the capital urbanite
Mar 23, 2008, 6:18 PM
Commit to a making a nice city, and suddenly people will come
Maria Cook
The Ottawa Citizen
Saturday, March 22, 2008
What strikes a visitor here are the bicycles -- hundreds of them, attached to bike racks in front of places like the central train station, the national library or a suburban high school.
Copenhagen has a reputation as one of the world's most livable cities. They've been working on it for 40 years, with policies geared toward convenient and pleasant cycling, walking and use of public transit.
More recently, the city has reversed the flight to the suburbs with features such as
a new metro, well-designed housing on former industrial sites and along the waterfront, and cultural facilities such as beautiful large new opera house designed by the famous Danish firm Henning Larsen.
The City of Ottawa's official plan aims to have more people living downtown in order to limit suburban sprawl. Copenhagen is leading the way with public policies that do just that.
"Some cities say let's move people in and then we'll have the money to improve downtown," says Danish urban planning consultant Jan Gehl.
"That's not how it works. When you have a strong commitment to make a nice city, to step up the quality so it makes sense to raise your family in the city, suddenly people come."
In the 1970s, when more space was being given to cars, the Danish cycling union organized large demonstrations which put pressure on politicians to improve conditions for cyclists. Today, about 36 per cent of Copenhagen residents cycle to work; 60 per cent year-round.
With the 1999 opening of the Royal Library, a handsome building dubbed the Black
Diamond and situated on Copenhagen's inner harbour, planners decided against parking for cars. Instead, there are several hundred bike parking spots.
"It was not a controversial decision," says Jonas Thomsen, spokesman for Schmidt Hammer Lassen, the Danish architecture firm which designed the tilted black-stone building.
Across the city, people can borrow city bikes for a small fee which is refunded when they return the bike at any of 125 bike stands. Bike routes are separated from vehicular traffic, have their own traffic signals, and bikes receive right-of-way priority over cars.
In addition to bus and commuter trains, a new metro opened in 2002, which goes to the airport in less than 15 minutes from downtown. When the metro is complete, 85% of all citizens will have less than 600 metres to the nearest metro station .
Mr. Gehl says Ottawa's plans for light rail are essential to feeding the city's success.
"A good public realm and good public transport system are brother and sister. If you want people to use public space you have to make sure they can get to it in style, safety and comfort."
Every city faces the problem of how to finance large infrastructure. Copenhagen has built metro lines to areas it wants developed, then sold adjacent city-owned land at the increased value brought to it by transit proximity.
Ørestad is one of these new areas built up around an elevated metro that takes passengers to the city centre in 15 minutes. But transportation isn't everything. An emphasis on creating innovative housing has also enticed people back to the city, says Christian Hanak, a curator at the Danish Architecture Centre.
For instance, a building by BIG, a hip young Copenhagen architecture firm, sold out 240 condos in weeks even though the area will be a construction site for 20 years.
To provide daylight, views and privacy, the architects oriented the units away from another by shaping the housing block into the letters V and M. The result is a mosaic of more than 80 apartment types. Some have triangular balconies, others have rooms with up to five-metre ceilings.
"Imagination and being sensible is not necessarily opposite," says BIG's founder Bjarke Ingels. "Instead of cutting costs so you're only building the saddest slabs, we said to the client 'what if you invest a bit more and make it much more interesting and it also becomes more profitable.' In the end, the client is proud that he did this."
An example of the firm's work can be seen in an exhibition called Urbanopolis at the Museum of Civilization in Quebec City until April 19. Their project, called HySociety, features a mixed-use building that is so energy efficient, the architects claim it will eliminate energy bills.
In the southern part of the Copenhagen harbour, Sluseholmen is developing into a canal city lined with attractive five- to seven-storey residential buildings. Danish architecture firm Arkitema, in charge of the area's master plan, hired 20 different architects to do facades in order to bring variety, diversity and avoid the mega-project look.
In Ottawa, condos are sprouting up as the answer to creating higher density in the inner city. "I think they're quite awful," Mr. Gehl says. "You can have much higher densities in lower buildings than people realize. The lazy solution is to make towers."
