Follies Staging Refshaleøen

d e pa rt m e n t o f g e o s c i e n c e s a n d n at u r a l r e s o u r c e m a n a g e m e n t university of copenhagen

F O L L I E S S TA GING RE FSHALEØEN URBAN INTERVENTION STUDIO 2015 LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE AND PLANNING

COLOPHON

Urban Intervention Studio / Transformation, Midlertidighed og Samtidskunst, 2015 Landscape Architecture and Planning, IGN, University of Copenhagen

Teachers Bettina Lamm, PhD, Associate Professor and Landscape Architect, University of Copenhagen Ryan Reynolds, PhD, Co-founder and Chair, Gap Filler (New Zealand) Benny Henningsen, Artist and Creative Director, Bureau Detours

Students Alexander Breland; Alexander Keller Uldal; Amalie Ellehøj Okkels Anders Fønss; Annette Klüver Andersen; Emilia Nejatbakhsh Morten Gøsta Svensson; Jenny Sundby; Jesper Rasmussen Johannes Lassen Platz; Kasper Fjordgård Skjærlund; Linnea Calov Jacobsen Malthe Mørck Clausen; Maria Sophia Lehim; Morten Johannes Sejersen Nanna Høgsberg Kristensen; Niels Hygum Nielsen; Rasmus Østergaard Lind Sara Daneshyar Boudigaard Nielsen ; Simon Colmorten Henriksen Simone Barslund Haxholm; Sinan Köylü; Stella Katharina Kofoed Terese Sofie Hjorth Rasmussen; Thea Kirstine Jeppesen; Veronika Haas Vivica Anna Gardarsson

Collaborators Refshaleøens Ejendomsselskab, who generously invited us to “play on their fields”.

Dewalt, who have provided the tools that made building our ideas on site possible.

Distortion, which brought 10,000 festivalgoers to Refshaleøen and became one of the main stakeholders and situations that students interacted with.

Music house CPH and Henrik Jarltoft, who hosted our public lecture with Ryan Reynolds.

The Urban Intervention Studio is part of the EU project SEEDS that explores temporary use as a strategic tool for urban transformation through a North Sea Region Interreg. collaboration. This is examined through research, transnational knowledge exchange and practical site experimentations in our studio courses. Here iterative and artistic interventions are tested as a more dynamic approach to transformation of urban industrial areas.

Editors: Bettina Lamm and Ryan Reynolds Layout: Inger Ulrich Print: TrykXperten

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Photo: NewsØresund - Johan Wessman

Traditionally cities have grown by expanding outwards, claiming and urbanizing open fields. Today, most urban expansion is happening within cities. Especially large industrial areas now disappearing from the cityscapes are opening up landscapes with a morphology and scale completely different from that of the classical city. These “terrains vagues” are on the one hand not made for humans but on the other hand offers new atmospheres and characters that prompt us to question what a place and a city can be in this context. New conditions require new tools for transformation. We can no longer roll out completely new ready-made cities but must learn to respond and work within the existing. This process of going from one stage towards something else can be detected and then further explored through small acupunctural interventions that can set transformations in motion reprogramming and redirecting the discourse of a place. Art, architecture and landscape design interventions can provide site specific responses to atmospheres and programs of these areas. Temporary projects can inspire the future development through implementing new uses, identifying site qualities, testing ideas and creating new behaviors in a place. Areas can evolve gradually and experimentally through an ongoing series of “urban interventions”, rather than suddenly and irrevocably.

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CONTENT

Course description Refshaleøen Intersubjectivity and phenomenology Photosafari Student drawings Liminality Fragments of student first impressions Student Maps Landscape architecture meets performance studies Follies - staging Refshaleøen The assignment Urban breakfast salons & guests

THE PROJECTS

The Red Carpet Columnscape Habour Bus Stop Remodeling Concrete Njord View from the Edge The people of the course

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05 06 06 08 10 12 13 14 16 17 19 20 22 26 30 34 38 42 47

COURSE DESCRIPTION Urban Intervention Studio At the Urban Intervention Studio we explore methods of creating new public domains by designing and building temporary small-scale interventions in public space. The drafting table is replaced by a strong presence on site developing projects in a hand-crafted process that allows for adaptations and alterations to be made in the moment.

The aim of the course is to give us insight into, and experience of, how temporary interventions can act as agents of change in indeterminate urban landscapes by setting the stage for new behaviors, new uses and new site readings. The method has some interesting implications for the design process, for the interpretation of the context and particularly for learning about space through the act of making it by hand.

This year, the course was set at Refshaleøen – a former shipyard in the harbor of Copenhagen that is scheduled for likely development after 2023, but is presently an undefined place undergoing transformation. We set up class teaching, studio and workshop spaces at Refshaleøen, and developed our interventions in close collaboration with local community – with all the potentials and challenges this adds to the process of negotiating territories and uses.

This former industrial site provided us with an interesting and relevant context of a place in transition to explore and respond to. We tried out different tools and methods to help heighten our awareness, and hone our ability to detect the qualities of a site. Through careful site readings we explored the physical, social and procedural conditions of the place. In full scale we then constructed urban interventions that respond to the current conditions of the site while simultaneously setting out potential trajectories for the future.

We work from two directions and at two scales: On one hand we examine and reflect on current conditions in urban planning through theories of urban transformation. On the other hand we do practice-based work, prototyping actual urban structures.

Thus a broad strategic planning level is responded to through site-specific interventions.

We develop strategic and technical skills, and also sensitivity to the environment we engage in. Spatial knowledge becomes embedded on a much deeper level through practice than when working in a more classical representational mode through drawings and models. We must become specific and tangible with our project ideas, and we receive immediate feedback on how our interventions integrate in the local setting.

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REFSHALEØEN

INTERSUBJECTIVITY AND PHENOMENOLOGY

Refshaleøen is a landfill area in Copenhagen harbour that for more than a hundred years was home to the Burmeister & Wain Shipyard, producing ships and large diesel engines. In 1996, the shipyard went bankrupt and abandoned the vast piece of land (51 hectares) and large building structures (71,000 square metres).

It is difficult to discuss our individual experiences of space and sites, especially in a science faculty that is much more comfortable with identified methods and things that can be quantified, measured and objectified. Too often, experience is dismissed as entirely subjective and therefore unable to be productively analysed.

A property company (owned by pension funds) took over the administration of Refshaleøen, but officially nothing happened on site. The area was still zoned for shipbuilding, and was gated and locked. But still people and organisations started inhabiting parts of the island establishing artist galleries, homes, music studios, building workshops and much more.

But working in landscape architecture and urban design what we are in the end producing are spaces that others will experience. We can train and sharpen our senses to better tap into the atmospheres and spatial characteristics of the places we work so that we can create better designs that foster interesting experiences – both on a conscious and a more subtle level.

In 2009, the municipality placed Refshaleøen in the ‘provisional’ category, indicating that redevelopment and rezoning will likely be approved in 2023 or later. The property company opened the gates to allow – and encourage – temporary uses of the area. Today nearly all available space at Refshaleøen is inhabited by an interesting mix of artists, music studios, architects, designers, film studios, blacksmiths, carpenters, educational institutes, sports and recreation facilities, houseboats – and some of the most popular music festivals in the city.

“To enter into the unknown (to partake in an experiment) involves a willingness to fully experience and study things we don’t understand, and to embrace that lack of understanding.

The property company is currently negotiating a plan with the municipality to expand the range of temporary uses and site activations while the long-term development awaits.

This is the context we entered, in April 2015, wondering whether and how any of this temporary activity might impact, influence or change perceptions of the long-term development plans to come.

