SUPERKILEN
Other Projects by Topotek 1
SUPERKILEN
Mimersgade, København N, København, Denmark
Popular Winner, 2013 A+Awards, Typology Landscapes and Gardens
Type
YEAR
2011
Photos
Iwan Baan
Photographer: Iwan BaanSuperkilen is a half a mile long urban space that cuts through one of the most ethnically diverse and socially challenged neighborhoods in Denmark. The project possesses all that typically makes up a modern park with trails for pedestrians and cyclists, connections to local transport and outdoor recreation spaces along with a market space and games areas.Superkilen is a park reflecting diversity. The project is intended to celebrate the neighborhood’s multi-cultural heritage and unite everybody in one global neighborhood. The project is conceived as a giant exhibition of urban best practice - a collection of global objects from the 62 home countries of the local inhabitants. The conceptual point of departure is the division of Superkilen into three main zones: the red square, the green park and the black market. The red square becomes an area for sports activities, the green park a grassy children’s playground, and the black market a food market and picnic area. Taking their point of departure in Superkilen’s location in the heart of outer Nørrebro, BIG chose to focus on those initiatives and activities in the urban spaces that work as promoters for integration across ethnicity, religion, culture and languages. Superkilen, it is hoped, will promote social integration in Denmark’s most multicultural urban district - a place that has occasionally seen sporadic street violence - and create urban narratives and situations from all over the world. Rather than plastering the urban area with traditional Danish design BIG decided to gather the local intelligence to create a display of global urban best practice when it comes to urban furniture. Instead of using standard street furniture, people from the area were asked to nominate specific objects such as benches, bins, trees, playgrounds, manhole covers and signage from other countries to be included in the scheme.