Future Cities Forum Report: Nordhavn - the emerging new city of Copenhagen
Image: The growing city of Nordhavn, Copenhagen - courtesy of COBE
Future Cities Forum has been in Nordhavn, looking at the development of Copenhagen's new emerging city and speaking with developer By & Havn's Rita Justesen, Head of Planning and Urban Space. By & Havn is 55% owned by the Copenhagen Municipality and 45%% by the Danish government.
The transformation of Nordhavn (North Harbour), the largest metropolitan development in northern Europe, continues Copenhagen’s historic strategy of a step-by-step expansion into the surrounding sea, explains architectural practice, COBE.
COBE is is a Copenhagen-based architecture office founded in 2006 by architect and professor Dan Stubbergaard.
COBE describes the Nordhavn development:
'The project is conceived as an urban archipelago or a series of dense neighbourhoods on the water. Planning one island at a time, the Nordhavn master plan is not an ideal city vision, specifying every last detail, but rather a robust and flexible guideline intended to inspire future generations of urban planners. It is a way of addressing one of the great challenges of city planning: Designing for the needs and demands of today while trying to predict and address the major environmental challenges shaping our future.
'In just 40 years, this former industrial harbour will become a vibrant waterfront city providing homes for 40,000 inhabitants and workspaces for another 40,000.
'The origins of Nordhavn date back to the late 19th century, when Copenhagen expanded its harbour northward to meet the growing demands of trade and industry. The project was realised as a series of islands growing out from the city centre. In 1891, the first stage of the Free Port development was initiated.
'Following World War I, the harbour expanded further with the creation of Nordbassinet, Redmolen, and Sundmolen (the North Basin, the Roads Pier, and the Sound Pier). These areas, now being reimagined for urban life, were gradually shaped by the addition of smaller islets up until the 1930s, forming the structure that defines Nordhavn today.
'The master plan’s structural concept builds upon this historic logic of reclaimed land and water. By breaking up the harbour space into intersecting canals and basins, new islands of varying sizes are created, giving the district a clear identity rooted in its maritime past. Water becomes a defining element—both surrounding and weaving through Nordhavn—creating intimate, human-scaled neighbourhoods while preserving a connection to the sea.
'Designed as a city of soft mobility, Nordhavn prioritizes walking, cycling, and public transport over car use. The green loop, an elevated bicycle expressway, connects the individual neighbourhoods and links the area directly to the rest of Copenhagen. Across the islands, diverse urban typologies come together to form a vibrant and inclusive district. The urban grid is carefully oriented to capture sunlight and reduce wind exposure, ensuring that Nordhavn becomes a truly liveable waterfront community for generations to come.'
Image above: aerial view of Nordhavn, courtesy Cobe and below Matthew Locke. Co-founder of Future Cities Forum in Nordhavn, looking towards The Silo, one of the port district's newest buildings.
Future Cities Forum asked By & Havn's Head of Planning & Urban Space, Rita Justesen, about the importance of expanding the new city of Nordhavn into the sea, the vision for housing and mixed-use as well as the potential creation of new jobs. She said:
'The first thing to point out was that we had to move the container terminal. It was located in the middle of Nordhavn. You cannot have new urban districts so close to the container terminal. So we had to move it away. And it was a discussion as we are owned by the state and the city of Copenhagen and it was a discussion at state-level. Should it stay? Should the container terminal remain in Copenhagen? Or should they move it to some other place? And it was decided that it should remain in Copenhagen, the city of Copenhagen. But there wasn't room for it anywhere. Therefore, we had to make a new piece of land. It's also because with all the construction, the buildings under construction, the metro under construction, we have a lot of waste soil and we have to put it somewhere. So not to need to transport it over long distances. It also was decided to make this new piece of land have a depot for that waste soil. So that's why we have expanded Norhavn into the sea. The good thing is that now we can go on with our urban development. The other thing is that it's much easier for the ships to go to the new container terminal. So it will be easier and you will not have all those polluting ships in the inner part of Nordhavn.'
Rita was asked about the vision for the city and the mix of residential and commercial development:
'From the start and the start was 2007, the idea had been that in the end there will be room for 80,000 people - 40,000 of them living in Nordhavn and 40,000 workplaces. And so we have just renewed, looked into those numbers again and it's still the same. In addition the Municipality wants schools and day centres etc. All in all, it would be 10% of all the square meters. We are allowed to build 2,870,000 square meters of floor area in total. And so one tenth of that will be functions and buildings owned by the Municipality. Another 10% will be parking. And perhaps you saw that we are doing 'parking houses', not underground, but parking houses. You cannot own a parking place, you can only have a license.'.
With developers having to accommodate people's ideas for where they want to live, Rita was asked about community dialogue:
'We do a lot of workshops or open meetings and have a dialogue, both before people move in and also when they have moved in. We hear the same thing all the time, they want more green areas, they want less square meters, not for themselves, but in total. And they want more facilities for children, small children, bigger children, and we understand all that. But it also shows that we are working within legislation. And we have a legislation that is approved both by the national government and the local politicians, saying that we have to build 2.8 million square meters. So we have to build a dense city. So that's both a complaint and constraint. People tell us that they want more green areas, more blue areas, more harbour baths and all that. In that new reclaimed land, we use the poisoned soil for the container terminal, and beside that, we have put all the clean soil and that is going to be a park, a bigger green area, of 30 hectares.'
