Copenhagen’s Carlsberg City District Is A New Reason To Visit The City

One reason to be impressed with Copenhagen’s evolving Carlsberg City District is that you don’t notice that you’re entering it. Sure, it’s a big new neighborhood, with plenty of vibrancy for visitors and quality of life for residents on land that had been off-limits. But at the same time, it feels like it’s always been there, its boundaries feel porous (even though they’re clear), and there’s a sense that it’s all evolved slowly and organically.

It’s an example of a new approach to urban planning and livable cities—Istanbul’s Galataport neighborhood is another good representation—that’s also making cities more appealing to tourists. There’s only so much of the fairy-tale beauty of historic city centers and the glee of old-timey amusement parks that a person can take in. It’s often more satisfying to meet a city where it is today.

The Carlsberg City District is between Frederiksberg, Valby and Vesterbro, now central in the city but until recently, a closed industrial site. When the Carlsberg brewing company, which was founded on the site in 1847, decided to move its operations to another facility in 2008, the urban planners got to work.

They worked quickly. In 2009 the architectural firm Entasis won an award for the World’s Best Master Plan. The judges wrote, “A strong vision to create inclusiveness—experientially, culturally, socially, economically and architecturally—is at the core of creating a dense urban proposal that aims for a high international quality in urban development—with a focus on human experiences across three dimensions…. [The] entire judging committee believes [it] can pave the way for a vibrant and dynamic city.”

One of them is Peter Bur Andersen, a partner and creative director at the architectural firm BRIQ. He has a guiding hand in the new food and retail components of the development, keeps his company’s offices there, lives in one of the residential buildings and is a regular at Coffee Collective, a social enterprise café whose founder won the Danish Barista Championship some years ago. Andersen’s wife also opened a second outpost of her interior design consultancy, File Under Pop Color Lab, in the district a few weeks ago.

While Andersen is rightly proud that the neighborhood will have 10,000 new apartments, some with rents that are in line with the rest of the city and others set aside as student and social housing. (Nearly every city in the world is struggling with a housing crisis, it seems.) The district is also home to 25 urban spaces like parks and gardens.

Those are very clear benefits for Copenhageners, of course, but what’s interesting for visitors is its mix of contemporary and historic architecture—even the four elephant statues that appear to carry the brewery on their shoulders. Companies like Accenture and Boston Consulting are moving into the sleek towers, while the super-stylish boutique hotel Ottilia occupies former warehouses, where the mix of old and new is on full display. As Andersen says, “We’ve added soul.”

They’re also adding some very fine shopping, a mix of the accessible and the high-end. Among them: the first-ever flagship of the Danish furniture company PP Møbler and the exuberant workshop-boutique of Henrik Vibskov, the fashion brand that, says Bur, is the most famous designer in Europe right now.

And then there are the restaurants. Surt has the clearest connection to the district’s beery history as its main product—pizza—also uses yeast. Italian pizzaiolo Giuseppe Oliva uses sourdough made with ancient grain varieties as a base for classic marinara and margherita pies, as well as more locally inspired combinations, like one with Hindsholm pork sausage, buffalo mozzarella, spring onion, fermented chili and 33-month-aged Parmigiano Reggiano.

There’s also an outpost of Copenhagen’s famous smørrebrød joint Aamanns, the popular Gasoline Grill (which Andersen says serves world-famous burgers), the fine-dining Studio, and the new Slurp x Kona, a second location of the popular ramen joint by an ex-Noma chef who trained in Japan.

Unlike the original, this Slurp takes reservations—another way the Carlsberg City District is making Copenhagen a little bit more livable.