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There are different ways of “getting lost”. There is the literal lost, as in being lost in the woods unable to find your way back to the starting point or there are metaphorical examples of being lost: lost in one’s head, a lost soul, lost in time.

In the context of exploring we can think of it in terms of “existing in a state where you do not exactly know where you are headed”. In this sense we may choose to become either literally lost, exploring a place we have never been before, or lost in the sense that we enter into a relationship with objects and ideas without knowing what the outcome will be”.

Keri Smith from How to Be an Explorer of the World, 2008

Phenomenology, the study of the structures of experience and consciousness, provides some mechanism to handle subjective experience. Recognising that we are all perceiving beings equipped with very similar sensors and filters, phenomenology allows us to experience what it is to be a subject among subjects, and to find objective commonalities – intersubjectivity – amongst our varied individual experiences.

We used the ideas of the Situationist International as inspiration for our early site explorations. Before we knew or decided what our projects – or even assignments – would be, we spent long periods of open discovery and exploration. The drawings, maps and textual fragments in this section show some of our early discoveries and reflections from exploring Refshaleøen.

An individual – but shared – photo safari creates a structured way of detecting specific site qualities. Logbook drawing exercises sharpen our ability to look and bring recurrent themes to light. Getting lost and moving about alone, immersing ourselves completely to the experience of place, allows a deeper insight than does the functional day-to-day experience of place.

We each experience Refshaleøen differently, and yet many recurrent themes, observations and reflections arise. All our experiences and documented observations become our collective interpretation of what Refshaleøen is.

Immersing ourselves as “deep observers” applying all of our senses can help us detect qualities, ambiences and hidden meanings of a space. Our senses and our body become our most important tools, and invested time the most important method.

We experience space, and we experience ourselves experiencing that space.

Discovering sites, discovering selves Situationist International was a group of artists and intellectuals active from 1957 to 1972, peaking during the May 1968 period of civil unrest in France. Rooted in Marxism and European avant-garde art practice, they advocated experiences of life alternative to those admitted by advanced capitalism, which they felt stifled the fulfilment of human desires. For this purpose they advocated and experimented with the “construction of situations”, that is, the creation of environments or settings favourable for the fulfilment of such desires.

They began investigating what they termed psychogeography: “the study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behaviour of individuals.” Space is viewed as something not purely objective, that can be measured and calculated, but also as subjective and social. There is a meeting point of space, the self and society.

The Situationists’ preferred method for investigating psychogeography was the dérive (or drift), a long period of walking the city aimlessly, perhaps with some prescribed rules. They would “drop their usual motives for movement and action, their relations, their work and leisure activities, and let themselves be drawn by the attractions of the terrain and the encounters they find there.” There is a tension between letting oneself go, and retaining awareness of how the landscape is acting upon you – in order to report your findings and create an intervention that disrupts or draws people’s awareness to these invisible psychogeographical flows. Using this method to discover new aspects of a site or a city, you also discover new aspects of yourself.

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SIGN

SURFACE

SKY

FLOOR

DISTANT

NEAR

PHOTO SAFARI

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TRACE FRAME

TRANSITION

BARRIERS

EDGE

CROSSPOINT

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STUDENT DRAWINGS

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LIMINALITY The term liminality (from the Latin limen, meaning threshold) comes from anthropologist Arnold Van Gennep in his 1909 Rites of Passage. In tribal ceremonies, he observed a threepart structure of separation from society, transition (or liminal phase) and reintegration. These rituals result in some change to the participants, especially to their social status – for instance in a coming of age ceremony whereby children become adult members of the society. During the liminal phase, they are inbetween: they have ceased to be children but are not yet adults.

In this indeterminate phase, they “live outside their normal environment and are brought to question their self and the existing social order through a series of rituals that often involve acts of pain: the initiands come to feel nameless, spatiotemporally dislocated and socially unstructured.” Victor Turner returned to this theory in the 1960s and ‘70s, noting many similarities between tribal societies and our own Western, non-tribal

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ones. He articulated a political dimension to liminality: in such phases, one’s sense of identity dissolves to some extent, bringing about disorientation, but also the possibility of new perspectives. Turner posits that, if liminality is regarded as a time and place of withdrawal from normal modes of social action, it potentially can be seen as a period of scrutiny for central values and axioms of the culture where it occurs.

We could apply this term, and its significance, to places as well.

Refshaleøen might be seen as a liminal place: it has ceased to be what it once was, but it has yet to confirm a new identity.

This place is, perhaps like adolescents, exploring new possibilities and testing out hypothetical identities. This may be the ideal time to stage temporary urban interventions, at a moment when they can meaningfully contribute to the developing future identity of the place.

FRAGMENTS OF STUDENT FIRST IMPRESSIONS “Most of the time I felt very small because of the big buildings (with almost no windows)” “I sensed more by being silent” “I went back with a feeling of freedom and mystery - the impression of an undefined piece of urban landscape asking for a definition that will bring back sounds, smells and motion”

“There are a lot of lonely corners, hidden places and details to discover” “Relaxed (compared to Nørrebro from where I came), space, fresh air, water, vegetation popping up in the tough surroundings”

“The ground is rocks, the ground is concrete, the ground is grass, the

ground is sand, the ground is glass, the ground is chopped of pieces of

barbed wire, the ground is a shoe, the ground is hard, the ground is soft”

“Refshaleøen has its own rhythm ­and a quite different one from the rest of Copenhagen. It beats with a slow deep sound of heavy machinery and on top added by the whines of seagulls and drilling”

“It seems empty with sound echoing between large-scale warehouses, but here I sense an everyday life that in other places might drown in a busy street life” “A post-apocalyptic island, where humans were gone and nature had started its takeover” “Because of the open spaces and the large scale, wind becomes very characteristic for the area”

“An Industrial, raw and masculine place” “Lots of water, but out of reach”

“A sense that rules and laws do not really apply e.g. you can bike in the middle of the road as long as you’re aware of your surroundings” “Refshaleøen is dominated by very rough material like stones, bricks and trash which got me to search for places with just a little vegetation. We were attracted to places with some activity and we discovered how much creativity actually takes place on the island”

“You don’t need to talk to communicate” “Reusing abandoned objects opens your eyes”

“Refshaleøen is built for ships, not for humans”

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STUDENT MAPS

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LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MEETS PERFORMANCE STUDIES Landscape Architecture and urban design is concerned with the design and functions of our public outdoor spaces and landscapes. Through aesthetic and architectonic practices places are designed to respond to local situations and facilitate human uses. A public space can through its design support how people move, sit, play and interact. It can stage social behaviours and create access to the experience of our surroundings, ourselves and of each other.

In urban sites of transformation (brownfield sites), the architectural response can be social, through creating the settings for new behaviours; environmental, through addressing biological site conditions; and aesthetic, through detecting, designing with and reinterpreting the specific atmospheres and qualities of the existing.

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Performance Studies is a discipline that emerged in the 1970s at the intersection of sociology, anthropology and avant-garde creative practice (motivated by desire for social change). Performance Studies views all human behaviour as the performance of social roles, where the roles are not individual, unique and improvised, but socially constructed and maintained. The job of artists is to become aware of these social roles, including their own, and to produce artworks and interventions that draw awareness to and/or otherwise influence and subvert status quo tendencies.

These two fields come together neatly with respect to temporary urban interventions in sites of transformation. Here, the interventionists are quite literally the avant-garde: the advance actors who start to provoke change in the site, the perceptions, and the social and behavioural norms.

FOLLIES – STAGING REFSHALEØEN Folly Definitions Folly, noun 1. the state or quality of being foolish; lack of understanding or sense.

2. a foolish action, practice, idea, etc.; absurdity: the folly of performing without a rehearsal.

