Copenhagen | Conquering the Waterfront

COPENHAGEN | CONQUERING THE WATERFRONT KEVIN VICKERY | LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE. SPRING 2012. Figure 1 | Palm Islands, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. INTRODUCTION When manmade islands began popping up like crop problem of expansion (Chinampa). The artificial circles off the coast of Dubai (Figure 1), many islands of Dubai may not represent new advances in considered them evidence of modern advances in construction technologies, but they do mark a recent technology and cheered for the ingenuity of mankind. shift in the attitudes of landscape architects and Although many think the construction of artificial urban designers, because developers recognized the islands is a recent development, societies have used potential of the waterfront uncommonly early in the the process for centuries to create space for planning process. In recent decades, more people expansion or to reuse soil excavated from recognize the importance of waterfronts in the con- construction sites on land. The Aztecs, for example, text of urban landscapes. Many governments are now created floating agricultural islands (Figure 2) around reclaiming their waterfronts from the private sector the island city Tenochtitlan as a solution to the to transform them into public spaces for leisure and recreation. Urban waterways crowded with smokestacks and under-used industrial warehouses represent relics of societies that once sacrificed quality of life for the thrill of productivity. Emerging industries in large cities sought waterside locations enthusiastically, taking advantage of water for transportation and waste removal. In many cases factories and warehouses forced residential areas far from the valuable land along waterfronts and created visual and physi- cal barriers, while pollution further deteriorated any recreational value in the water (Stephens 3). Figure 2 | Example of Chinampa. Nowhere was this more apparent than in London during the Industrial Revolution of the seventeenth sites, where people have largely altered nature for and eighteenth centuries. Abounding industry and human needs, redesigned waterfronts usually have a exponential population growth during this time structured, somewhat sterile organization (Stephens pressured waste removal facilities so much that 4). Additionally many waterways are still not clean untreated sewage overflowed and saturated the enough for swimming, so waterfront neighborhoods streets. A temporary solution was to direct most of are often disconnected from the water and offer only the waste into the Thames River, but so much visual stimulation for visitors. The Spree River of effluence was dumped into the river that instead of Berlin, for example, is too polluted for bathing so running a course to the sea, the waste backed up in artist Susanne Lorenz designed an enclosed, urban sections of the river. In his book “The Great chlorinated swimming pool called the Badeschiff Stink of London,” Stephen Halliday describes how the (Figure 3), which floats just above the water’s surface river had become an open sewer and wreaked so so people can imagine bathing in the river without badly of effluence that members of Parliament danger to their health (Stephens 11-12). considered moving from the House of Commons because it was so close to the Thames (Halliday 35). In this respect Copenhagen, Denmark offers interesting examples of redeveloped waterfronts As businesses continued to damage urban because minimal industry along its waterways and waterfronts, the effects on quality of life became close connections with the Baltic Sea make its shockingly apparent and policy-makers began to harbors and canals sanitary enough for swimming. react by limiting industrial growth and disallowing Following a trend earlier established in North pollution along waterways. Especially since the 1960’s America and other European cities, Copenhagen cities have fervently redeveloped many of their began in the 1990’s to significantly replace underused industrial waterfronts to include recreational, industrial neighborhoods along the waterfront with commercial and residential facilities to bolster quality new districts of recreational, commercial and of life in these areas and attract people from other residential functions (Desfor 479-80). Now instead of parts of the city and elsewhere. Since much of this factories and shipping docks, public plazas and redevelopment happens in places of former industrial walking paths dominate the waterfront. Small Figure 3 | Badeschiff, Berlin, Germany. Figure 4 | Amager Beach Park (Amager Strandpark), Copenhagen, Denmark. sailboats now navigate canals once crowded with (History). The island separates the existing beach bulky trade ships. In less crowded areas of the city, from the waves of the Øresund, thereby creating a the built environment can now extend into the water buffer and reducing sand loss on the original beach. so residents can experience the Baltic Sea personally. The artificial island is further into the waters of the Several recent projects in Copenhagen, particularly Øresund, where strong waves are