Making new neighbourhoods
Ørestad and Nordhavn: an architect’s playground
Copenhagen is growing fast. By 2025, it’s estimated that the population will have grown by 18% – a figure equivalent to around 100,000 new residents – and there is evidence of the city preparing for this growth in every quarter.
Alongside pressures on mobility, amenities and public services, a core challenge that the city faces is of course in housing. Named Monocle’s ‘most liveable city’ in 2021, Copenhagen has a reputation and a set of very high standards to maintain: homes must be well-connected, well-planned, and beautiful. In this regard, two very different developing districts in the city point to mixed successes.
Ørestad
Developing since 2000, Ørestad lies five kilometres to the south of Copenhagen’s city centre, in a previously undeveloped green space not far from the airport. Once complete, it will be home to 20,000 residents. The district straddles the E20 motorway (which takes drivers directly to Malmö) and the newly extended Metro line, opened in 2002.
Ørestad is certainly well connected, but it suffers for it.
There is an inescapable linearity to the district that leaves it feeling without a centre and a heart. True, it’s easy to navigate – north for Copenhagen, south for Sweden – but the overriding impression is of a series of tall, intimidating buildings that decorate the edges of a busy road.
Of course, there’s more to Ørestad than this. In recent years, it’s become an important stop on the architecture-enthusiast’s tour of Copenhagen, and it’s easy to see why. The buildings are impressive to say the least. Suspended apartments, curved windows, green rooftops and triangular balconies all create the sense that architects have been let loose on the district. Every building has a distinctive feature, and innovative thinking appears to be at the heart of every building design.
In particular, the ‘VM Houses’ offer a striking profile along the skyline. Created by JDS Architects and BIG, this 209-apartment development was designed to maximise sunlight, privacy and views – with every balcony jutting out at a different angle over the central green.
Innovative thinking also clearly contributed to the ‘Mountain Dwellings’ building next door. Designed by PLOT and BIG, the Mountain consists of 80 single-level penthouses, each neatly stacked so that one apartment’s roof provides another’s garden. Most importantly, the apartments are perched on top of a 480-car multi-storey carpark, decorated with rainbow hues and zig-zagging stairways.
Although 15,000 people already live here, life on the ground-floor is practically non-existent. The buildings are tall and intimidating, and wind whips through the streets and passageways. The local leisure offering is dominated by the enormous Field’s Shopping Mall next to the motorway.
In a district where one of the most celebrated residential buildings is a multi-storey carpark, one has to wonder if Ørestad has got it wrong.
Nordhavn
As the name might suggest, the Nordhavn district is situated in the northern harbours of Copenhagen, and is much closer to the city centre than Ørestad. This is the case in feeling as well as geography; although much of it is still under construction, there is a fundamental busy-ness about Nordhavn that makes it feel like a true extension of the city.
Besides this, there are many parallels between Nordhavn and Ørestad. For example, like Ørestad, Nordhavn is a product of the Danish government’s innovative ‘new town concept’, whereby public land is sold off to developers to fund new public infrastructure in the area, and in turn create homes for 40,000 new residents. Like Ørestad, this means that Nordhavn has been blessed with a new dedicated station on an extended Metro line. It also means that distinctive architecture and high price-point homes are the name of the game here.
Much like Ørestad, Nordhavn even has a headline ‘parking house’ – this one with a children’s playground (rather than penthouses) perched on top. This, however, is where the similarities end.
Nordhavn has the good fortune of existing on relatively new land. It’s a strip of harbour that juts out into the Øresund sea, and was placed here just over 100 years ago. Until recently, the land was used almost exclusively used for industrial and shipping purposes, and is still being incrementally extended into the sea. This means that architects were handed a blank canvas when it came to constructing the district’s urban plan.
This opportunity shows. One of the most noticeable assets of the district is the absence of wind. In a city and a district that is famously very exposed to the elements, the buildings of Nordhavn have been carefully positioned to avoid funnels and create wind breaks. The impact is enormous: it improves the quality of sound, the mobility of cyclists, and the general comfort of passers-by. In short, it creates a pleasant place to spend time.
This pleasantness is compounded by the life and activity that flourishes on the ground floor. Every street boasts a row of supermarkets and boutique shops, and every corner hosts stylish cafés, bars and restaurants – all open and busy, even on a glum Tuesday afternoon. This was not just a happy accident; the commercial tenants here are offered low rents while their surroundings are being developed, meaning that residents don’t feel as though they’re living on a building site, and the area is already becoming an appealing place for visitors to spend time in. It’s a win-win-win for developers, commercial tenants, and residents alike.
Finally, there is no escaping that Nordhavn’s industrial heritage lends it the distinctive personality that Ørestad lacks. The district’s most famous buildings – the residential ‘Silo’ and the office building ‘Portland Towers’ – are themselves renovations of old industrial harbour-side silos. Both leave striking impressions on the skyline, but crucially, they both also tell stories about the culture and history of the district.
Ørestad and Nordhavn are two of the largest development areas in Europe, and together will provide homes for 60,000 new residents in Copenhagen – that’s 10% of the city’s current population. It’s therefore imperative that the city gets it right.
In both, innovation, connectivity and distinctiveness are evidently at the heart of the thinking, and this fact alone provides great reason to be optimistic about the city’s developmental future.
However, there are also a few cautionary tales to take heed of. Firstly, the absence of sense of place in Ørestad rings alarm bells: this district has been built for buildings rather than residents, and feels both physically and emotionally distanced from Copenhagen’s high standards of place.
Secondly, the glorification of the car in both districts seems surprising. The tendency to accommodate cars within large parking houses – even making them into architectural features – appears at odds with the city’s commitment to a carbon neutral future. It is true that parking houses help to free up space at street-level, but in places so well connected by Metro and bicycle, one has to wonder why car is still king.
Finally, on Copenhagen’s ‘new town concept’ itself. This innovative way of selling land and building infrastructure has evidently been enormously successful in facilitating the largescale development of homes. However, these are typically high-value homes that developers are selling at a premium.
In a city known for its high wages, high living standards and high cost of living, the voices of the less wealthy are becoming quieter and quieter. There is evidence that low-income people reside in Copenhagen, but are their voices being heard? Importantly, is this city pricing them out?
These questions and their answers are not simple, and I’ve heard persuasive arguments on all sides. The Danish government is evidently prepared to invest in its city spaces, and the people of Copenhagen in general are prepared to trust and follow their government.
There is huge potential in the development of this city, and one cannot help but be impressed by the scale, ambition and innovation of those already seeking to unlock it. This is the world’s most liveable city, on a mission to retain its title.