3. a costly and foolish undertaking; unwise investment or expenditure.

4. Architecture. a whimsical or extravagant structure built to serve as a conversation piece, lend interest to a view, commemorate a person or event, etc.: found especially in England in the 18th century.

5. follies, a theatrical revue.

6. Obsolete. wickedness; wantonness.

Word Origin and History n. early 13c., “mental weakness; unwise conduct” (in Middle English including wickedness, lewdness, madness), from Old French folie (12c.) “folly, madness, stupidity,” from fol (see fool (n.)). Sense of “costly structure considered to have shown folly in the builder” is attested from 1650s. Used since Middle English of place names, especially country estates, as a form of Old French folie in its meaning “delight.” Meaning “glamorous theatrical revue with lots of pretty girls” is from 1880, from French. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/folly

In landscape architecture a folly is a small architectural structure placed in parks and gardens as a visual marker, often with playful or mythological references. The folly is its own unique entity standing out as something specific within a larger green space; but at the same time it is something that is in a very direct dialogue with its physical surroundings, its narrative context and other follies. A folly is small but it attracts attention by embracing its surroundings and becoming the natural central point of reference.

The garden is said to be the theatre of the slow play. The green textures grow changing their expression continuously across years, seasons, and even throughout the day. The act of moving around and through a garden has also frequently been paralleled to narrative journeys where the visitor is the protagonist moving along the pathways through a living play passing narrative highlights often emphasized by a piece of architecture – a folly.

So the exploration becomes a journey moving from destination to destination towards features that are both mythological and actual, both silly and sincere. According to definition a folly is a piece of architecture without any immediate practical purpose but rather a spatial and symbolic function. Or: it is a piece of architecture with a purpose that defies any rational explanations. Rather it is there to attract, please, disrupt and play with our experience and sense of what is.

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THE ASSIGNMENT: Using the idea of the folly as point of departure we asked students to design and build a physical installation for a specific site and situation at Refshaleøen.

• What is a contemporary folly in the context of Refshaleøen?

• How can we frame the experience of the landscape of Refshaleøen and the experience of self and body (and the other) in this context?

The criteria for the Refshaleøen follies were: • The folly must be both a destination in the landscape and a place that creates a point from which to experience the surrounding landscape.

• The folly should produce a setting that people can engage in and with. It should create a meeting spot with the potential for people to connect and interact.

• Your project must also in some way engage in a local context and situation or stakeholder.

The tension Each project must strike a balance. On the one hand, we must work closely with the property owners and other local stakeholders to produce installations that are embraced by, and of value to, them. On the other hand, we are investigating and reflecting critically on this place, its current uses and its future plans – and trying through our interventions to alter people’s perceptions, disrupt complacencies and maybe influence the longer-term plans for these sites.

Playing the fool Perhaps we can reconcile this tension, in part, with the notion of “playing the fool”. The follies are, or appear to be, purposeless, decorative, there solely for a bit of delight. They are accessible, unthreatening, light-hearted – but perhaps they are just playing the fool, and gently influence the unsuspecting public, changing their opinions or perspectives on the site and its surroundings without ever seeming to be antagonistic.

At Refshaleøen the follies create destination points for people to gravitate towards. They address the human scale inviting us to pause, rest and inhabit the settings they create. In that way they bridge the relation between the very large scale of Refs­ haleøen – “built for ships” – and the scale and experience of being an embodied human in this space. The follies are attractions in the landscape; however, it is only when they are in use activated by living moving bodies that they truly come to life.

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URBAN BREAKFAST SALONS & GUESTS Throughout the course we have had discussions and conversations to expand our understandings of the site, the temporary and of working on places in transition. The idea of the breakfast salon is to create an informal yet structured format for interaction. We gather once a week combining the social act of sharing food with conversations of theories and ideas. Each week, everyone brings something to the table determined by the roll of a die: 1-2 bring bread; 3-4 bring fruit or topping; 5-6 bring coffee, milk or juice.

We have hosted a number of guests at our breakfast salons, who all brought reflections and themes to the table that we discussed and explored over a common meal. Guests included researchers, entrepreneurs, artists and landscape architects/planners, many of whom have a local connection.

Guests: Claudia Alex Laroux Claudia is an architect, working for Refshaleøens Ejendomsselskab. She was the one who welcomed us in, and brokered our access to and use of the site. Claudia is the contact person and organiser for all the events that take place at Refshaleøen and as an architect she continues to create small improving interventions in the area. She kept in contact throughout the course, not only advising us on our projects as the ideas developed, but also entering our philosophical class discussions about the design process and how to reconcile individual desires and one’s career.

Annette Skov Annette is a local artist who has been working in and from Refshaleøen for many years. Annette knows all corners and tales of the place and took our group on a tour sharing stories from when the shipyard workers were there, from the period of illicit activities when the island was off-limits, and the many changes that have transpired in the past several years. Annette’s own project establishing heath land at Refshaleøen explores the richness of vegetation as well as issues around demarcations and definitions.

Claus Hovmøller Claus is a planner, working for Refshaleøens Ejendomsselskab.

He seems to know everyone on the island, and is the main point of contact for all the users leasing spaces at Refshaleøen. Claus is driving the process with the municipality to agree upon a plan for temporary development while negotiations continue regarding the longer-term fate of the site. He described to us the official history of Refshaleøen and the ambitions of the current situation (re)creating identity through temporary uses. Claus also helped us navigate the space and users of the island.

Philip Hahn-Petersen Philip is partner in the consultant company Habitats that has its office at Refshaleøen just down the hall from our studio space.

Habitats works with and for a greater biodiversity in the urban landscape. It is more about attitude that actual design that can support a change of the city green into a “wilder”, more complex and perhaps also more sustainable condition. We discussed the ruderal self-grown natural areas of Refshaleøen and the potential of having grazing cattle on the fields.

Anna Muessig Anna is an urban planner who worked with Rebar in San Francisco, which went on to found the first office of Gehl Architects outside of Copenhagen: Gehl Studio in San Francisco, where Anna now works. Anna discussed the role her planning background plays in designing and implementing temporary interventions.

She told the story of how Rebar’s first (critical) parking project grew into a worldwide Park(ing) Day that led to a city-led parklet programme in San Francisco and now other cities as well – and the accompanying tension between success and of assimilation.

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Louise Nymann Jensen Louise is a masters student in anthropology currently doing her thesis on the people of Refshaleøen, investigating their experiences here and their multifarious understandings and opinions of the place. Like many anthropologists, Louise has “gone native”, taking an office space at Refshaleøen and becoming one of the island’s daily denizens. “It started out being about temporary uses but came to be about the many cultures and stories taking place at the island.” Refshaleøen, she said, is in many ways – physically, socially, politically – on the edge of Copenhagen.

Maria Meyenburg Distortion has been one of the most significant stakeholders and situations for our students to respond to. For two days a large section of the vast open space at Refshaleøen is transformed into a vibrant and intense music festival with more than 10.000 people participating in a hectic dance party. At the time it was hard for us all to comprehend that such a rapid transformation could take place. Maria shared with us the special conditions of planning spaces for the extreme situation and timespan of the music festival and students were given the option to integrate their follies into this context.

Anne Wagner Anne is an architect and PhD fellow at the Division of Landscape Architecture and Planning, University of Copenhagen.

Her current research considers understandings and implementations of temporary use in the context of transformation of urban space and landscapes as well as notions of public space in urban planning and landscape architecture. Anne spoke to us about many of the Interreg SEEDS project case studies on temporary use, emphasizing the many ways that temporary projects influence the longer-term besides via the formal planning processes. We must learn to see and value not only the tangible and formal influences, but also the intangible and anecdotal.