Rita was asked whether there were plans for cultural buildings and university/college facilities in Nordhavn:
'We would really like to have a part of the university or the the architecture school or anything in Nordhavn. But there aren't any plans for that as they are located in other districts of the city. We hope for, of course, we will have public schools for the children and we hope for one or two high schools. You can see that there are several newer buildings, cultural buildings. Very close to Nordhavn we have one of our historic electricity plants, which is going to be transformed into a museum for technical stuff. It's located in Northern Zealand now, but it's going to move in - not Nordhavn itself, but it's very, very close to it.'
Will the new Eastern Ring Road make a difference to Copenhagen, with all the traffic to and from Nordhavn passing the city? Rita said:
'The hope is that you could take traffic out of the medieval part of the city. There is a discussion in Denmark that if you just make it easier to go by car, then there will be more cars. So it's a huge discussion. Also, it hasn't been financed yet. It has been decided by the Government and the Parliament. But it hasn't been financed. It's meant to go to the airport, but they will make it in two steps. And the first step is through Nørreholm under the harbour and then to the eastern part of Copenhagen.'
Rita returned to the over-riding idea for the master-planning of new districts:
'Do you realize what the overall purpose for By & Havn is by developing all these new urban districts? We finance the metro and we finance the motorways. Instead of asking for more taxes from the residents of Copenhagen, because Nørreholm is a former harbour industrial area. Very, very little used. So now that we can build all these housing and office buildings, it will give us a lot of money. We, of course, have to use money to build, establish all the roads and all that. But the rest of the money goes to the city of Copenhagen to finance its part of the metro lines and their part of the motorways, etc. That I think it's a good model. But we have had that since 1992 and more and more of the local politicians think that now it's not enough. Now they want another model, but there hasn't been any decision on it.
'So we have seen a lot of changes. I think mostly that all in all, Copenhagen is much better now than it was 30, 40 years ago. At that time, at first, we lost 50,000 workplaces in industry. Factories moved out of Copenhagen and moved out of Denmark. We felt we could not compete with other cities any longer. Then in the 60s and the 70s, people got more money, so they didn't want to stay in Copenhagen when they had children, because Copenhagen was an industrial city. It was dirty. So a lot of people moved out of Copenhagen. It was students, unemployed people and old people that were living in Copenhagen and there was no money. Then in 92, it was decided to expand the airport and to build the bridge to Sweden and to start the project with the metro lines. That was the change we needed. So now it's very popular to live in Copenhagen and with investors and developers. They are very keen to be allowed to buy the building rights that we have in our areas. So it's a bit easier now than it was years ago.'
On a final note, Rita touched on the importance of bringing in cruise ships and clean energy:
'We we have made the (power) installations all for the cruise ships in three years from now, all cruise ships to be allowed to land in Copenhagen. They have to use the electricity from shore instead of using their own turbines. And we are also working on these tourist boats that are going around in the canals. We are also trying to get them to use electricity. In a few years, it would be the same if they don't shift to to electricity from shore. They will not be allowed to be here any longer.'
In further news, the engineering firm, Ramboll has published a report 'The Copenhagen Way' along with B:OXHUB and Urban Partners. It is considered to effectively sum up how Copenhagen has re-invented itself as a forward looking, sustainable city. It references the dire state of the economy in former times and the renaissance that the country has been through with the consideration that the journey could be an inspiration to other nations. It states:
'Much can be learned through using Copenhagen as an example. Just three decades ago, the Danish capital was on the verge of bankruptcy. Today, it is consistently ranked among the world’s most liveable and sustainable cities. Its transformation was not achieved through quick fixes or isolated flagship projects, but through long-term, cross-sector collaboration that treated the city as an integrated system.'
'Strategic planning, adaptive governance, and alliance-driven practice have been central to this success. Public institutions, private investors, and civic organisations worked together to regenerate the harbour, create green mobility networks, and embed climate adaptation into urban design. Pension funds helped finance infrastructure that benefits both citizens and the national economy. Utilities co-funded projects that deliver wider social value. In every case, collaboration was the catalyst for progress.
'Copenhagen’s journey proves that urban transformation can happen within a generation, and that it can create value across social, environmental, and economic dimensions. The city’s approach has made resilience tangible, measurable, and scalable. However, Copenhagen itself must continue to adapt. Housing affordability, climate pressures, and social cohesion remain pressing challenges.
'The city’s success is not a blueprint, but a living model that must evolve as conditions change. These principles are not unique to Copenhagen. They are transferable tools that can be adapted to different contexts across Europe and beyond. They show that resilience is not a single project or policy. In a nutshell, resilience is a way of thinking, a long-term commitment to designing for interconnection, adaptability, and inclusion.
'The choices made in cities today will determine Europe’s ability to remain liveable, competitive, and cohesive in the years ahead. By learning from places like Copenhagen and applying those lessons collaboratively, Europe can move from fragmentation to cohesion, from short-term fixes to long-term resilience.'
Image (below): cycle park opposite the Square Hotel in central Copenhagen near Rådhuspladsen
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