For centuries, Copenhagen had depended on its Inner Harbor (Inderhavnen) and the strong maritime network the area has served to the Baltic Sea. Developed as a deep channel that cuts between two islands, the harbor was the center of urban activity, teeming with lively, exotic, dirty, and sometimes dangerous elements. But by the second half of the 20th century, the shipping industry had changed with new technologies and greater demands on urban infrastructure. Proximity to the downtown was becoming obsolete as goods were packed into huge steel containers stacked by cranes the size of buildings on the decks of giant freighters, demanding enormous ports with vast areas of land for daily operations. Copenhagen and virtually every large historical port city had developed similar symptoms: dilapidated docks, abandoned warehouses, and fences sealing downtown off from the quieted waters. The great urban project of the postindustrial age was to heal the coastal scar left by the evacuated maritime industry.
In 2000, the municipality of Copenhagen initiated a development strategy for the entire harbor area, divided into three geographical sections, each analyzed by a separate design studio. Henning Larsen Architects was commissioned to analyze the Inderhavnen area and outline different alternative solutions to exhibit the possibilities of new urban growth on the waterfront. The conclusion of the work relied on mixing residential and commercial buildings with emphasis on large public cultural institutions to create a dynamic city life. Functionally, no building was permitted to "turn its back" to the harbor, complimenting already defined plans of public promenades and squares along the entire harbor fairway with the purpose of stressing and strengthening waterfront activities. The large cultural 'magnets' would later be defined as the Royal Danish Playhouse and the Copenhagen Opera House.
“In our opinion this would create a rich variety in the urban environment, and by adding quality and coherence to the areas the harbor would provide an attraction to the citizens of Copenhagen as well as to visitors from all over the world.”
Henning Larsen's proposal for Copenhagen's Inner Harbor
Two of Copenhagen's most significant urban redevelopment projects would assist in Henning Larsen's proposed master plan for Inderhavnen - the 'car-free zones' of Strøget and Nyhavn. The sequence of streets known collectively as Strøget was the beginning of a successful string of pedestrian-only streets developed in the 1960's that became a strong reaction to the congested automobile culture in downtown Copenhagen. Evolved from one clogged traffic artery, the city began systematically banishing cars from gracious squares and narrow streets that had degenerated over time, encouraging people to commute by foot or bicycle again. A controversial plan at the time, it is now one of the longest pedestrian streets in Europe and is considered a highly influential study in contemporary urban design (influenced by Danish architect and urban planner Jan Gehl). The sequence of streets is a major pedestrian boulevard through the center of Copenhagen, from Radhuspladsen (City Hall Square) to the large bustling square of Kongens Nlytorv (King's New Square). Nyhavn, one of the oldest waterfront districts in the city, soon would follow the trend. In the 1980s the large car-park and once-forlorn canal of Nyhavn was incrementally converted into a pedestrian area that was immediately invaded by cafés and shops, full up all year round, becoming Copenhagen’s most often portrayed public space and a catalyst to the harbor's waterfront development.
“When Strøget in Copenhagen was changed into a pedestrian street in 1962, it was after much debate and with considerable reservations. If, at the time, anyone had predicted that the city center would have six times as many car-free areas 34 years later, and that car traffic and parking possibilities would be substantially reduced, it would have been met with a great deal of skepticism. That life in the city center could flourish markedly would simply have been too unbelievable.”
The car-free streets of Strøget
Amagertorv Square, part of the Strøget pedestrian zone
Bars and restaurants lining the northern side of Nyhavn
Diagram showing the uninterrupted path of car-free zones from City Hall Square to Kvæsthusbroen. A total distance of 2350m (7710 ft).
The Playhouse
Since the 1880s, the Royal Danish Theatre had sought to relieve a congested home theater - the Old Stage - by expanding the Royal Playhouse drama company into a new building that would showcase the city's latest trends in acting. A suitable site and proper financing would not develop until around 2000 when international ferry operations would be relocated from Kvæsthusbroen Landing Stage, near Nyhavn, to a new DFDS terminal in the northern part of Copenhagen harbor. This relocation made the site at Kvæsthusbroen open to new development, later sold by Port of Copenhagen, Ltd. to the Danish Ministry of Culture, creating the possibility of building a new public arts center on the waterfront, eventually becoming the new Royal Danish Playhouse. After winning an international design competition, Danish architectural practice Lundgaard and Tranberg was chosen for the task, with construction beginning in 2004.
The building's design acknowledges three important site features: a revitalized Nyhavn region with heavy pedestrian traffic, a strong promenade along the Inderhavnenwaterfront, and panoramic views of Copenhagen's historic skyline. The harbor becomes the important component as the architects chose to move the theater forward into the harbor (about 40% of the building projecting over the water), with the visitors entering on gently sloping ramps, which, besides being the point of arrival, serve as a promenade pivoting around the playhouse, diverting pedestrians onto a raised 150m long walkway that affords panoramic views of the harbor and hosts an open cafe/restaurant. The tripartite abstract composition of the playhouse benefits the siting, as the continuous horizontal upper storey of private functions cantilever out above the water, creating a tall glazed public foyer that invites shelter and integration of the waterfront's broad promenade public space, injecting new life into the central part of the inner harbor that forms the continuation of Nyhavn.