Coralie Winn Coralie is co-founder and director of Gap Filler, a creative urban regeneration initiative that generates a wide range of temporary projects, events, installations and amenities in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand – and is increasingly sought out internationally to deliver projects, work with local government urban regeneration programmes and mentor arts and community development groups. Coralie spoke to us about transitioning from an ‘activist’ grassroots organisation to one that also tries to work with governments and commercial developers to instil their community values and collaborative processes within official systems.

Anaïs Lora Anaïs was a student of this course four years ago, when the students created projects along the Køge coast as part of the ongoing harbor transformation. She was so inspired by this way of working that she founded a student organisation – Creative Roots: Collective Urbanism – to provide more opportunities for students and young graduates to work in this way. Creative Roots has now expanded into a successful company with branches in Copenhagen and Lyon, France. Anaïs discussed with us forging her own path after graduation, and the difficulty and privilege of being able to self-generate projects in public space.

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The Red Carpet Annette Klüver Andersen, Jenny Sundby, Sara Daneshyar Boudigaard Nielsen and Simon Colmorten Henriksen Our project The Red Carpet took beginning in a common curiosity towards the relation between the harbor edge of Refshaleøen and the water it lies in. The initial feeling was of an island dominated by sharp harbor edges that functioned as mere borders and not the inviting seating option related to the harbor areas in the rest of Copenhagen. Our common goal has been to soften the barrier between the island and the water. The folly has been created with an intention of mending the barrier and inviting people to experience the edge, and hopefully provoke their way of thoughts to find a way to get down closer water.

Upon first experiencing the island the enormous buildings and contrasting grass areas seemed to create always changing spaces, which provoked you experience of self to a constantly shifting between being small and big in a space. When reaching the water we found the first edge going down as a precipice ending in the harbor water far below. This is where you will find The Red Carpet.

The site The main interest in the relationship between edge and water led to us choosing two very similar spots on the harbor edge as a placement for our future folly. Both sites were placed in an inside corner in the nicks of harbor water carved into the island that were originally used for ships. The site of our main interest was close to the main offices and the people working at Refshaleøen, which would have made our folly a warmly welcomed element in an already social spot with tables, benches and a café. This was confirmed when a local employee spoke

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strongly about having one of the follies placed at this site. Unfortunately it was impossible to make a connection to the water due to practical restrictions, and we moved on to the second site. We realized that had we built our folly on this site, it would have been specifically designed for the people already using the social center of Refshaleøen, and so it would be difficult to be challenging peoples perception of the relationship between the edge and the water. The rejection took a positive turn as our second site turned out to be much more interesting to work with than the first, and so we chose to build there. We tested the special values of the site though different types of weather and tested the strength of the construction. Through testing we found the site to have both limitations and strengths for us to build upon, creatively and physically.

The site is placed in a corner by the water which emphasizes the smell of ocean, sound of the waves and the blowing of the often very strong wind. The strength of the wind decreases on the lower deck of the installation where the wind is blocked by the surrounding edge and the neighboring boat. From the edge and the deck the view towards Copenhagen is framed by the direction of the seat. Most importantly the site had a left-over construction from earlier days that was perfect for us to build upon without having to change the landscape in order to frame it.

The site had a strong feeling of being no ones place, a place of passing through, especially by the heavy industries in the area. The presence of the industries was dominant and the site was filled with scrap material left behind throughout time. We cleaned up the site to reveal grass and bushes of roses pushing

through the industry as natural elements on the site. By clearing up the site and building a folly we have changed the area from being a non-place to being the place.

The history of Refshaleøen being made for building ships is clearly visible from the shaping of the harbor edge, which seems like an ending and an abyss in contrast to the heights of the buildings on the island. In human scale you feel spatially separated from the harbor water that all around Copenhagen invites to activities and exploring the water. By making an installation that connects the edge to the water we’re breaking up the mental barrier, softening the edge and at the same time making a comment to the future development plans of Refshaleøen.

Construction The Red Carpet runs for about 10 meters, and has changed a bit during the building process by the solutions we found to the problems along the way. For aesthetic reasons we chose a staggered pattern for the wood boards that were cut to sizes of 60 and 30 cm., adding up to a total with of 120 cm. The 6 meters running on the ground was fastened into a foundation made of materials found on the site and on Refshaleøen. The last few meters running over the edges was connected with truck straps with the purpose of making the carpet seem to be rounding the edges and corners.

The concept has been developed a bit throughout the creative process, but has kept to the main idea of inviting people to get closer to the water, which would make them experience the relation between Refshaleøen and the water. The construction has a middle level, a seat halfway down towards the water, which allows for a closer interaction with the surface of the water without having to dive into the harbor.

The wood was left over materials from Junker that was picked up at a school on Amager. Using reclaimed wood made it impossible to do an even surface, so we were precise in cutting the lengths off in the same size, and mounting the wood carefully. The Red Carpet has few visual elements and a strong symbolic profile. It was very important for us to do the few the steps properly in order to make the image of the folly stand out.

The red colour makes The Red Carpet pop out as a contrast to the grey concrete buildings dominating the rough industrial island.

The Red Carpet

Negotiations and stakeholders

By choosing to build a red carpet we have been able to work with an object with a very strong symbolic value. A red carpet is in itself a symbol of temporary use and transformation. It is originally used for special events, and changes the venue for the night into something extraordinary. At these events the carpet is an invitation to arrival, leading people in the right direction. At The Red Carpet we mean to invite people to cross the edge, and thus provokes the perception of the edge as a barrier.

By meeting the barrier the visitor is provoked to consider how to access the lower seat, even if there is no intent to pursue it.

Throughout the process we have been contacting a few of the year-round habitants of Refshaleøen; Distortion, Illutron, Ejendomsselskabet Refshaleøen and the caretaker of the island.

The Program

Building a construction with the aim of making people reach the edge of Refshaleøen relies on peoples own common sense, and we have had to adjust the construction after negotiating with the owners of the area and Distortion. The original concept included a floating part of the construction, but was changed to avoid resembling a jetty.

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The Red Carpet was placed in the area that was temporarily occupied by Distortion, and even though we didn’t design it for Distortion we had an ongoing dialog about safety issues and general planning. The people behind Distortion were understandably quite busy in the weeks leading up to the festival, and so they only started relating the folly when the physical construction began appearing. In the end The Red Carpet was fenced off due to the safety issues related to drunken people and lack of visibility after dark. During Distortion we struck up a conversation with the security guards and were allowed to access the installation with a few friends, which made for a short exclusive happening on The Red Carpet.

Illutron is a collaborative art studio based on the neighboring boat, and we contacted them as we pictured them as main stakeholders. Along with the caretaker of Refshaleøen, they were helping us finding materials for the foundation of the construction.

In general we have been met with open minds and collaborative spirit by the people at Refshaleøen, and after a while we realized that sometimes its best to just get started and then involve people along the way. We found that a smile and a humble attitude goes a long way, and that we were treated the same way as we approached people. There seems to be a general attitude of holding back towards outsiders, but because the island already holds so many different creative people and installations we were quickly understood as something along those lines.

Reflections The entire process from exploring the island to finished construction has been challenging, but we’ve learned a lot along the way. It was to us a new challenge to develop and build a project to scale, and our vision of the final product would change with each new difficulty, and so the final product was not designed until the last screw was fastened. We are happy with the end product and feel that it has kept true to our original concept throughout the changes. With very few visual elements our biggest challenge construction wise was to do it well enough for it to resemble a red runner. The final installation matches the look we were hoping for, mainly because it curves over the edges and in the corner, which was made to resemble the way an actual red carpet would hug the landscape.

