Jernbanebyen

Copenhagen, Denmark
2021–ongoing
Urbanism, Landscape

Client:
DSB Ejendomsudvikling, and Freja Ejendomme

Size:
550,000 m2

Program:
Master plan for a partially car-free city district at a former industrial railroad yard

Collaborators:
Arcgency, Urban Creators, EKJ, 103, Metropolitan Metaculture, Mark Vacher, Sandra Lori Petersen

Jernbanebyen (The Railway District) is one of the last undeveloped industrial sites of central Copenhagen. The master plan introduces car free neighborhoods where traditional streets are replaced with green urban spaces for cyclists and pedestrians. As a continuation of the site’s former function as an industrial production facility for the Danish national rail company DSB, the project aims to be a city of production. Products will be developed, produced and sold locally. The unique, heritage listed production buildings will be transformed into workshops for creative businesses and startup companies. Filled with contrasts and with creativity, the transformed historical industrial buildings and train tracks will be located side by side with green urban spaces, housing, institutions, shops, eateries, communal facilities, and cultural offerings. This new neighborhood will be the framework for a healthy urban everyday life.

Jernbanebyen before and after

Jernbanebyen will form the framework for a 35-ha urban development area where past and present merge, providing 4,500 new homes, workplaces for 8,000 people, 2 new schools, 5 new kindergartens, parks and more.

Strategy 1: A network of green urban spaces creates an overall structure and adds to its quality of life.
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The development of Jernbanebyen is guided by five robust strategies, each supporting the district’s overall plan and ensuring that its main structure and basic qualities will be maintained.

The historic central production building of the Danish national rail company DSB, located at the site.
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The green voids define a network of landscaped urban spaces that connect and lend structure to the organization of Jernbanebyen. A network of car-free streets intertwine with the urban structure, and pedestrians and cyclists will be given pride of place, and trees and greenery will be close to all homes and workplaces.

The city’s green fabric runs throughout the entire district, and the public realm is designed on the terms of soft mobility, with play streets, recreational streets, trees, and green edge zones.
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Preservation is central to the project, reusing up to 78% of the existing buildings. Existing buildings will be transformed respectfully, creating new life in the cultural heritage surroundings. As a continuation of the site’s former function as an industrial production facility, the project aims to be a city of production, creating an ideal and inspiring framework for entrepreneurs and creative businesses to thrive in and around the existing cultural heritage. The ground floor facilities will house new workshops, ensuring a vivid city district.

Covered public space beneath an existing roof structure.
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Jernbanebyen is a pilot project in C40’s Green and Thriving Neighborhoods program, recognized as a low-emission district developed around green, people-centered, and thriving urban principles.