Approach from Nyhavn
View from Kvaesthusgade (north west facade)
While successful on the harbor side, the Royal Danish Theater becomes problematic toward the city, essentially ignoring the urban fabric and turning its back to the historic center of Copenhagen. Although the project follows the master plan's guideline with intention to inject the waterfront with a new cultural venue, when one arrives from the main Avenues of Nyhavn or Sankt Annae Plads, the theater is virtually invisible. Approaching from Nyhavn's pedestrian waterside street, one must turn hard left, up a fairly narrow ramp, to enter, like boarding a ship ready to disembark. There is an urban disconnect when the only truly active elevation is coming from the East (waterside), while others bare disengaging brick walls and the axis of the streets slide right by into the water. However, to the northeast, there are promising developments on the former Kvæsthusbroen Landing Stage called 'Ofelia Beach' that offers temporary outdoor performance stages and lounge areas, activating the theater to an urban/social terrain.
The Opera House
From the playhouse, it’s a short trip by water bus across the inner harbor to the Operaen (Copenhagen Opera House), donated to the Danish state by Denmark's wealthest citizen and shipping mogul, A.P. Møller with the Chastine Mc-Kinney Møller Foundation, in 2000. Five years later, the 14-story structure rose up from a former naval base on Holmen Island - once the epicenter of Denmark's military and industrial complexes - in the city harbor, completing the historical axis running through the Queen's palace and the domed Marble Church. As one of the most expensive opera houses ever built (over $450 million) on a significantly visible piece of land in the harbor, the project brought a high-level of controversy, with politicians claiming the full cost of the project would be tax deductible, virtually forcing the government to buy the building, along with community leaders questioning the size and infrastructure needed for such a project. However, it would be the public disputes between Møller and his architects, Henning Larsen Architects, that would garner much of the attention during the construction of Denmark's first opera house. After acquisition of the land, the architecture firm was handed the commission by Møller himself, as they had worked on numerous successful projects in the past. The Danish government, happy to receive such a generous gift, didn't interfere when HLA was awarded the project without an architectural competition, commonly held in grand public projects of this type, or when Møller refused to discuss the design to the public during the four-year construction period. The architect, trying to make sure that the original architectural ideas were carried through the construction process, would consistently have disagreements with the client, who was viewed in the press to have dictatorial control over the entire project until completion in 2005. Henning Larsen would state before the building's grand opening, "What we have now is a compromise which failed, and this makes me sad".
From around the city's harbor waterfront, the Opera advertises itself with a distinctive size and central position in the Copenhagen cityscape. Anchored on a site, once abandoned and neglected for years by the military, that has gone through a metamorphosis. In connection with the new master plan, the existing island was separated by two new 17 meter-wide canals into three islands, accentuating the placement of the Opera House on the central island and emphasizing the maritime location of the structure. In designing the project, key attention is given to the arrival plaza, framed by a 32m long floating roof overhang that draws the public towards a vast transparent foyer looking right over the harbor toward Amalienborg Palace (Queen's Residence). The front of the house is visually integrated in the harbor space, whereas the back of the building, designed as a lower building block, relates to the vernacular structures in the area and to the proposed new apartment blocks on the north and south side of the building. Unfortunately, the location of the project and focus on maritime siting has disconnected the Opera House with downtown Copenhagen. As it stands now, the project sits alone (the proposed residential projects have not gone forward) on three large islands in the middle of Copenhagen's Inner Harbor, with limited access for all forms of transportation. The 'Copenhagen Harbour Bus' is realistically the only option for pedestrians and bikers to reach the Opera island from across the harbor, which can be problematic with certain weather conditions. Additionally, unlike the Royal Danish Playhouse, the Opera House does not allow public access to the building when performances are not showing, with no accessible watering hole (restaurants or cafes) to enjoy the vast arrival plaza on the waterfront, creating a somber environment throughout the day.
Copenhagen Harbour Bus
Promise of Pedestrian Bridges
Since the completion of the new Copenhagen Opera House, city officials have realized the area's need for connectivity and have been intent on looking for a solution to improve access from central Copenhagen to 'Opera Island' across the harbor. When the Royal Danish Playhouse was completed back in 2008, there was consideration for a pedestrian and bicycle bridge to link the Playhouse with the Opera, however plans to build bridges in the area have met heavy criticism from those living in Christianshavn, who were afraid that they would have a detrimental affect on the characteristic maritime environment of the quarter and that the bridges will mean that sailing boats will no longer have access to the area. After years of various proposals and competitions, with even a underground tunnel considered, the city agreed on a new network of openable pedestrian bridges - a long bridge over the inner harbor and shorter bridges over some of the canals - that would increase access to the Opera and the surrounding Holmen region. The winning designs, slated to begin construction, consist of a longer retractile bridge with a transparent/low profile to allow for views across the harbor, as well as smaller conventional single-leaf and double-leaf bascule structures over the harbor canals. When complete, these connections should transform the Inderhavnen area, finally merging opposing sides of the harbor with a strengthening horizontal movement and indentifying with Copenhagen's urban culture.
Pedestrian Bridge Proposal by Lundgaard & Tranberg Arkitekter, 2007 (not built)
Pedestrian Bridge Proposal by Flint & Neill and Studio Bednarski, start of construction in 2011
Almost sitting in front of each other, these two projects express a growing strategic consensus in urban design that demands the urban waterfront be a public amenity, but deviate on the processes needed to achieve such a goal. Although both are driven by a common client (Royal Danish Theatre) and an idealistic masterplan, one that encourages the assemblage and a focused convergence of cultural institutions, both are developed by contradicting processes - public opinion v. private decision, urban integration v. remote separation, programmatic expression v. grand gestures. But, both share a commonality as lanterns on the waterfront, glowing from within their grand foyers, waiting to attract interest from society and urban growth through the cultural Renaissance of Copenhagen.
Royal Danish Playhouse & Copenhagen Opera House / Site analysis of access, circulation, new development, and points of social engagement