24 Urban Intervention Studio 2015 • The Red Carpet

While being built The Red Carpet quickly attracted the attention and curiosity of the people passing by, especially during the very visible process of painting and mounting. Many locals expressed skeptic thoughts followed by constructive commentaries, and we got the feeling of having caught their curiosity for the final installation. Our folly needed many hours of construction, both on and off site, and while this might have left fewer hours for concept development, it made us very visible and was the starting point of many conversations with locals around the island.

On the opening day we wanted people to explore the folly themselves, and hopefully experience the change in perception of where the edge is, and how far you will be able to go towards the water. The actual seating area does not hold more than a few people, and with around 100 visitors many had to wait to get closer. We found that people were naturally led

by The Red Carpet out towards the edge, and then spread out along the edge. In this way the installation didn’t only make

people explore the relationship between the edge and the water from the actual installation, it also invited people to take a look in a direction they might not have thought of, down along the edge and onto the water.

During Distortion we found that a lot of different people chose to jump the fence in order to access The Red Carpet, so often that it kept the security busy during the light hours when the folly was visible. At one point three young boys jumped the fence and attracted the security at the same time as we were taking pictures of the folly in the sunset light. In the situation we adapted security as the temporary stakeholders to our folly, talked to them, and were allowed onto The Red Carpet with a few friends. All along a photographer whom we met while taking pictures was acting as a red carpet photographer. The whole set up was fun and as one of the people who got to climb onto it said: ”It actually makes sense for a red carpet to be VIP-only”.

With that said, we hope that the folly will feel like an invitation towards the water to all visitors in the future.

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Columnscape Made by: Rasmus, Anders, Johannes, Alexander & Malthe

The site we have chosen is a piece of a large green area at the western part of Refshaleøen, but our site in particular is not a grass field like the rest of the area. The site was originally used for storing metal used for building ships. The remains are clearly visible today, since there are still traces of big concrete foundations, steel rails for the cranes to use and fragments of steel constructions attached to the surface. Since then, vegetation has begun to form its life along the gaps between the different surfaces and in the cracks of the surfaces. That results in a clash between nature and culture and the wilderness and the manmade.

This creates an evocative atmosphere, which narrates the story of the transition that Refshaleøen has gone through and still is going through. We have chosen this site because of that story and because we were drawn by the strong character of the place.

A highlight of the site and the area.

The intention with our folly is to somehow invite people to the site and let them explore the atmosphere without dictating how. The visitors should make their own impressions in their own pace, though they might not do so without the folly as an eye-catcher. For that reason, we formed our concept as a threestep scenario: Attract, interact and experience. The purpose is to attract people from a distance by titillating their curiosity, and encouraging them to interact with the folly in their own way. The folly becomes an instrument that offers new possibilities and new ways of experiencing the site.

But how do you make a design that stages the site?

Instead of highlighting the existing conditions, our idea was to create a new layer with its own set of rules and its own system, to emphasize the difference between the two layers. By elaborating the new layer, you sharpen the attention to what is new and what exists and the existing layers will therefore be pointed out.

We wanted the design of the system forming the new layer to show the existing lines on the site but most importantly lead people across the site, so the experience of the existing surfaces is amplified. In order to avoid the new layer from taking the focus from the site, the design should be easily understood.Therefore we chose to place some sort of objects in a grid, and also in the middle of the squares formed by the grid. This highlights the sites lines and leads people across the site. By creating a strict

The clash between nature and culture at the site.

pattern with a strong repetition, the new layer becomes sort of transparent to the existing layer.The objects placed on the site are all columns with a diameter from 22.5 cm to 27.5 cm. The columns are chosen because of the importance of a simple form that is repeated, as it builds on the idea of a transparent system.

Furthermore the columns do not favor any direction or angle.

The original idea was that the columns should be casted in concrete with the same diameter, but with three different heights.

Due to the budget we were forced to find another solution.

Luckily we found some discarded pipes from HOFOR, but with varying diameters and heights. The pipes were constructed with a steel pipe in the middle, a thick layer of insulating material and a layer of plastic surrounding it. This material became an essential part in our design of the columns.

The price for cutting the scrap material into size was way too high so we chose to keep their existing heights. So instead of us dictating the heights of the columns, we saw some convenience in letting the material dictate its own height. In this way the design is being shaped by the terms of the material. Since the columns have different heights, they appeal to different ways to interact and it is not dictated how they should be used. Because none of the columns are above eye level, it offers many opportunities for interaction.

The system used for the design.

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We determined the number of columns by placing traffic cones at the site in different scenarios. First we placed 18 then 25 and

On of the columns.

A principle of the different uses.

finally 32 columns. Furthermore, we had a digital 3D model to study the various options.

All the columns are completely covered with the same color to reinforce the desired continuity. They are painted in fluorescent red, which makes them stand out from the existing layer and at the same time it serves as an eye-catcher from a distance. The fluorescent paint creates an eye flickering, yet somehow very attracting experience. In addition, the color is also redolent as it is often used in industrial environments.The planners at Refshaleøen approved that we could secure 11 of the 25 columns to the ground, and obviously we chose the highest columns. The only requirement was that we did not drill in the concrete foundation, though we were allowed to drill in the remaining asphalt surfaces. Early on the idea was to spread the 11 highest columns at the site, but during the process we were informed that the site was to be used as a parking lot for an event later on. Therefore we were not allowed to secure the columns within the site. The result was to secure the 11 columns to the ground along the edge of the site and the remaining 14 were movable within the site. In that way there was created a framework where the visitors could rearrange the movable columns within.

Raw materials, tubes from HOFOR.

the straightest lines and most defined grid, the position of the columns have been located with digital laser protractor and tape measure.

All of the elements have been grinded and sanded to give it some texture. Inside the movable parts there have been casted concrete for adding some mass, so they would not tilt easily.

To mount the immovable columns, there have been drilled holes in the asphalt surfaces attached rebars and again casted concrete to strengthen the foundation. The tops of the columns have been closed with molded plywood and acrylic based sealants. The paint chosen for our columns was a fast drying white primer and a custom mixed transparent and fluorescent red coating. Combined the two layers really gave us the expression we were looking for.

In order to retain the concept of our grid system, the surface is marked with a red circle beneath six selected movable columns.

When the columns are moved the original position becomes visible by the red circles. This makes it possible to recreate the original system.

As previously mentioned our columns were defined by the tubes we acquired from HOFOR. Since this were raw material these had to be processed and adapted so the columns would obtain the expression we wanted.

The tubes have therefore been cut, grinded and painted. Since some had crooked ends and smaller tubes sticking out, they had to be leveled before placing them on the ground. To get

A column being angle grinded.

A diagram of the framework and the movable columns.

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The material after being processed.

Mounting of a tall column.

The columns were used in different ways. The smaller columns were used as seats, among other things. People moved them so it was possible to sit together in groups. The tall columns were used as tables for people standing and became in that way a gathering point. Many also climbed up on the columns, both on the tall and the low ones. This makes it easier to get an overview of the site, which was also one of the intentions for the folly. The movable columns were also used as playing mediums. They were used to jump up on and create patterns. People made their own system and so on. In that manner it was up to the users to determine the use of the columns.

All these ways of using the folly were something we expected would happen. This was somehow the intentional use. When you are creating an installation that is free of using, and where you appeal to interaction, there will also be an unintentional use. This can result in both positive and negative consequences.

We saw that during the Distortion festival. The festival’s boundary fence went across our site, where five columns were within the festival site and 20 columns were on Distortion’s scheduled safezone. The safe-zone was used for setting up fireworks. They placed the firework on our 20 columns.

A column the day after Distortion.

