Karen Blixens Plads
Inclusive urban space and public square in Islands Brygge.
Karen Blixen’s Plads is an inclusive urban space in the centre of the University of Copenhagen’s South Campus in Amager. Designed by hotshot architects COBE, it is a space for bikes, nature and people.
Covering 20,000sqm, Karen Blixen's Plads is one of the biggest public squares in the city. After a redesign by COBE, Karen Blixen's Plads has become a three-dimensional student hangout, and the backdrop to multiple photoshoots. It operates as a multifunctional park that joins up with Amager Fælled, a green public space for everyone to enjoy.
Form and function
At the same time, it follows the functional rules of modern Danish design and also offers something super useful for everyone living and working nearby: bicycle parking spots for students with room for no less than 2,000 bikes.
The bicycle parking, or the bicycle hills as you could call them, are the real star of this urban space. COBE described their bespoke solution as a floating carpet, that you can walk across or sit down and relax on.
At night the caves under the rolling bicycle hills are lit up like lanterns, creating a cosy and safe environment. Oh, and if you didn't know, the square is named after the Danish author Karen Blixen, who wrote 'Out of Africa'.