think pictures will speak for it better than words.

Welcome to the green!

Some facts about the place.
Therapy garden Nacadia was designed in the context of research and experience about natural healing. Stress sufferers can take part in a 10-week treatment in the Nacadia to meet an improved quality of life and return to normal life.
The societal direct and indirect costs of the Danish mental health problems cost many billions every year, therefore prevention of the stress is very important. The Nacadia garden can also function as a stress prevention place.

The Nacadia garden was established in the existing arboretum in Hoersholm, where new glass buildings were built and old building was renovated with nice walking terrace around. The place in the unique environment gives great opportunities to shape several rooms with different experiences of nature and natural conditions for many nature based activities. For example there is outdoor fire-place, lake, small river, tree houses, compost station etc.
Inside of the glass houses are different places with nature elements, water and activities that help to relax and feel closer to the nature.
Some pictures around the area.

Inside of the glass buildings.

Here you can sit in silence, listening to the sound of the creek, or digging in the earth, or to meditate by the fire.

Outside on the walking terrace with a splendid view.

Artificial lake that was made in a clearing surrounded by dense trees.

Fire place.

 All in the Nacadia garden made with high quality design and with knowledge of detail.
Personally, I have inspired by special benches that have integrated box with a soil around, so  plants and flowers grow around the seat. It could be a brilliant idea for a city environment as well. 

Nature in the Nacadia garden is very various and gorgeous, and it is possible to experience trees in a different way due to specifically adjoined elements.

I do not know how stressed I was before our visit to the Nacadia garden, but I left the place completely happy:)

U.S.E. T.W.O.

U.S.E  T.W.O. was en open air workshop and exhibition organized by Bureau Detours (Aarhus, Denmark) supervised by Dennis Design Center (Rotterdam, Holland).

The living workshop was open from the 8th until the  21st of August in Copenhagen during Metropolis Biennale activity.

The workshop was placed at the Prags Boulevard in Copenhagen, at the open street space between Prags Garden (urban agriculture project developed by locals)  and Prismen (CultureHouse for the local district Amager), the famous project of Dorte Mandrup Architects that deserve a special entry.

The place is also quite an experimental in itself because of the diverse urban environments, it is on the middle between big scale industrial areas and Amager residential area.

The workshop consisted of 3-4 bright orange  iron containers turned up to be creative generators. There people enjoyed building wooden furniture: benches, swings, tables etc. that were placed overall in the city.

That how different creative playgrounds looked like.

The corner with a tree house, cooking place, music corner, tall bike workshop etc.

The tall bike workshop got a lot of attention from local  teenagers and passers-by.

You can see yourself how cool it looks! the tall bike in use!

Everyone had possibility to make their own tall bike, just come with two bikes and voilà! after 3-4 hours you can ride it to the envy of all!

The masterpiece of wood processing

were the wooden diamonds of course:  faceted to shine pieces of wood.

Grill bike, urban swing, free furniture and towers brought also a great joy to users.

A special point deserves the graffiti art at workshop area.

Bright colors, good detailed drawings, meaningful texts – that what we love about GRAFFITI!

It was such a pleasure to watch the art work of Bureau Detours, Bolsje Fabrikken and Dennis Design Center together that I want to say :

Hats off to the true talented artists!