People seldom associate Copenhagen with urban strife, but before Superkilen was completed in 2012, Nørrebro was known as one of the most dangerous areas of Copenhagen. Gangs made up of people from different ethnicities and backgrounds would often clash there, giving the area the reputation of being unsafe and violent. A neighborhood in constant conflict is not sustainable for the future, no matter how environmentally friendly it may be. To make Nørrebro a better and safer place for its residents, the city of Copenhagen chose to invest in a novel solution that would come to be known as the Superkilen.
Superkilen is a public space in Copenhagen designed by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) in collaboration with Superflex Landscape Architects and Topotek1. The project was completed in 2012 on a half-mile-long “wedge-like” site — hence the name since kilen means wedge in Danish — in Nørrebro, one of the most ethnically diverse areas of Copenhagen.
While some firms may have seen its bad reputation as a reason to avoid the area, BIG saw it as an opportunity to create change and togetherness in the community. They set out to design a public space that displayed different cultures in a positive light, where the community could meet and learn about their differences. To achieve this, Superflex deployed teams across the world to retrieve items suggested by residents to be included in the space. Over 60 different nationalities would come to be represented in the park.
Read the full article on The Urbanist
Author: Zac Fleming
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