Egeskov Castle

QUESTION 9

Does the historic and elitist institution of the country house estate have a role and purpose in Denmark’s egalitarian society?  Explain your answer.

Denmark’s society is oriented toward an egalitarian structure yet it’s a country that has a monarchy which is a type of contradiction. Hierarchichal societies have royal families that rule “from the top” yet Denmark has a unique framework in this context. The royal family enjoys a high popular approval vote and the country is not set up in a class status structure, as opposed to India, England, Ethiopia or the US, for example, where caste systems continue. Denmark is very fair in its treatment of all Danish citizens.

Egeskov Castle serves more as a portal into Denmark’s past than a commentary on current society. The current country house estate, like many greenspaces we have visited throughout this class, function as public recreational space and underscores the egalitarian nature of sharing national space regardless of class status.

Ultimately, the role and purpose of this privately-owned castle estate is to understand Denmark’s past when it was not egalitarian. Hierarchical structures of society did exist and castles show the royal and rich lifestyles of historic eras gone by. Egeskov Castle serves as a museum, a reminder of the past, and a tourist destination. This elitism exists among the current egalitarianism; however, the social structure of the country is not threatened because it works so well. Also, there is no real indication of the estate being privately owned or acknowledged to be operated by a corporate or private entity.

On the grounds there are many gardens, a car museum and other tourist attractions. Several of the old farm buildings are used for display. The castle and its grounds have a Danish sensibility that shows a Danish architectural style dating back some 450 years. Renovations and updates have been implemented in the interior and exterior to create a majestic and grand country estate that has a historical timeline with a contemporary purpose.

Forests of Demark

Question 8, Tue 10 June (10) Lakes & Forest

Why has so much valuable land close to Copenhagen been given over to forest?

From a historic perspective, the forest of Hareskov was formerly the king’s hunting ground. Other estates of the Danish royalty encompassing gardens and grounds have been turned into greenspace as well, such as Rosenborg Castle’s surrounding garden. Rosenborg’s garden is a public park that depicts national pride and other properties preserves the royal hunting ground as forest land. The Danish have a sense of pride in their landscape and this forest is a good example of the Danish landscape. The forest is mostly made of beech trees on a generally flat landscape, a normal characteristic of Danish topography.

Probably the reason for Hareskov's preservation was because Denmark has had a history of deforestation. At one point, the Danish needed to rebuild a fleet of ships for their navy but there were not enough trees in Denmark to construct a navy. This has made Denmark more conscious of trees and forests. Thus probably why the forest has stayed because wood is a limited resource.

From an urban planning perspective, the train that has a stop by the forest is one of the “fingers” of the extended sustainable finger plan of Copenhagen. Transportation is aligned with the sustainable goals in this plan so, in this sense, it is important for people in the city to be brought to the forest as a balance to the urban environment with forestry greenspace. Danes put a lot of value on their greenspace and with only 5.5 million people living in Denmark there is no risk of a housing crisis and no real need to build on that land. While Copenhagen is a thriving city, it is not rapidly growing. The forest is on valuable land; however, this natural resource is not needed for development. The Danes seem to place a higher value on greenspace than on the value of real estate. The preservation of national identity and culture is a priority that focuses on the needs of people and natural resources.

Danish National Parks

Denmark and the US have a different way in approaching national parks. Firstly, both countries have very different landscapes. Many of the US's national parks have drastic landscapes while Denmark, as a whole, is a very flat country, thus not having land formations that are as dramatic and contoured.

The US and Denmark have two very different philosophies on how to preserve nature. The focus of the Danish National Parks is to develop biodiversity even at the cost of reintroducing species of animals and trees. The US national parks tend to try to preserve what nature exists and try not to add anything new. What both of these philosophies include is an overriding principle that greenspaces are manufactured. Man has drawn the border of greenspaces, even though we associate these greenspaces with wilderness, untamed nature, they are very much produced by man.

Also, Denmark's national parks are extremely new. The plan to create them started in the early 2000s. In contrast, many parks in the US were created in the late 1800s. The US has had the infustructcture for parks for a decades. US conservation efforts are also easier to support because they are done on a larger scale in a larger country meaning that there are more volunteers, while Denmark's efforts are relatively new and have not built up a comprehensive support yet. Since the parks are so new, Denmark is trying to get farmers in the surrounding area to participate with the parks but they are receiving some resistance.

Both the US’s and Demark’s national parks serve as tourist attractions. Denmark has bike path and spots of camping and camp fires. These laws seems to be a little more relaxed with the US law and regulations. Denmark is trying to cultivate different activities for tourists to do to create an appealing destination to visit.

Painters of the Danish Golden Age

Describe the Danish Golden Age of painting and explain how the artists and their work helped shape the perception of the Danish landscape.

One of the main characteristics that distinguished landscape painting of the Danish Golden Age was their romanticism of nature. Painters depicted the Danish nature as grand and vast. During this time, there was a lot of Danish nationalistic pride and it was the intent to make a distinct recognizable style. Thus, a lot of the paintings depicted the flat Danish landscape, much of which contained Viking burial mounds to display Denmark's ancient history. The Danish Golden Age established an historical and social identity of Denmark in the painting using landscape as a context.

Ultimately, this Golden Age influenced other Danish Art. Danish Impressionists used nature to convey the inner psyche. In this way, nature was a reflection of something from within. The consistency between the Golden Age and the Impressionists was that nature was a mysterious thing. However, in the case of Impressionism, nature become eerie and resembled the unknown or the depths of the subconscious. The Golden Age depicted nature as mysterious, benevolent and grandiose.

Today a lot of land art is about sensory experience, feeling the land through senses whether it be touch, sound, or sight. It is a 21st century ideal to be focused on the individual. The self reflective nature has origins with the Impressionist, emphasizing nature as a reflection or meditation of the personal subconscious. The meaning becomes a focus on the personal experience.