able to remove and Amager Beach Park and the Harbor Bath, replace sand in equal amounts. demonstrate the benefits of clean, usable waterways and represent emerging trends in intelligent urban While constructed landscapes along waterfronts are growth. usually designed as extensions of present conditions, the new island at Amager Beach Park is physically AMAGER BEACH PARK separate from the natural shoreline. Constructing an island instead of extending existing land allows twice Amager Beach Park (Figure 4), established five as much constructed shoreline and keeps the original kilometers from the center of Copenhagen in 1934, beach intact, demonstrating respect for the history of has presented problems with sand retention from the area. A long lagoon separates the island and the time of its construction. Shallow waters provide mainland, except for three narrow bridges and a small waves, which are able to pull sand into the marina at the southern end (Figure 5). The island is Øresund Strait but are not strong enough to push it closest to the preexisting shore at the southern end, back to shore. This means that the beach loses sand where the old and new beaches run parallel to each gradually and maintaining the beach requires other. The lagoon bulges in the middle, as the island additions of sand almost every year. In the late 1980’s bends out into the Øresund. local organizations formed a committee to solve the problem and improve the quality of the beach park. The island itself is divided into two recreational areas This committee proposed the creation of an artificial of distinct landscaping languages. The northern half of island to solve the problem of sand retention. the island is composed mostly of wide sandy beaches Construction began in 2004 and the and low dunes. The material and formal two-kilometer-long island opened the following year characteristics of this area, combined with paths that wind through the dunes (Figure 6), give the northern part of the island a more natural quality and provide a retreat from the structured urban life of Copenhagen. Additionally it is significant that the bridges connecting the island to the mainland are considerably longer at this part, thereby enhancing the feeling of detachment from urban life. For these reasons people wanting privacy, intimacy or general relaxation prefer this half to the more active southern half. The southern half of the island consists of grass lawns Figure 5 | Marina at southern end of Amager Beach Park. on the western side and a narrow sand beach on the other, separated by a paved spine that runs down the length of this half of the island. The area is noticeably more structured and suggests waterfront conditions more common in urban settings. Straight secondary paths divide the grass lawns into equal widths, making them more appropriate for games and sports. Families usually find this area more suitable, because an absence of dunes and a narrower beach allow parents to keep an eye on their children. Skating enthusiasts enjoy the wide, paved paths that divide this part of the island, because there is enough space for people to meander and skate side-by-side (Figure 7). At the point where the two island halves meet, a Figure 6 | Northern half of Amager Beach Park. long dock juts out into the sea for small boats. Figure 7 | Southern half of Amager Beach Park. Figure 8 | Harbor Bath, Copenhagen, Denmark. COPENHAGEN HARBOR BATH In the last decade additional recreational bathing facilities have been built along the waterfront of Copenhagen to supplement a lack of beaches inside the city. Although these structures generally extend urban activity into the water, each project demonstrates a different attitude about connection to the mainland. For example, the Kastrup Sea Bath (Figure 9) was built away from the natural shore and connects to the mainland with a narrow bridge, much like the island of Amager Beach. Another example, the Maritime Youth House (Figure 10) provides Figure 9 | Kastrup Sea Bath. access to the water for the purpose of boating but remains completely onshore. The popular Copenhagen Harbor Bath is arguably the most successful of these projects in terms of landscaping, because it provides an almost seamless transition from urban landscape into the water and makes a formal statement at the same time. For this reason and its location in the main part of the city, the Copenhagen Harbor Bath will serve as a primary case study for analysis. Since the late twentieth century, the harbor of Copenhagen has changed from an industrial district into a center for culture, with the construction of the Figure 10 | Maritime Youth House. Copenhagen Opera House and Royal Danish architectural way so it matches appropriately with its Playhouse, and for leisure and recreation, with the urban surroundings. The project has become popular completion of the Harbor Park (Havneparken) and in the summertime because it allows metropolitans the Copenhagen Harbor Bath (Islands Brygge to experience the water without leaving the city Harbour Bath). As industry moved away from the center or using indoor pools (Saieh).

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