June 27, 2023.
Title

Describe one interesting thing you learned today...?

2. Enghaveparken
A sunken sports park that also doubles as a water collection site during what the Danes call "cloudbursts" (i.e. large rain events). I'm discovering a theme that when Danish city planners/urban designers create something, they don't just have one use in mind and they almost always pay close attention to what features can be added for climate change mitigation/adaptation.

3. Lille Langebro
A pedestrian and bike-only bridge. Need I say more?
(Second photo courtesy of Visit Copenhagen)

June 29, 2023.
Parks and Bananas

All parks are important for livable communities, of course. However, I do think there are a couple special qualities about Copenhagen's parks that make them  particularly conducive to humans living their best urban life. For one, the parks are very multipurpose in that they are not just manicured chunks of grass with a few trees, plopped right into a neighborhood (nothing against this kind of park, as those have their perks as well). The parks here tend to serve at least two uses, if not three or four all in one. On our tour of Nørrebro today, I saw parks filled with exercise equipment, playgrounds, fountains and plazas with various cultural representations, poles for hanging slack lines or hammocks, dog-run areas, a slough of seating options, burial grounds, art installations, bike trails, biodiverse landscaping, sports fields/complexes, skate ramps, and even a climbing wall at Bananna Park - amazing! See photo below of me eating a banana (second of the day) at Bananna Park.

My favorite park in Copenhagen so far has been Folkets Park (translation: "People's Park"). This one stood out to me because immediately when we entered the space I could feel its liveliness. Two moms, their babies, and various childcare paraphernalia sat spread out on the cushy ground, which was first draped in their striped blanket. One was breastfeeding. Another family, perhaps migrants, gathered around a bench, chatting and playing with each other. A solo woman quietly relaxed at the other side of the park on her own bench, accompanied by her bike -- she observed as our group audibly walked by. Across her on the hill were three homeless men; one in a sleeping bag and two perched on the ground, engaged in slow conversation. I loved seeing all different types, ages, and genders of people passing time in this park, fulfilling the exact destiny it was intended for. 

June 30th, 2023.
Nordhavn by the Sea

Today: another bike tour. My favorite! But, really, there are few activities I would rather be doing. 

We were led by Charlotte, who is trained as an architect and one of the associate professors at DIS where she teaches on sustainable development. The quality of today’s tour was significantly heightened by the fact that we all connected to a Zoom meeting on our phones and were able to hear Charlotte’s commentary via earphones throughout the tour (thank you, modern technology). 

Entering Nordhavn felt like entering another city entirely. With its new-age architecture forming straight lines, sharp edges, and reflective but transparent rectangles, the shapes described something of a foreign ground in comparison to the rest of Copenhagen and all its Renaissance glory. In fact, the city that comes to mind when I think of Nordhavn is Vancouver, British Columbia, which shares the same feeling of modernity, cleanliness, and prolific bike infrastructure. 

I was most taken by the strategic use of space we witnessed on this tour. The apartment buildings wore these pyramid-type features on the outside where the balconies sat, which afforded good visibility for each unit while also maximizing the square footage everyone received outdoors. The rooftops were frequently outfitted with greenery, seating space, or, like the one we visited, the coolest rooftop playground you’ve ever seen. I’m talking swings (single and double seater), trampolines, monkey bars, rope courses, cushy ground, and even small sitting nooks tucked away in the bushes for when a visitor’s social battery inevitably runs low. I think we can all agree us adults had a little too much fun in this special place underneath the strong Copenhagen sun (Jamie, sending love and good vibes to your injured knee). The ground floor of a nearby building housed a local recycling center, self-described as the place one can “reuse, share, and sort your waste as well as join reuse and repair activities.” This rotund room had separate vestibules and bins for every common type of recyclable material: paper, plastic, food and beverage cartons, bulky waste (such as furniture), metal, textiles, and glass. I was in zero-waste heaven. It was the perfect way to end a big week of learning and perk up my spirit for the second half of that day.

And of course, I couldn’t depart this place without a souvenier – a handmade ceramic karaffe (or vase?) from the “Reuse” shelf now sits stoically, chip and all, in my hotel room waiting for its first use.

This weekend, I’ll be dreaming of spaces well-utilized and materials that never resort to a life in the landfill. 

July 3rd, 2023.
Ferry to Aalborg

Our week started off in a very multimodal way. We departed from Copenhagen early this morning, bound for Aalborg, which is a small city in northern Denmark. We went by bus (a very large one), by ferry, and by bike.

Having lived on the Pacific Northwest coast for many years, I’ve ridden my fair share of ferry boats to and from islands in the Puget Sound and Juan de Fuca Strait. But, never have I been on a ferry quite as dapper as this one that carried our class from Sjællands Odde to the sweet port town of Ebeltoft. This ferry was outfitted with multiple levels, a beautiful breakfast buffet (included in the ticket price), various seating options, quality design, and most importantly, enough room for our football-team-sized bus. 

