What was just a little Viking fishing village from the 10th century has turned into one of the world’s glorious design capitals constantly reinventing and galvanizing itself. The city has produced some of the world’s most famous people, including Brigitte Nielsen, Rene Redzepi of Noma fame and, of course, Hans Christian Andersen. But more recently the city is offering some of the world’s most forward-thinking designers and architects - the famed father of existentialism, the philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, would be nodding in acceptance.
The city boasts with the most Michelin stars in Scandinavia, ranks highest in most Quality of Life surveys, is eco-friendly with an swarm of bikes and wind farms all around and is relieved from the Swedish ABBA fever by rather focusing on jazz (with various prominent musicians and a yearly festival taking place in July). Copenhagen is like that, just a little more stylish than what you’d ever expect and just a hop and a skip ahead of the rest of the globe. “Intelligent people are never bored,” says architect Bjarke Ingels and on the up and up Copenhagen feeds into exactly this sentiment.
Coffee is my stimulus
In the heart of the city is Copenhagen Coffee Lab, a micro-roastery and coffee shop, where the creatives come to get their fix and collaborate on design-thinking and far beyond. “We established in 2013, because we wanted to prove to the coffee industry that there was demand for high quality coffee, and thereby also a place for a micro-roastery like ours” said co-owner Helle Jacobsen. (They also have outposts in Lisbon, and they’re equally fabulous)
“It’s a small society and everybody knows each other and respects each other for what they are doing” says Ronny Emborg, the Michelin starred chef at the famed D’Angleterre Hotel and Atera in New York as well as scribe of “The Wizard’s Cookbook.” And that is the cajole of the city of Copenhagen, the proverbial seat of cool and Europe’s answer to design yet always resting its heart on its sleeve. With a host of exciting new prospects the rejuvenation is seemingly unstoppable.
“Everything is so close, within an hour you have a celeriac that has just been picked out of the earth – right from outside Copenhagen” says Ronny. “Everything is edible and so juicy, the root, the skin, the top and the celeriac itself”. And that is the perfect antidote for the city, it’s all for intelligent consumption.
Architect du jour
Bjarke Ingels, the founder of BIG.DK, TED darling and wunderkind architect to come out of Copenhagen, opened offices in New York a few years ago and has now worked on some of the biggest design and construction projects in the world (including the Smithsonian in Washington DC and the newer 2 World Trade Center in New York) and he calls this city home. Ingles believes that “contemporary life constantly evolves and changes, not least due to the influence from multicultural exchange, global economic flows and communication technologies that all together require new ways of architectural and urban organization”. He does have a sumptuous new book from TASCHEN called Big. Formgiving, where you can indulge in all of their work.
An all-time favorite speaker at the Design Indaba conference in Cape Town, Ingels' waste treatment plant for Amagerforbraending was one of the most forward thinking projects to come out of someone’s mind, maybe ever. “It’s a new breed of waste-to-energy plant, one that is economically, environmentally, and socially profitable and situated just outside the center of Copenhagen in an industrial area,” said Ingels. The rock star architect describes the idea behind it quite simply that “instead of considering Amagerforbraending as an isolated object, we mobilize the architecture and intensify the relationship between the building and the city and thus expanding the existing activities in the area by turning the roof of the Amagerforbraending into a ski slope for the citizens of Copenhagen.”
The roof is ecological and usable all year round, upending the convention of the energy intensive indoor or alpine ski resort. Fully operational, the facility will for at least another 25 years be able to treat approximately 500,000 tons of waste annually, corresponding to approximately 10% of all residual waste in Denmark. The facility is able to supply low-carbon heat and electricity to 140,000 households in the metropolis.
Another project BIG worked on in Copenhagen is the 8 house for St Frederikslund Holding in Ørestad. “The 8 house offers homes in all its bearings for people in all of life’s stages: the young and the old, nuclear families and singles, families that grow and families that become smaller” said Ingels. The bow-shaped building creates two distinct spaces, separated by the center of the bow that hosts the communal facilities. The apartments are placed at the top while the commercial program unfolds at the base of the building. As a result, the different horizontal layers have achieved a quality of their own: “the apartments benefit from the view, sunlight and fresh air, while the office leases merge with life on the street” said Ingels.
And the design world just keeps expanding in this city. One of the most interesting developments to come out of this hotbed is Kaospilots, a “hybrid business and design school”, which has been listed in BusinessWeek and Fast Company as one of the best schools in the world. Their focus is on fostering change-makers and in the end what the world wants most: responsible entrepreneurs. Although starting in Aarhus, Denmark's second-largest city, the pilots now spread their knowledge across the capital with both students and projects. One Copenhagen based project that spurred out of Kaospilots is Unfair Fashion (www.unfairfashion.dk), an initiative established to provide upcoming Nordic fashion designers with a creative and encouraging platform. And it doesn’t stop here; there are Creative Leadership projects in Cape Town and Mexico City taking place right now that could develop into anything progressive at this point.
Most importantly is to hit the streets of Copenhagen to see the thousands of design stores, fashion-forward dressers and understand the essence of design here – it’s infused in every moment. The art of living is celebrated by curating and carefully paring one’s entire world – slowly and meticulously. Street photographer Søren Jepsen’s “The Locals” (thelocals.dk) is worth following to gain some well-deserved style scoops.
Where to stay
Located right on the famous ancient Kongens Nytorv Square, the regal Hotel D’Angleterre is dubbed the “White Lady” with guests like Grace Kelly and Alfred Hitchcock. The most famous hotel in town, established in 1755, has recently had its face lift. Now the swank suites are massive all in berry hues, modern technology like Bang & Olufsen TVs and completed with a mélange of plush fabrics. The bathrooms are set in marble with baths and showers for two. If you ask with a smile, you can even have a room with a balcony overlooking the old city.
The downstairs bar, a shiny and inviting Balthazar, is where the city’s sexiest congregate – from blondes to blondes all to indulge in some caviar and champagne. And then of course you can migrate to the restaurant, with its Michelin chef, where you can have Nordic favorites like fried pigeon with a mystery sauce – with a puissant elderberry sorbet to end off the day.
How to get there
SAS offers daily flights to Copenhagen via New York. With real Italian espresso in the sky, new fully flat beds and WIFI available SAS business class is a perfect choice to get to Denmark. Even the bedding comes from Hästens, the finest in the world. To book visit flysas.com.
Chef Ronny Emborg, who believes that “nothing great is created suddenly”, answers some questions about his city and the various facets that tie it all together:
What is it that makes you love Copenhagen?
Everybody in the food culture is inspiring each other and pushes the industry forward. But actually at the moment every culture is getting explored here not just the food, the coffee (with places like Coffee Collective), the beers (the brand Mikkeler,) the farmers (like Kisselgarden and Søren Wiuff) and so much more.
What gives Copenhagen’s food its sterling reputation?
The freshness and lightness of the food, you can eat 25 courses and still feel light and leave the restaurant with a good feeling in your stomach. The brightness and the colorful food is what makes it all so appetizing when you look at it. You know Danish design all looks very simple, but there is a lot of thought and a whole lot of hard work behind it all.
To read more about Bjarke Ingels, and his BIG brand, follow him on Twitter @BjarkeIngels or visit the cheeky website big.dk. For Ronny Emborg and the hotel D’Angleterre visit ronnyemborg.dk or dangleterre.com.