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)