THE COPENHAGEN CONTEXT
Nordhavnen should be seen in the different-scaled contexts of which the area is a part: the region, the city, the harbour and the neighbourhood.
Together with Malmø in southern Sweden, Copenhagen is the centre of the Øresund Region, which has 3.6 million inhabitants.
In 2000, the Øresund Link (railway and motorway) opened, so the two areas can be considered part of a single region and can combine their potential to strengthen the region’s position in relation to other cities in Europe.
The region is able to compete internationally in higher education, the pharmaceutical industry, tourism, culture and more. In 1994, a total of 1,950 people commuted across the Sound every day. In 2005, around 10,000 people shared their everyday lives between Denmark and Sweden, having their home in one of the countries and their job in the other.
The City of Copenhagen has about 500,000 inhabitants, but an increasing number of people are moving to Copenhagen in these years. The population is expected to increase by 45,000 people by 2025. Copenhagen has changed in a positive direction over the past decade, transforming from a city of industry into a city of knowledge.
Both the number of jobs and the number of workplaces have gone up. The unemployment rate has gone down, and the general transformation of the city bears witness to the city’s growth. Enterprises are keen to move to Copenhagen to be closer to the city centre and city life, and 10,000 new jobs have been created – in 2006 alone.
Roughly 100,000 people use the Metro in Copenhagen each day. An increasing number of people in Copenhagen cycle to work.
There is water on three sides of Nordhavnen. On the fourth side, there is a short stretch of the site that borders Ring Road 2, a highly trafficked regional road, and a railway area on which one of the railway lines is the main service between Copenhagen and Elsinore, which runs on an embankment. Behind these infrastructure installations is the Østerbro city district. Østerbro is a very resourceful city district. Its residents have higher incomes and higher levels of education than residents in the city as a whole, and a higher proportion of them are active on the labour market. The spatial structure of the Inner Østerbro is shaped by dense blocks of buildings, wide streets running through the area and large green areas. In the Outer Østerbro, roads and railways divide the district into several small city areas with more open and diverse buildings. This district has direct access to the Svanemøllebugten and has an uninterrupted belt of parkland running along the Ring Line.
Over the past decade an interesting new environment has emerged around Kalkbrænderihavnen. This area is now characterised by corporate headquarters of high architectural quality and by the ‘Utzon town’, a number of distinctive buildings with white rendered facades. There is no housing in the area. Kalkbrænderihavnen and Svanemøllehavnen have marinas with room for around 1,300 boats. The marina in Kalkbrænderihavnen was built in the late 1990s around a modern clubhouse with various facilities. Svanemøllehavnen dates from the 1950s and has recently undergone major renovation.
To the southwest of Nordhavnen is Søndre Frihavn, in which major urban conversion started in the early 1990s. The area, which is still undergoing a process of development, features a mix of housing and service trades located on jetties and around a large open square. Few children and elderly people live in this area, whose residents are in the high-income groups.
Just south of Nordhavnen on Marmormolen (The Marble Pier) CPH City and Port is constructing the UN City, which also includes storage facilities in Nordhavnen. When fully developed, Marmormolen will also have housing, more offices and even a hotel. The area not only benefits from views of Øresund, but also of three historical fortifications, large technical installations at the Amager Incineration Plant, Prøvestenen, Copenhagen’s off shore wind farm and, further away, the Øresund Bridge and the Swedish coastline.
Landmarks outside the Northern Harbour include the Svanemøllen Powerplant, Kobbertårnet (offices) and Fyrtårnet (housing) in America Square.