It was a very impressive show, which drew a lot of people to the folly. But the day after the festival the surfaces of the columns were completely stained with burn marks. Some places the firework had burned through the paint and through the wooden lid. This was not the intention and distortion had not informed that they would use our folly in that way.

Guy standing on a tall column.

A tall column being painted.

Besides that, we saw some positive usage of the columns within the festival area, as we observed a couple who chose to lay one of the removable columns down, so there was enough space for two to sit on.

Refshaleøen has been an exciting scene to operate in. A clash between culture and nature, where nature is taking over the vacant spaces created by an industrial past. Nature is allowed to grow wildly on its own terms and therefore it forms a transition between the old and the new. Refshaleøen is a place in constant motion, and that is reflecting in the temporariness of the folly.

The folly stages precisely how the site relates to the present. By creating a new layer on the site, a new identity is added without overshadowing the identity of the old layer. When the folly then one day does not exist anymore, some of the new identity will still be retained. Both in the physical sense which appears in having drilled in the asphalt and by having concrete molded, but perhaps also in the form of interaction taken place on the site. Hopefully, people have become aware of the site’s character and will still interact with the place without the presence of the columns. Perhaps the local environment forms its own objects and designs its own system? By letting the material dictate the heights and by letting some of the columns being movable, something unexpected and unintentional happens. Therefore the folly is constantly in progress, along the identity of the site.

We cannot decide what people should experience on the site, but we have created a structure for exploring the site. Thus the folly becomes an instrument to discover the potentials of the place. We have designed the foundation of the system, but for every visit the system may be changed and the appearance will change as well. How the folly is used is now out of our hands and it is now up to the visitors.

woman sitting on a movable column, and people learning on a tall column.

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Couple sharing a lying column.

A tall column being used as a table during Distortion.

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HABOUR BUS STOP

By Terese Sofie Hjorth Rasmussen, Nanna Høgsberg Kristensen, Thea Kirstine Jeppesen, Stella Kofoed og Emilia Nejatbakhsh.

The Harbour Bus Stop

Concept

Our folly-project is located at the harbour bus stop at the southwestern corner of Sønder Hoved, Refshaleøen. The folly is a floating bench mounted on a steel construction.

Our concept is based on our experience at the harbour bus stop, and what we through analysis of the site identified as problems and potentials. We wanted to focus on the experience of waiting as at times you might spend half an hour waiting for the harbour bus.

We chose our site out of five potential locations. These five locations were “love at first site” - places that we as a group felt had potential. Ultimately, we chose the harbour bus stop because of the poetic simplicity of the area, a captivating view and a rhythmic stream of people coming and going with the harbour bus. We were fascinated by the dynamic of people arriving and departing the site continuously.

While We Wait A lot of our time was spent observing and analyzing the environment, conditions and people’s behavior and thoughts at the site. What we noticed is that the people using the harbour bus would wait almost everywhere besides the actual bus stop, because there is very little to do and no established seating areas at the actual harbour bus stop.

We wanted to accommodate this apparent need by working with the site and changing it for the better. Since the site already had a distinct function, there was no need to draw people out to the folly, but rather fill the lack of purpose at the site. The challenge consisted of making people stay at the site and actively use it rather than avoid it. With this site we were given an opportunity to work with people’s behavior at the harbour bus stop.

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Our goal was to create some kind of seating that was site specific and essentially molded according to the existing environment. We also wanted the folly to be aesthetically and visually simple.

The aim was to give people the opportunity to relax and just enjoy doing nothing besides leaning back and looking at the harbour. Prior to the implementation of the bench people seemed to lack somewhere to direct their attention and would spend their time scouting for the ferry or checking their phone.

When you are on the move you often forget to notice your surroundings.

What we wanted to do is direct people’s attention towards the view of the harbour along with the inner city of Copenhagen.

So by implementing our folly into the environment we hope to see people taking a break from their busy lives, simply relaxing and enjoying the view and using their senses while they are waiting.

The finished project.

Visualization of concept.

Recreation of visualization.

Design

From idea to folly

The folly project was always meant to be temporary and this is also visible in the actual design of the bench. The bench looks like it’s floating with its steel hooks that attach it to the steel construction. This makes it easy to lift on and off and shows that it is a temporary object. We kept the design of the bench simple and matched the size, shape and the aesthetics to the environment. This was done by making custom made steel hooks that fit the angles of the steel construction and choosing a matching material for the hooks. This means that it only fits into a particular spot on the steel construction and nowhere else. The actual seat of the bench consists of two wooden pine planks that have been sanded down and were given four coats of protective oil.

When we started generating ideas for the concept of the folly our ideas were all over the place. As we spent more time working with our ideas, we slowly managed to narrow down what we wanted our folly to be which eventually resulted in our bench concept.

The bench affects where people decide to wait for the harbour bus by bringing them closer to the sea. It also works as a sort of welcome committee as it greets people arriving to the island and gives the people departing a place to wait.

The first phase consisted of generating ideas and concepts through discussions, modelling, drawing, and looking at inspirational projects.

Before we actually settled on our final concept we went through a lot of different concepts that we had to reject for a number of reasons. In the first phase we were focused on seeing all the potentials of the site and what kind of follies would suit the site. From the beginning we wanted to work with need at the site, because we found the this perspective interesting when combined with the concept of follies.

Upon closer analysis of our site and through interviews with people we met there, we got a better understanding of our case area and its users. We came to realize that the best thing we could do for the users was to give them a place to sit and a more enjoyable experience while waiting for the harbour bus.

Through conversations with both users and the captains of the harbour busses we received a lot of positive reactions to our bench idea. They all agreed that this element was definitely missing at the site. With this focus in mind we began brainstorming ideas on interesting objects to sit on.

Group picture on the bench. From left to right: Stella, Thea, Emilia, Nanna, and Terese.

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The sky is not the only limit We quickly came to realize that not all of our ideas would work due to time restraints, safety, our building skills, and considerations regarding the existing infrastructure at the area.

These limitations ended up shaping and changing our expectations and concept of the folly.

Next came figuring out how to actually build the bench which involved talking with the external project manager and resident handyman Benny how to turn our idea into a reality. We discussed our idea with a building engineer and local blacksmiths from JD-Stål whether or not our construction would be stable and safe as well as which materials they would require.

Through this process we figured out which parts we could build ourselves and which we would have to contract out to professionals. This ended up affecting which precautions we had to take for example the protective rubber layer that is meant to stop the bench from scratching the existing structure at the harbour bus stop.

Before we were allowed to start building our folly, we had to present our idea to REDA the real estate company and demonstrate that it would be safe and nonobstructive for the function of the harbour bus stop. Fortunately our idea was accepted, and we were able to continue the process of further developing the project.

The build The next task consisted of ordering and obtaining the tools and materials for the actual build. We had already determined the measurements for the metal hooks on the steel construction, but it still proved a slight challenge as it was fairly short notice for the blacksmiths to have it ready in time.

This ended up putting our process on hold for a few days as it took some time for the hooks to be made. We spent this time finding the right wooden planks for the bench’s seat, sanding down and polishing them.

After picking up the hooks we glued the protective rubber onto the back of the hooks to prevent the bench from making scratch marks on the existing steel construction. The only thing left to do was assembling the bench.

Top picture: A view of the angles of the bench and the existing steel construction.

Middle picture: The directed view the users see from the bench.

Bottom picture left: Workshopping the concept of a welcoming element at the site.

Bottom picture right: The view you see from the harbour bus when you depart and arrive.

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The welcoming feeling when people are arriving and departing from the harbour bus stop.

The bench in use by a kindergarden.

