June 4 . Copenhagen – Ørested Development & Københavns Universitet

Straight From the Architects Ego, Here’s Ørested


We met with Lisa from the University of Copenhagen at the Islands Brygge Metro station. She showed us a large swath of vacant land previously used for military and state purposes that had recently been released from the government for development. The Metro extension through the area was financed by the sale of the land after values had increased due to a new international bridge to Malmö, Sweden. The six Metro stations are relatively new (Photo, Right) and planning students at the University have been tasked with coming up with ideas for a residential site near one of the stations that can bring vitality to the area. Businesses will be allowed, but the idea is for this particular area to be mostly residential.

There are numerous projects in Ørested, in addition to the residential project that the students were working on, each with its own extremely unique identity. On our site visit, we went to one of the areas that has started to get built out. Many of the buildings out at the site were familiar from the YES IS MORE exhibit and, to my surprise, were actually realized in Ørested. Here is one that was titled “Vertical Suburbia.” (Photo, Right) Being out here in this developing area with bizarre buildings was rather surreal. (Cheese wedge Building PICTURE) Except for the shopping center, the entire area was mostly void of people and activity. I can see why the students were assigned the task of bringing life to these emerging neighborhoods. It will be difficult, however, because the area is not developing organically. A focus on connections within existing neighborhoods and unique neighborhoods within the area may help with this goal.



Copenhagen University Visit
The students we met were first year undergraduate students (Photo, Right). Each group of students explained their individual project regarding the development of Ørested to us and when they were speaking English, which was intermittently, I could mostly understand their meaning. We asked some questions about the projects in general. I asked about how their projects would relate to the existing communities that surround the area. Although we received little in the way of response, I hope that asking questions helped the students think about their plans “outside of the box.”

We toured the building and saw all of the facilities that the Urban Planning students use in the Geography department. They were working on some very intense projects! They teach some of the Masters classes in English. So hey all – I wouldn’t mind doing a semester at Copenhagen U. Anyone want to finance that for me? Wink!