Post Millennium Urban Space Design in Denmark: A survey on 100 Danish projects from 2002 – 2010.

Hans Kiib
Post Millennium Urban Space Design in Denmark
- a survey on 100 Danish projects from 2002 – 2010.

This article is based on an evaluation of 100 Danish open space projects form 2000 – 2010. The projects was initially proposals from Danish municipalities for the Campaign on Better Open Spaces (Bedre Byrums Kampagne) run by Realdania stating in 2002. These projects are all proposed just after 2002. Based on the quality of the projects including the goals for the proposal, the quality of the proposed design, and finally to what extent the projects contributed to new concepts and perspectives in open space design, 24 proposals were selected for further development. These projects were developed in the period from 2003 – 2007 with support from consultants.
The evaluation has been carried out in 2011. It categorizes the initial 100 projects in relation to location, goals, concepts, scale and means This evaluation is partly based on analysis of documents and partly on a comprehensive questionnaire survey to all Danish Municipalities. The evaluation of the 24 projects with special qualities is partly based on qualitative data and partly on observations on site. The results from this part focus on the development proposed by the consultants, including special focus on change of goals, direction of design development, changes of implementation strategies.

All the results from the evaluation are put into a broader context of travelling ideas. The findings are related to international agendas on Public Space Design in the period up to the development of these 100 projects. This provide interesting patterns related to the goals and the means of well known European projects. The patterns show a clear movement from classic design inspired form Southern European cities to a more context related Scandinavian design. In this you find a strong relation to specific values of the welfare city –among others a strong focus on community feeling, sports and bodily exercises, and it documents that the aesthetic qualities of the projects include a close relation to city landscape design.

Key Words: Urban design, open urban spaces, architecture, post millennium design.