The finishing touches

Reflection

The actual assembly happened at the harbour bus stop. As we were putting the last touches on our bench people started gathering, asking questions as to our intentions and if we needed a helping hand getting it set up. At last our folly was finished and hanging exactly as we had planned it.

We are quite satisfied with our folly and have learned a lot in the process of developing and building it. Particularly, how you have to be ready to change your idea to adapt with the landowner’s decisions, and what you can realistically achieve within your limitations.

The building phase was over and we could now lean back and observe our folly in action. Right after we finished installing the bench a group of kids from a kindergarten came by to wait for the harbour bus. A woman told us “It was about time they put up a bench. It has been needed!”. The experience of seeing our creation and hard work being received so positively by these kids was the cherry on top. It was a satisfying feeling to see the finished project that we had been working on for such a long time. But it was still an ambivalent feeling to leave it there like abandoning your child on the island.

As a group we have felt the group work has been smooth sailing. What was characteristic of our work as a group is how every member took on their part and responsibility. As we look back and reflect on our choices there are of course things that we could have done differently. These things became more apparent after observing the folly in action, but despite that we are pleased with all we have accomplished and our finished project. The whole process has been a learning experience, and we will take all of this knowledge with us as we continue in our work as landscape architects.

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REMODELING CONCRETE Jenny Sundby, Annette K. Andersen, Sara Daneshyar & Simon Colmorten.

Exploring Refshaleøen.

Refshaleøen offers a completely different walking and biking experience compared to the streets of Copenhagen. There are huge spaces between the buildings, similar to a desert in scale and expression. These empty large spaces that were created for maneuvering steel plates, forming ships and large engines, now add a desolated layer to Refshaleøens identity.

Roads and local infrastructure is reminiscent of the former use of the landscape. Your movement is guided and limited by the waterfilled docks that are cut into the landscape. Finding specific addresses and buildings is difficult, inevitable detours reveal new places. Once you have passed a corner you enter a new landscape.

Barrier.

The landscape is cut by randomly placed barriers. The concrete waterfront is the most dominant one, and is the only one you can´t penetrate. The island is full of confusing fences. The infrastructure is dynamic as the rest of the island, and fences can emerge from the ground overnight, while others can disappear.

Moving around in undiscovered land.

All over the island you find tracks in the grassland and randomly placed chairs that will make you curious. The sense of private versus public is vague. The area is not guided or restricted by the common rules of society or city. If you are lucky you will find someones unique space with a more private character.

You can easily wander into somebody’s territory, and you will find out that it is the tenants that make their own laws.

Windy.

The weather seems more present the moment you enter Refshaleøen and finding shelter from especially the wind is rare.

Based on the need for shelter we picked a special place for our installation.

A folly to explore with your body.

Underneath birch canopies 1 ton plus concrete blocks is struggling towards the light. Burmeister & Wain shipyard left Refshaleøen in 1996 and since then the vegetation has gone in

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1st succession. Betula, Ulmus, and Salix have reached a height of 5 meters. They make a good shelter from wind and rain. The wild nature made the task obvious; To create staying and to make people keep on the returning to The Garden breaks.

Piles of concrete waste lying in the corners offered a foundation for seating, and we wanted to place them different in relation to the site and the landscape.

The dome of Marmorkirken showing up as a formal view between trees gave us an axis. We intentionally brought in the well known church of Copenhagen city landscape to state the qualities of being close to and yet far from the metropol.

Folly at Refshaleøen The Garden.

Reflections on working with a formal entry, a regular garden gate, ended up with letting the folly itself show the direction towards the back of the area. Between the trees the shelter is solid and offers a quiet moment.

Reflections on working with a formal entry, a regular garden gate, ended up with letting the folly itself show the direction towards the back of the area. Between the trees the shelter is solid and offers a quiet moment.

Morten Bulskov driving the tractor placed the concrete blocks in a line leading people to the back of the site and form the

axis towards Marmorkirken. His capabilities and the restricted maneuvering of the machine represented both options and limitations to our folly.

The creative process of coworking with Morten and replacing the concrete blocks was decisive for the project, and he became a part of the installation. As a gesture he went and placed a squared and special boulder as a starting point of the installation. Making broken concrete surfaces visible should encourage people to site reflections related to Refshaleøen and former landscapes.

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The neighbours.

Jane Ostermann-Petersen, artist working with sustainable living.

Renathe Todal Tande, artist working with silver jewelry and her dog Stella.

Creating an everyday situation.

We wanted to accommodate the need for shelter and stay with our folly, so we decided on a place close to Refshaleøens stakeholders, we refer to them as neighbours. There are several neighbours, from steelworkers to artists and companies related to leisure like climbing and sailing. They are all present at weekdays, and we want them to make use of The Garden for breaks. We hope they will go and explore The Garden and find new ways to use the follie.

Process.

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Opening 11. June 2015.

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NJORD Refshaleøen is Copenhagen’s deserted land, and it seems as if every element magnifies itself to have an even bigger impact on self, body and the landscape.

The wind is one such element. There is no escaping the wind, and for all of us the wind was a big part of the experience when exploring the site.

The idea was to take something very chaotic and overwhelming on the island and transform it into something delicate and peaceful, while having the fabric imitating the patterns of the wind. You can touch the fabric, feel it on your face, see the way

38 Urban Intervention Studio 2015 • Njord

it moves around you. It’s a creature that dies and awakes by the touch of the wind.

We tried to combine the moving fabric, with a construction that in its volume can relate to the human scale. On the island there is a great lack of design for the human scale with big open spaces and huge concrete walls framing the entire island.

The skeleton consists of 10 wooden poles, standing in a geometric grid with a triangle as the center and a circle framing it.

From this skeleton we attached 10 cm wide strings of chiffon fabric waving with its complementary warm colours to put a small contrast and depth to the moving patterns of the wind.

It’s a moving art piece that constantly changes and an object you can feel, touch, play with or lounge around in.

WORKING - PROCES On this project we have used a different approach to the working method. We started building a small model, as you always do as a landscape architect, but we realized that it did no justice to how the project would feel in real life. A lot of the decisions we have made has been based on visiting the site with our materials and testing how they act in the environment. To find the perfect fabric we found some branches and tied different types of fabric around them to experience the movement each material had in the wind and to see how well it would last and tolerate the great impact the impact has in delicate fabric. In a 1:1 scale we also tested whether the fabric would be better horizontally or vertically. We have been working with something so delicate and unpredictable, that required the respect of being in the exact element on the site.

We did different things to collect the needed materials. The poles are found on Refshaleøen. They were put in the graveyard of all materials and needed a bit of a transformation to be fit for our project. We removed nails, polished the surface and coated them with paint.

The fabric we found online to keep within the budget and we had to compromise on both the colors and the quality of it, to get the desired effect of tons and tons of fabric blowing in the wind.

We had a bit of help putting up the entire construction. A lot of people helped us digging the holes in the hard soil at our digging party, where we provided snacks and beer in exchange of their muscle power. We had to downsize our grid from 20 to 10 poles because we had to dig all the holes manually with shovels, even though you only could dig around 50 cm into the ground.

Created by Simone Haxholm, Maria Lehim, Veronika Haas & Amalie Okkels.

That’s another thing you discover when you have to build your own design. There are limitations such as time, money and your own skills.

To finish it all we had to put the poles in the ground with concrete. To secure them from moving too much while the concrete was drying, we had handyman Benny helping us connecting the poles with wooden planks, that would make the skeleton hold itself.

It has been a process of big compromises, and it has been a fun and more experimental, hands down approach to solving the problems we were facing along the way.

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OPENING EVENT As our installation is not an everyday element, we also wanted to create a special opening event. We hoped people would therefore feel and act differently and interact with our folly more freely.

