THE CITY DUNE – landscape unifying nature and city.
PREVIOUS STATE
The previous state of the location of the City Dune illustrates perfectly the old dogma of separating business
districts from the liveable and sensuous city.
Like the harbour fronts of many European cities Copenhagen’s harbour has been reduced from historically
being the focal point of the city’s industry, commerce and public life, to deserted industrial spaces
characterized by hastily constructed office buildings. The monolith-like structured buildings cause
unpleasant conditions such as massive draught and block the view and public access to the waterfront.
The roads leading traffic away from the city makes the area the most heavily trafficked in the entire city.
CHALLENGE
SLA was given the assignment to design the master plan for the new harbor area. The first task was to create
a landscape for the new Nordic headquarters of the SEB Bank.
The aim, here, was to give Copenhageners a democratic, green, fully accessible, and sustainable urban space.
The site was privately owned, but was to be fully open to the public; it should work both as a foundation of
the 7 meter high future highline fixed in the masterplan and be of use at street level; it should incorporate
needs as different as parking spaces, recreational spots for employees and guests, full accessibility for the
walking impaired, provide the SEB Bank with a distinctive urban brand, and it had to be fully sustainable
and 100% acclimatized with regards to the handling of rainwater.
OLD CERTAINTIES
The traditional idea of the relationship between corporate, public and nature is often one in which corporate
business suppresses both nature and people. There is a hegemonic structure and corporate areas are sharply
contrasted to urban life by being shut off to people.
Architecturally this is reflected in the use of dead materials and rigid structures. Architectural ideas are
restricted by Euclidian geometry – right angles, straight lines, horizontal plans etc. Everything that nature is
not, and nothing to distract the person in the machine from rational purposes. Nature is reduced to
decoration.
EVOLUTION
SLA wanted to define a new democratic and inclusive relationship between corporate and public which is
more fertile to society. In this relationship people and business live side by side whilst all contributing to a
mutually advantageous relationship just like in an ecosystem. We, therefore, unified nature and buildings in
the landscape in order for biotic and abiotic materials to complement each other, just like public and
corporate, as well as mind and body, benefit from symbiosis.
The combination of biotic and abiotic creates a green and attractive urban atmosphere that is hospitable and
stimulates all senses. It, thereby, challenges rather than just pleases people, and it encourages wondering
moments rather than just paving the way to and from work.
Nature is also used to meet climate challenges. Ecosystems are capable of handling floods and heat by way
of simple means. The systems are always balanced and support co-existence of many different, seemingly
incompatible organisms. SLA uses the processes of nature as organizing principles, in a way that also takes
pragmatic purposes into consideration.
CASE – THE CITY DUNE
In the encyclopaedia one can read, that the word dune is related to the ancient Nordic word meir meaning
either sand dune or new-fallen snow. The two phenomena are linked together. In language and in perception.
At winter new-fallen snow, drifting in-between buildings or trees, look similar to the drifting sand dune. In
both cases wind have an important role – like it has in harbour-areas and in-between monolith-like buildings.
Due to the specific conditions of the area, we constructed the urban space as a giant urban dune of white,
folded concrete intersected by rows of lush, green nature. By borrowing the spatial qualities of the Nordic
“meir” SLA created a gentle slope raising 7 meter from street level towards the highline. The City Dune
behaves like sand or snow crystals that pack, fold and create elevations and is kept calm by vegetation.
The concrete represents the application of the natural elements to the city with its practical purposes. The
Dune consists of sand - billions of tiny little grains of crystals – shaped in different forms according to the
direction of the wind and casted to create a firm and permanent surface making the area accessible to all –
also by wheelchair. From street-level all people can rise to a splendid view of the harbour and to the city.
The contours of the terrain handles all functional and technical demands of the urban space from water
drainage in the green intersections, lighting and cooling when the white material, by means of its big surface,
maximizes Albedo-effect, as well as providing space for a large car park for bank employees under the
elevated terrain that, hereby, works as a roof terrace.
Two large underground tanks collect all the rainwater that falls in the landscape. From here it is pumped
back into the air through a fine-meshed network of tubes, securing that no water ends up on the streets.
Hence, the cooling Albedo-effect is accompanied by moist air emitted from atomizers which gives the
experience of being in the middle of the lush Nordic nature, thus providing the area with unique attractive
features that stimulates all the bodily senses. The variety of the landscape, and the navigation in it favours
sensuous abilities rather than rational, and gives employees a recreational break from their busy schedule and
encourages passing people to pause for a wondering moment, to adopt their surroundings and notice the
people next to them.
RESULT
The result is a lush and pleasant public urban space that, in its core essence...
1) ...is sustainable by its innovative integration of natural processes to handle environmental and
climatic challenges.
2) ...is plural and democratic due to its attractiveness and accessibility to all.
3) ...celebrates a holistic approach to human cognition by encouraging acknowledgement of the world
via the human body.
The landscape functions as an outdoor lounge into which the bank invites the public to contribute to the
atmosphere of the landscape. Bankers on a brake, informal corporate meetings, skateboarders in play, young
mothers with their perambulators and elderly people out on a stroll can all take ownership of the landscape in
their own distinctive way. They all meet here in this sensuous shared space, and The City Dune has quickly
become a favourite hang-out spot for all Copenhageners, as a space for the whole person as opposed to just
the rational mind.
In this way The City Dune shows how private companies and municipalities can cooperate in creating open
urban spaces of high quality and value to the public as well as for private developers. Its exemplary status is
further established by the fact that Municipality of Copenhagen refers to this landscape as “best practice” for
environmental, social, and economic sustainability.