Through numerous visits, impulsive discussions, dreams and imaginations for the future of ‘Refshaleøen’ in Copenhagen, a playfull model emerged in the office: By collecting, sorting and reorganizing items found on site, reuse of resources became an abstract ‘Game Of Scales’. A play of reforming the city ‘As found’. Adding (almost) nothing new.
How will any plan be suitable for this peculiar territory? What form of Copenhagen can we imagine here, rightfully improving the legacy and quality of the place. Ideally we should only propose change - if we improve what is all ready there.
Next chapter Copenhagen is kicking off. The game is on, process has entered, coincidence has left. Growth is reaching out and boundaries discussed. Refshaleøen, a territory with open ends. As found, but soon to be reconfigured for another time and pace.
Places, plants, trees, spaces in between, buildings, structures, edges, items, broken glass. The nature of the site, randomness. Spending a day on the site you seem to record and collect the ephemeral. The culture of the place, eventful. A place of change. Post industrial, but still productive. A contemporary economy of its own. What future form dares to shape this urban harmony of chance.
An area full of time. A luxury of temporality. Various usage and functionality. Change has been kind and slow, transformations ongoing. A district full of time and ideas. Belonging, local, contextual, time as the only spatial contract. A scale and space of its own. A Copenhagen original.
From territory to areas, to places and spaces. A character and identity has grown. The narrative is ongoing, so far unstoppable. A space representing the extra, a mental health of our city. The current edge of growth, an outer urbanity. The boundaries of the future are challenged. For the site, the neighborhood, the district, for the future inhabitants and its visitors. Eventually, for the planet.
Forming the future of this Island demands more than a plan, but a new urban charter for our shared responsibility. Copenhagen Next.
