COPENHAGEN TRIP – Day 3
13th November 2013
The third day was again spent in the centre of Copenhagen, beginning with a talk by SLA landscape architects and followed by a walk around the southern side of Copenhagen centre through part of the Amager island, to Christiania and finishing in the atrea of Christianshaven.
SLA Landscape Architects are one of the most exciting and innovative Landscape Architects working today. Rasmus Alstrup one of the project directors from SLA gave the students a talk about their sustainable approach and philosophy, explained through their own project examples. Many thanks to Rasmus for his time and effort – the talk was inspiring for everyone.
Following the talk we had a tour of the office and had a look at their model making room where an student intern was working on a planting scheme using pins and coloured circles to represent each of the trees – a beautiful approach to detailed 3D planting design.
Each tree species kept in its own plastic cup!
Model detail
Following the visit to SLA we walked south to see the new development of Orestad on Amager island, a mixed use development including a university campus, halls of residence, concert hall, and residential apartments. The entire development is very close to the groundwater level and includes a meandering river throughout. We visited…
…the Tietgen Hall of Residence,
…the Jean Nouvel designed Concert Hall,
…and the central water channel through the university campus.
Ellen distorted in the mirrored orb in Orestad.
Following Orestad we walked northwest towards Christianshaven to visit a small courtyard enclosed by residential units, a wonderfully intimate series of spaces that create complex boundaries between public and private places.
Communal eating area within the courtyard development.
The next stop was Christiania – a free-state famous for its self-determined social system and anarchic approach to contemporary society. This was the perfect contrast to the Orestad development – a completely top-down approach compared with a community driven bottom-up approach.
Some of the group in Christiania, enjoying the facilities.
Public steps in Christiania – not quite based on the official Building Regs!
Out of Christiania and into the much more gentrified landscapes of Christianshaven, the Little Amsetrdam of Copenhagen, where the day ended with a visit to the Danish Architecture Centre and a walk past the Black Diamond National Library Extension.
The Danish Architecture Centre.
The Black Diamond – extension to the National Library of Denmark.
Black Diamond by Jan Lykke (visit Jan Lykke’s website for more fantastic photos of Copenhagen waterfront).