WHY URBAN DEVELOPMENT OF NORDHAVNEN?
Copenhagen is a city that is rapidly changing: it is growing and becoming increasingly diverse and dynamic. The development of Copenhagen is crucial to the development of the entire region. The great challenge in the coming years will be to handle this growth with care and insight. Copenhagen is often designated one of the best cities in the world to live in, a city in which growth and welfare goes hand in hand, but Copenhagen however does face several challenges.
The City of Copenhagen today has about 500,000 inhabitants, but by 2024 that number is expected to have grown to 580,000. The growth has spurred on a constant development of new city districts and the continued construction of new homes and workplaces.
Increased commuting in the region has put the road infrastructure in Copenhagen under pressure. Ease of access is a condition for making the city attractive to its residents and enterprises. By 2025, car traffic in Copenhagen will be up by 30-40% unless something is done to prevent it.
Urban development of Nordhavnen is intended to counter the trend towards increased commuting in the region, as it will create new local housing and workplaces, which means that people will be able to cycle to work or commute by train to centrally located workplaces. The development of Nordhavnen is a key element in the development of Copenhagen in general. Nordhavnen is intended to provide an answer to these challenges. This is where the visions for Copenhagen should unfold in real life.
Most of the heavy industry has left the areas along the harbour front, and thereby started the opportunity for a redevelopment of the former industrial areas. The harbour basin has become a ‘blue recreational space’ at the heart of the city, for the benefit of Copenhagen’s residents and visitors. Now the turn has come to Nordhavnen to continue this development, with water as the all-pervading element that frames public life in the district.
Nordhavnen is a peninsula on the Øresund coast, with a location only four kilometres from the city centre and easy access to the city’s infrastructure. Today Nordhavnen is known for its container terminal, and as the harbour and welcoming area for the many cruise ships and cruise tourists visiting Copenhagen.
Nordhavnen is probably the most extensive and most ambitious urban development project in Scandinavia in the years to come. As an urban development project, Nordhavnen spearheads efforts to improve climate conditions and show how cities can help reverse climate change without losing out on quality of life, welfare and democracy.
An open international ideas competition for the layout of Nordhavnen was concluded in March 2009. The ‘Nordholmene – Urban Delta’ entry was selected as the winning entry, to form the basis for further work. At the same time, it was decided to appoint COBE, SLETH Modernism, Polyform and Rambøll consultants to assist in the development of Nordhavnen.
Four important guidelines in the development of Nordhavnen are:
- Nordhavnen will be a relatively low city – as the rest of Copenhagen. A building height of 5-6 floors in the majority of the district, but with strategically placed high-rises.
- Most of the Nordhavnen will be built on, but there will be green recreational and public spaces along the waterfront for the enjoyment of residents and visitors.
- Nordhavnen will have public transport of a high standard. A metro will provide optimal infrastructure and make sustainable transport visible in the public space.
- Nordhavnen will be a five-minutes-city, with short distances everything and an interweaving of the mixed city’s functions.
The new district will be developed over the next forty to fifty years, and when fully developed, the site will feature buildings with a total floor area of up to four million square metres, providing living space for 40,000 inhabitants and workspace for another 40,000 inhabitants.
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