© The Ottawa Citizen 2008
Maria Cook
The Ottawa Citizen
Saturday, March 22, 2008
What strikes a visitor here are the bicycles -- hundreds of them, attached to bike racks in front of places like the central train station, the national library or a suburban high school.
Copenhagen has a reputation as one of the world's most livable cities. They've been working on it for 40 years, with policies geared toward convenient and pleasant cycling, walking and use of public transit.
More recently, the city has reversed the flight to the suburbs with features such as
a new metro, well-designed housing on former industrial sites and along the waterfront, and cultural facilities such as beautiful large new opera house designed by the famous Danish firm Henning Larsen.
The City of Ottawa's official plan aims to have more people living downtown in order to limit suburban sprawl. Copenhagen is leading the way with public policies that do just that.
"Some cities say let's move people in and then we'll have the money to improve downtown," says Danish urban planning consultant Jan Gehl.
"That's not how it works. When you have a strong commitment to make a nice city, to step up the quality so it makes sense to raise your family in the city, suddenly people come."
In the 1970s, when more space was being given to cars, the Danish cycling union organized large demonstrations which put pressure on politicians to improve conditions for cyclists. Today, about 36 per cent of Copenhagen residents cycle to work; 60 per cent year-round.
With the 1999 opening of the Royal Library, a handsome building dubbed the Black
Diamond and situated on Copenhagen's inner harbour, planners decided against parking for cars. Instead, there are several hundred bike parking spots.
"It was not a controversial decision," says Jonas Thomsen, spokesman for Schmidt Hammer Lassen, the Danish architecture firm which designed the tilted black-stone building.
Across the city, people can borrow city bikes for a small fee which is refunded when they return the bike at any of 125 bike stands. Bike routes are separated from vehicular traffic, have their own traffic signals, and bikes receive right-of-way priority over cars.
In addition to bus and commuter trains, a new metro opened in 2002, which goes to the airport in less than 15 minutes from downtown. When the metro is complete, 85% of all citizens will have less than 600 metres to the nearest metro station .
Mr. Gehl says Ottawa's plans for light rail are essential to feeding the city's success.
"A good public realm and good public transport system are brother and sister. If you want people to use public space you have to make sure they can get to it in style, safety and comfort."
Every city faces the problem of how to finance large infrastructure. Copenhagen has built metro lines to areas it wants developed, then sold adjacent city-owned land at the increased value brought to it by transit proximity.
Ørestad is one of these new areas built up around an elevated metro that takes passengers to the city centre in 15 minutes. But transportation isn't everything. An emphasis on creating innovative housing has also enticed people back to the city, says Christian Hanak, a curator at the Danish Architecture Centre.
For instance, a building by BIG, a hip young Copenhagen architecture firm, sold out 240 condos in weeks even though the area will be a construction site for 20 years.
To provide daylight, views and privacy, the architects oriented the units away from another by shaping the housing block into the letters V and M. The result is a mosaic of more than 80 apartment types. Some have triangular balconies, others have rooms with up to five-metre ceilings.
"Imagination and being sensible is not necessarily opposite," says BIG's founder Bjarke Ingels. "Instead of cutting costs so you're only building the saddest slabs, we said to the client 'what if you invest a bit more and make it much more interesting and it also becomes more profitable.' In the end, the client is proud that he did this."
An example of the firm's work can be seen in an exhibition called Urbanopolis at the Museum of Civilization in Quebec City until April 19. Their project, called HySociety, features a mixed-use building that is so energy efficient, the architects claim it will eliminate energy bills.
In the southern part of the Copenhagen harbour, Sluseholmen is developing into a canal city lined with attractive five- to seven-storey residential buildings. Danish architecture firm Arkitema, in charge of the area's master plan, hired 20 different architects to do facades in order to bring variety, diversity and avoid the mega-project look.
In Ottawa, condos are sprouting up as the answer to creating higher density in the inner city. "I think they're quite awful," Mr. Gehl says. "You can have much higher densities in lower buildings than people realize. The lazy solution is to make towers."
© The Ottawa Citizen 2008