For preparing the event we picked music, placed huge white pillows to sit and organized a special camera which could make instant pictures.

When arriving at the folly we introduced the visitors to our little experiment, in which we encouraged people to take pictures with the polaroid camera from their favourite view, or to get a picture of themselves in our folly. Furthermore they should write down their association in one word on the polaroid picture. With that experiment we wanted people to interact with our project and make them more aware of their attitude towards the surrounding landscape.

We’ve got a lot of positive feedback on our project, some people even wanted to come back another day to have a picnic in the installation.

Foto: Morten Svesson.

...AND IT GOES ON The next day, when visiting the installation, we discovered an artistic ship build of some of the leftover recycled materials that Njord was made of. Later we found out that a group of performance artists got inspired by our installation and used it for one of their performances, and therefore built the ship.

Foto: Morten Svesson.

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From the beginning on all projects were meant to be temporary, but the time one could visit Njord was especially short as it was taken down again already. This happened due to another festival having their camping area, where we placed our installation. If it is possible we will put our folly up again after the festival finishes, so that the performance artists, the Move Festival and other visitors can explore and enjoy it further on.

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View from the Edge

By Kasper Fjordgård Skjærlund, Jesper Rasmussen, Niels Hygum Nielsen, Sinan Köylü, Morten Johannes Sejersen

A mental framing. Folly of benches overlooking the city, bringing Copenhagen and Refshaleøen closer together.

The site When walking around Refshaleøen, we felt Sønderhoved had a lot of qualities we wanted to work with. Most of Refshaleøen has a very open scale, especially at Sønderhoved that’s facing the city. Here’s a big panorama view of a large part of Copenhagen. The view is very dynamic, because the area is very open so that you will instantly notice changes in weather. Also, there is activity on the water all year long. Cruise ships coming in and leaving regularly from Nordhavn and the royal ship Dannebrog is visible most of the year.

There are many contrasts in the area: near/far, nature/industry/ urban, large/small which we saw as an interesting quality about the site. Later on in the process more qualities emerged. Sounds from surrounding areas travel to Sønderhoved very easily and unhindered. We heard canons fired, classical music, and birds singing. Depending on the wind all sounds travelling from near, far and across the harbour can easily be heard.

The urban breakfast we had with Philip Hahn-Petersen from Habitats revealed that Sønderhoved is also a good place for biodiversity. He told us that a specific species of butterfly can be found there in large populations. Geese also take breaks there when migrating. And during springtime the area explodes in colours from blooming wildflowers.

So the area offers a great and dynamic view of Copenhagen, and the green area is a refreshing break from the concrete and brick dominated surroundings. However nothing invites people to go and explore and enjoy this green area. Also we found that there is missing places to sit while on Sønderhoved.

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The concept Conceptually we wanted to activate the green area, and create movement in the terrain. We focused on the dominant qualities, and wanted to include the view, the sounds and the nature. The concept changed a lot before we finally settled. With this we wanted to make different lines of sight towards the city, pointing out interesting sights. To explain what makes the specific line of sight interesting, we wanted to leave a clue for the user.

To increase the feeling of safety and shelter, we aimed at creating smaller spaces within the big open area. Unfortunately this aspect diminished as we moved further in the process due to practical difficulties. We had a lot of ideas, and it was hard to settle on which one to pursue, but we ended up wanting our folly to attract visitors, to be a gathering point and making the view the major theme.

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The design Our initial idea involved screens with windows in them, creating lines of sight. The idea evolved to include a possibility to sit and enjoy the view through the windows. The idea was to create a vista view in a place full of panoramic views. The screen or wall cuts away all the distracting elements so what we chose stood out, giving it a gallery feeling. However once we made a prototype of a screen and tested it, it didn’t give the desired effect. We decided to put symbols on the benches instead.

The symbols should work as clues and make the viewer focus on a specific spot. The window would now be generated inside the mind of the viewer, and so the screens could be discarded.

We wanted to spread the benches out in the whole area to create movement, but because of Copenhell, we placed them all together by the bank next to the volleyball courts. At this site the bank helped create shelter and a feeling of safety, and we placed the benches in an arched line to keep the movement.

When sitting on the benches, and if the grass is tall enough, the water is not visible, which brings the city closer.

The benches are all made from scrap wood we found at a dump site on Refshaleøen. We did this for practical reasons, but also because five sets of new benches wouldn’t have the Refshaleøen-look to it and they could easily be too shiny and fall out. Once the benches were assembled, we sanded down the seats and sprayed on some transparent wood preservation. The symbols were painted in a dimmed black colour to make it look like it was burned into the wood, perhaps a long time ago.

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Observations

Reflection

Along with the other students we arranged an opening event to present all the follies. At our folly we arranged for the visitors to take part in a small competition. We handed out flyers with pictures of the symbols on our benches. The task was to guess the meaning of the symbol. It turned out that almost every 50 answers were correct answers. It shows us that our symbols aren’t too hard to interpret, which is what we wanted. Besides the exhibition we have not really been observing how people are using our folly. We have met and talked to a few people who went by, and we have received some positive feedback.

So our folly is a success in the sense of people using it, but it is still too soon to make a general conclusion.

The folly works as expected in the sense that we have seen people using them. Some of them thought it was a great hangout spot. Whether or not people understand the clues we painted on, is still too soon to say. We hope the benches’ presence will make people see that Sønderhoved has a much bigger potential than just campsite for festivals. And also for the beautiful view of Copenhagen to be preserved during the plans to build houses in the area.

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Urban Intervention Studio

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Urban Intervention Studio

THE PEOPLE OF THE COURSE Bettina Lamm Ph.D. Bettina Lamm MAA is a landscape architect and associate professor at the Landscape Architecture and Planning division, University of Copenhagen. Lamm’s research addresses the interaction between the built environment and the lived life, and she has been a counsellor on architectural projects focusing on play and activity in the public realm. She studies in practice and theory how temporary interventions and art strategies can contribute to a reprogramming of the interim landscape by introducing new site readings and experiences. She was co-curator of the exhibition Urban Play where artists and architects created works that responded to Køge’s industrial harbourscape as part of a cultural transformation strategy and in the EU interreg project SEEDS the UoC group explored temporary use as a development tool for reprogramming former industrial and derelict urban spaces.

Ryan Reynolds Dr Ryan Reynolds is a freelance academic and consultant in creative practice and community engagement, working primarily with not-for-profits and local governments to establish frameworks for creative projects that provoke social change. He is a founding member and chairman of the Gap Filler Trust and the founder and strategic advisor for Life in Vacant Spaces Charitable Trust, organisations that are jointly responsible for hundreds of temporary interventions in Ryan’s hometown of Christchurch New Zealand since the devastating earthquakes of 2010 and 2011. He holds a Ph.D. from Canterbury University on contemporary strategies of political theatre, and has had teaching and research roles in Theatre and Film Studies at Canterbury; Environmental Management at Lincoln University; and Design at University of Technology Sydney.

Benny Henningsen Benny Henningsen is an artist graduated from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Art, Copenhagen in 2014. He is co-founder and one of the main drivers of the creative collaboration Bureau Detours that since 2007 has explored the intersection between urban development and contemporary art, creating projects with focus on the social public domain. Urban interventions are constructed on site offering alternative urban experiences but also critically commenting on existing predominant planning paradigms. Benny is the driver of the project Container City set at a vacant site in the Copenhagen NordVest area working in collaboration with the Municipality to activate the area. At the Urban Intervention Course Benny has supported students in bringing their visions from ideas to built structures.

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BACK COVER Group photo

URBAN INTERVENTION STUDIO 2015