The climate is changing, and the future holds an increase in short, but severe rainfall events. The city of Copenhagen has only begun facing some of the problems caused by these events: flooded sewers and basements and damaged buildings and roads.  It calls for a new approach and SLA is working together with The Municipality of Copenhagen towards making the Danish capital adapted to the increasing amount of heavy rainfall and cloudburst events.

SLA’s climate adaptation project St. Kjelds Square and Bryggervangen will be the first climate adapted neighbourhood in Copenhagen and the neighbourhood is the first example of efficient rainwater management combined with green, recreational urban spaces. The project strives to enhance the benefits we get from climate adaptation: the blue, the green, the health, the active and the social - Everything that makes a city worth living.

Untamed nature in the city, recreational urban spaces and visible flows of rainwater through the streets, will be the landmark of the neighbourhood of St. Kjelds and Bryggervangen. The climate adaptation project St. Kjelds Square and Bryggervangen creates a distinctive urban nature, that learns from and uses characteristic Copenhagen biotopes in the design of the stormwater solutions. 30% of the water is managed directly by the biotopes and in the event of cloudbursts, the extra water is led through pipes to the harbor of Copenhagen. The innovative, technological solutions both solve the rainwater management, but at the same time create a greener and more sensuous city. The result is a city nature that is both aesthetic and functional with maximum biodiversity and sustainability combining the green and the blue, climate adaptation and storytelling, atmosphere and citizen engagement, and improving both wildlife and city life. A city nature that gives the citizens of Copenhagen a strong, aesthetic nature feeling right on their doorstep.

The project is made in collaboration with Alectia og Jens Rørbech.