Ultimately, the painters of the Danish Golden Age influenced the perception of the Danish landscape by depicting nature in a positive light. Denmark has relied heavily on agriculture for many years and this identity of an agrarian culture is shown in many paintings of the landscape, i.e., placing a farmer in the landscape. These paintings from this time showed and inspired a sense of pride and recognizable image of what comprised Danish landscape. This iconic time is probably part of the reason for the Danes love of greenspace.

Identities of Copenhagen’s Public and Private Greenspaces

Question 5

Based on your experiences, describe the different identities of Copenhagen’s public and private greenspaces.

Public Urban Greenspace:

One type of public greenspace is the fortification parks in Copenhagen. They are a system of medium-sized parks made from old ramparts. Some distinguishing features that the parks share is that they are meant for recreation and are designed as an oasis in the middle of a city as an escape for the people working in the surrounding factories. They were designated by the Copenhagen government for the masses.

Private Greenspace turned into Public Urban Spaces:

Frederiksberg Park was a private residency turned into public park. This park acts very similar to the other Public Urban Parks in usage; it just came to be in a different way however it is an opportunity for people to cultivate their own plants.

Contemporary parks have also been developed in Copenhagen. Superkilen and Mimersparken seem to embrace the urbanness of the park with a fair amount of concrete. Other parks have duel meaning as a cemetery and a park. Overall with public parks, Denmark promotes repurposing space by either giving the space dual meaning, such as in the case of Assistens Cemetery, or such as with the fortification parks, turning the old space into new greenspaces.

Private Urban Greenspace:

Private Greenspace usually manifests itself in the form of gardens. Like the public parks, the prime function of the urban greenspace in Copenhagen is to relax. A personal aspect of the parks is for residents who can have ownership of gardens that they choose to plant. The garden that we went into in Frederiksberg was separated by large hedges and less of a social, public interaction orientation with more of an elite club feeling. The private gardens we visited today (The Round Gardens) were similarly privately owned. Yet there was a common space in between the small gardens providing some interaction and seemed to be more of an open design. Many of the gardens we saw today had flag poles flying the Danish flag. These gardens are helpful for Danes that live in apartments and most residents of Denmark are urban dwellers (87%), so these gardens become a luxury.

 Pictures from the Round Gardens. (Privately owned Gardens)

Question 4, Mon 02 June (06) Field Study # 1 - TICKON

Describe your experience and interpretation of TICKON in the light of visiting it with its creator.

Tickon was created to promote the surrounding area and put it on the map, creating an attraction to bring awareness to the area.  Well-known international artists were invited to create site-specific art work embracing nature.  It was a very creative solution to bring awareness to the area in a time where the Danish government ignored it.  Greenspace becomes a museum, as opposed to putting these art pieces in a sterile environment.  The natural greenspace, in this case, is a place to exhibit and ultimately affect the art because of natural processes such as decay and erosion.  During our tour, Bonanno mentioned that once an artist was commissioned for an installation at Tickon but was not accustomed to creating outdoors.  The piece was dismantled in days: parts of the sculpture were little copper beads that were stolen and the whole thing fell apart.  In this way, this is a museum built for a specific kind of art, an art that can endure the elements.  All of the art is site-specific, meaning that all the ideas for the art were inspired by the land around it. All of the art uses nature as a medium whether the material is rock, wood or any other natural element in the surrounds.

Nature and decay transform the art into different stages.  Bonanno told us that "Organic High Way" by Mikael Hansen was reconstructed several times since the original.  Even when most of the wood decays, there are traces left behind.

It was interesting to hear about Bonanno’s own work "Between the Copper Beech and the Oak." He explained that the sculpture was about light and shadow and how the sculpture has more meaning when people or animals are around it.  Otherwise it is just sitting in the landscape.  I thought this was an interesting perspective of how an audience is important to art – and even to this park.

Map of TICKON

Hurricane Damage

"The Hill of Contemplation" by Prigann Herman

"Between the Copper Beech and the Oak" by Alfio Bonanno

Historic vs. Contemporary Public Parks in Copenhagen

Question 3:

Compare and contrast one of Copenhagen's contemporary public parks with one of its historic ones

Superkilen

Opened in 2012, Superkilen was conceived by Superflex (an artist group) along with Bjarke Ingels Group and Topotek1 (a landscape architecture firm). The intention of the group was to bring a sense of community to the neighboring areas, which are inhabited by over 50 nationalities. The park is broken up into three areas: Red, Black, and Green. Inhabitants were asked to suggest an object from their country of origin that they had seen during their travels (some of these objects are pictured on the left here).

                                                             

Ørstedsparken

Ørstedsparken is a fortification park that was created in the last half of the 17th century. It has one large lake in the center of the park and is in keeping with a lot of the original topography. It features several statues, one of which bears the park's name.

Contemporary vs. Historic

Superkilen was conceived to create community in a non-exclusively Danish environment, meaning that it was designed to be welcoming enough for a broad audience to use. Another striking difference is the color selection -- it is not just greenspace. Rather, the red space doesn't have any greenspace at all. The black space has green trees in it and the green part is green because of the grass. It is not a traditional park in any sense of the word. It also is a response to a current trend in the city: this part of the city so happens to have a lot of immigrant families.  This park was conceived because of trends in housing, as opposed to the fortification parks where the city was trying to do something else with the area that were formally ramparts. Ørstedsparken tries to mask the city while Superkilen incorporates the urban asphalt. Thus the open-air atmospheres are very different. Ørstedsparken is more calm: visitors are either leisurely strolling around the lake or laying on the grass. Superkilen is much more interactive: children play on the swings, visitors enjoy recreational activities and bikers zoom by.