Shortly upon our arrival in the final destination of Aalborg, we geared up for another bike tour. This time, with different bikes and split into two smaller groups. The tour guide showed us all kinds of interesting pockets and features of Aalborg. The city is known for its murals, which are painted on buildings of all sizes around the vicinity and done by international artists that are commissioned generously and travel specifically to Aalborg to complete. Each and every one of these pieces of art was striking in its own way. 

We also, of course, got to experience urban bike infrastructure on a different scale. My take is that the bike setup here essentially follows the same lines as Copenhagen but it’s just less widespread. It is obvious there are some places in Aalborg that are very much lacking a safe place for people to bike. However, it’s equally as clear that in such a small city, one can generally find a reliable path to get them and their bikes to their destination peacefully and in one piece. The waterfront area was particularly impressive with all of its bike paths, walkways, benches, art installations, and sweeping views of the fjord (i.e. the water). I enjoyed all of the small and thoughtfully designed incorporations of greenspace which we came across on our ride. Especially because greenery intermixed with the concrete, asphalt, cobblestone, and often gray skies is something that I’ve really noticed is lacking in Denmark’s bigger cities.

July 4th, 2023.
Aalborg

The learnings today consisted of a presentation by two engineers/planners, René and Ole, at COWI-- international firm that even has offices in Portland and Seattle—followed by a walking tour to see various Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and bridge installations around Aalborg.

René described all of the ways which COWI works towards climate change mitigation and sustainability as an organization. I was blown away to hear that a few years back they actually dropped all of their clients whose projects focused on fossil fuel-reliant infrastructure, with the goal of transitioning their whole portfolio to be contributing towards environmental sustainability. “How did this transition affect the company’s revenue?” I asked, being as concerned as any capitalist-trained American might. To this he responded that the revenue was not negatively impacted due to the fact that sustainable projects in COWI’s Scandinavian, UK, and North American markets have skyrocketed in recent years. The result: COWI has made a huge statement about their stance on climate change, all while remaining profitable, if not increasing in profitability. For the first time in a while, I experienced a deep feeling of hope for the future of Mother Earth. If money-hungry corporations (as all corporations are) can choose to be sustainable and not lose profit over it, then we are on the right path.

The walking tour was rainy, windy, and quite chilly at times. Nonetheless, we saw some very interesting BRT projects, including a whole street dedicated to BRT vehicles. This street had claimed to be off-limits to cars for a while but since many cars just ignored the signs and proceeded through anyways, the City installed two large ditches (“bus graves,” as they’re called) in each lane which rendered the street physically impossible for a small vehicle to pass over. The idea is that the ditches are narrow enough for bus wheels to pass over, but wide enough that a car’s wheels would simply fall into the ditch. Impressive statement, Aalborg. Other than that, their BRT infrastructure was similar to what we might see in Portland, except the “bus only” lanes were most often in the center of the road, with car lanes on the outside and pedestrian islands in the middle, so that the frequent bus stops didn’t impede the flow of bike and car traffic. I really liked this design, especially as a frequent bike rider in Portland where the bike and bus lanes are almost always shared or right next to each other, creating a not-so-fun game of frogger.

July 6th, 2023.
Malmö

Our second-to-last day of class was spend in Malmö, Sweden, a city just across the water from Copenhagen. Malmö is so close, in fact, that our tour guide from Gensler actually lives in Malmö and commutes to his office in Copenhagen each day by train. This is quite a financially responsible decision for him, too, because the government reimburses him for about 50% of his daily train fares since it's an environmentally-friendly mode of transportation. The ease of travel by train/metro and the monetary incentives are just two of many ways Scandinavia makes it easy for everyone to get where they need to go without a car.

We were also shown what bicycle infrastructure looks like in the city center of Malmö. For one, the bike parking at the train stations were massive! See photo below of what I wish all the parking lots in America could look like. Unlike Copenhagen, bike theft in Malmö is quite common, which for them, means bike owners must actually lock their bikes to racks rather than just to themselves (how wonderful it is to be able to do this in Copenhagen!). However, this small inconvenience is compensated for by the many other ease-of-practice amenities at the station. Under the huge "Bike & Ride" sign, there are smaller signs which indicate presence of a cycle service station, coffee shop (endearingly called
"Cykelfika"), toilet, and tire pump. Sierra and I can both attest to the coffee and pastries at the Cykelfika being quite good. At the bike service station , people can drop off their bikes at the beginning of the day, and then retrieve them on the way home at the end of the day, all fixed up and ready to ride home. It's like a little bike spa and daycare all in one.

In terms of bike path design, a notable difference in Malmö is that most of their paths don't have curbs, which creates the distinct height difference between cycle paths and walking paths throughout Copenhagen. I gasped more than once after almost being run over by a cyclist whilst unknowingly standing in a Malmö bike path. Also, Malmö style traditionally does not have separated paths on either side of the street for cyclists going to opposite direction to be separated. This design has its flaws of course, especially as the volume of daily cyclists in Malmö increases, so the city has decided to constructing all new bike paths in the Copenhagen style, with unidirectional flow on each side of the street.