Superkilen, Copenhagen/Denmark

Superkilen is a heterogeneous collage of places in a densely populated, centrally located neighbourhood of Copenhagen. The internationally influenced neighbourhood with a colourful mixture of different cultures is to be revitalised with the help of the built open space. Beyond its previous function as a monofunctional transit space, Superkilen will become an innovative place rich in simultaneities.
Accordingly, the open space concept aims to strengthen the different characters of the place and its actors. A black square has been created, a red square and a green park.
Understood as a dialogue with the urban reality of Superkilen, a fundamental motif of the history of garden art is updated within this structure. The translocation of an ideal, the re-creation or reproduction of another place, has been a sustaining theme through the ages. Where the Chinese garden shows miniature rock formations of famous mountain sites, the Japanese Zen garden abstracts the sea into waves of gravel. The historic gardens in Florence or Versailles are filled with allegorical images, and the English landscape garden presents replicas of Greek ruins.

In Superkilen, this theme gave rise to a contemporary and urban form: a global, universal garden. Here, the transfer of memorable elements from other places and cultures reflects and activates the multi-ethnic structure of the neighbourhood. The furniture and equipment of Superkilen has been developed from an international catalogue of urban elements. The creativity and imagination of the neighbourhood was mobilised in many months of workshops and discussions with residents and associations, and citizen participation was developed as a motor for the design principle of multiplicity. Round benches, fountains, lights, fitness equipment and more selected by residents now represent Superkilen's diversity and international personality in a multifaceted neighborhood park. Illuminated signs from many countries on the red square are the most obvious signs of cultural transfer. The imported advertising alienates the place in an almost theatrical way. The advertising objects vying for attention miss their actual, culturally specific audience, but at the same time become ambassadors and activists of a global, urban culture. The synchronously performed advertising repertoire illuminates and activates the international character of the quarter under the sign of information and communication. In this context, the flashing neon signs for a Japanese pachinko mall may surprise and fascinate in much the same way as historic chinoiseries in a landscape garden, while a Latin American telephone booth may give us the whiff of the illusion of a tropical beach promenade.

AppreciationGerman Landscape Architecture Award 2013

Jury verdict: Superkilen describes an approximately one-kilometer-long urban space north of the center of Copenhagen in an area that is heavily multi-ethnically populated. Three differently color-coded sections offer these colorfully mixed users an equally colorful carpet that creates a variety of atmospheres and uses.

The project deliberately departs from the conventional attitude in which an urban space has to fit into the context as quietly as possible, homogeneously disciplined and thus "timeless".

Loud, garish, fragmented, controversial and not forced with a claim to eternity, Superkilen playfully traces the ingredients of a multiethnic society. Public space is literally highlighted as a place of encounter, revealing differences and also enduring them. The space is not just an abstract stage for an urban audience, but becomes an expressionist stage set that interacts with its audience.