Landscape as Facilitator, Landscape as Mediator

A recent trip up to Copenhagen allowed a look at a range of landscape projects in a difficult season – winter. The winter in Copenhagen is cold, stormy and due to its position in the north, fairly dark. At mid-winter the sun is only up for about six hours. This is balanced during the year by pleasant summers with coastal breezes, warm temperatures, and a night that feels as if it never falls. The city is certainly one of extremes, but has one of the highest quality of life ratings in the world. New town areas, new office buildings and parks are continuing in the relatively strong Danish economic climate. The quality and variety of public open spaces in Copenhagen is remarkable and they are surely a contributing factor to the wonderful quality of life enjoyed by many residents.

Generally speaking, some landscapes very clearly facilitate people’s interaction with public space, community and the landscape, and some mediate between public and private space, site conditions and use. The City Dune project by SLA Landscape, based in Copenhagen is a project that mediates between its host, SEB Bank and the public space of Copenhagen. It also negotiates a large grade change with a continuous ramping surface. This surface is large enough to become a horizontal, non-volumetric space, i.e., what is commonly understood to be landscape architecture. The concrete material, unabashed moon/dune like form, and the pop-art tree holes come together as a kind of alternative, third space, one that is quite popular with the local skate boarding population.

Some landscapes facilitate better or increased use of landscape features. Diagonally across the harbor inlet from the City Dune is the Islands Brygge Harbor Bath by Copenhagen’s Bjarke Ingels Group(BIG) with JDS Architects.

This wooden structure and surrounding landscape facilitate swimming in urban bodies of water, which is possible in Copenhagen Harbor, even in the center of the city. Simple wooden slats form a “swimming pool” which creates a distinct place out of the larger context of the harbor. This allows for a safe swimming zone, as well as a bit of a scene in summer, as people can climb and jump off a triangular tower. The project has been around since 2003, and is part of a more extensive network of places along the harbor where direct interaction with the landscape is facilitated by landscape architectural and architectural gestures.

SLA’s City Dune is the newer, less publicized project, but its effect in context is actually no less striking. The mediation between what would otherwise be an elevated office park and a relatively open commercial/industrial zone in the city is excellent. That the skateboarding exists alongside the financial transactions makes the place all the more compelling. It is a sure thing that many cities need projects that mediate between vastly different users in these kind of contexts. The facilitation projects are surely as important, especially as cities worldwide strive to enhance their positive environmental qualities, cleaning waterways and restoring landscape features.