The Harbour Park, Copenhagen
the municipality of Copenhagen acknowledged that
Islands Brygge was a very densely populated dis-
trict and that the built form meant that there was
sunlight for only short periods in the streets and
backyards. At the waterfront, however, there was
light and air and lots of activity.
Over the course of one weekend in April 1984 sev-
eral hundred residents laid out a provisional park on
the harbourside which covered an area of 1 hectare.
The preparations for this were considerable. The
residents got permission from the port authorities
to use the northern part of Islands Brygge, where
activity in the harbour was decreasing. The permis-
sion required that harbour activities in other parts of
the harbour could still continue. For example, it was
specified that the existing railway tracks should still
be usable. The new park was laid out as a ‘happen-
ing’ that marked the residents’ wishes. The initiation
of the park attracted a great deal of publicity. The
park was popular and gradually it became obvious
from the wear and tear that the maintenance of the
park demanded more than the local people could do
in their spare time.
The neighbourhood council and its chairman Poul
Jensen continued to work on the park and in 1993
the municipality of Copenhagen decided to give the
money to complete the park as a permanent fea-
ture. The neighbourhood council established a fund
to support the park. The fund would contribute DK
kr. 5 million. Poul Jensen and landscape architect
Annelise Bramsnæs were asked to act as consult-
ants. In December 1993, they presented a plan: ‘A
new harbour park at Islands Brygge – a recycled
park which conveys the place, the history and our
time’. The planning proposal^2 stated the intention:
‘To make sure that the establishment of the park
is made with consideration to the area’s attractive
position close to the city centre, the entrance to
the harbour and also the adjacent dominant build-
ing façades.’ The designers believed that the park
should be developed as a concise whole with
organic shapes in a constructive correlation with the
rest of the make-up of the city.1.2
Harbour activities on Islands Brygge in 1980
1.3
Residents making a lawn in 1984