Three ideas (about child-rearing) worth stealing from the Danes

So this subject is a little outside the bounds of stuff I have been posting about ( architecture, food, museums in Denmark), but I have reared a few children, so I feel like I have a bit of authority here. And while few other countries can aspire to the social contract that allows new parents 52 weeks of family leave* and generously subsidized daycare for children ages 0-6**, here are three simple, replicable ideas that even poorer nations can borrow.

"Time to sleep" TV
 In 2009 Danmarks Radio launched its kids-only channel, Rama Sjang, and made two interesting decisions. First, they decided not to broadcast its regular fare of cartoons and kiddie TV shows during the hours when children should be sleeping. And second, instead of playing 'dead air' during sleeping hours, they instead produced and broadcast footage of people sleeping.

So if you turn on Rama Sjang between the hours 8:30PM and 6AM on weekdays and 9 or 9:30PM to 6AM on weekends, you will only see footage of someone sleeping, and hear the sound of the clock ticking, maybe some snoring, and occasionally some farting. There is text to indicate "We are sleeping now, see you tomorrow morning" and how many hours and minutes until 6AM. The sleepers range from puppet characters that appear in their daytime shows to professional actors to celebrity Danes -  like football players, news broadcasters and politicians. In the summer, the sleepers are outside - in tents, under the stars, or in trees. You can also listen to just the soundtrack of ticking, snoring and farting sleepers on DanmarksRadio.

See, for example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFnp1zesa9I

Suttentraer/ Pacifier trees
Both of my kids used pacifiers and getting them to give them up was a horror show. So I was interested to learn about the tradition of Pacifier Trees here in Denmark.

At age 3, children are encouraged to donate their pacifier (sut) to the Suttentrae. Parents bring their kids to the tree, maybe attach a note to it, tie it up alongside the hundreds of others pacifiers, and wave good-bye. Some kids then get a replacement gift, like a toy or something that doesn;t go in your mouth.

The most famous of these trees is in the big park in the Fredericksberg section of Copenhagen. This picture is from a smaller tree near the playground in Faelledparken, in the Osterbro section of Copenhagen.

Pacifier tree in Faelledparken, Copenhagen

Apparently, there is a Pacifier tree somewhere in Brooklyn, NY, so I guess the idea is catching on.

Snowsuits and rainsuits:
There's a great L.L. Bean commercial where a family dressed in snowsuits is playing on a beach in winter; the tagline is "There's no such thing as the wrong weather, just the wrong clothing."

That's the basic idea for childrens' wardrobes here in Denmark, where the weather could be better. Every child from 0 to 10 years has both a regnsaet/rain set (rubber pants with suspenders, raincoat and rubber boots) and a full-length flyverdragt/ snowsuit with a hood and long pants with stirrups. The dragter come in winter and non-winter weights. When our daughter was in a Danish nursery school, we were told to buy these two items; it was not just a suggestion.

Nursery schoolers in snowsuits on Gothersgade after a field trip to the Danish Film Institute, Copenhagen

And the result is, kids are comfortable and are able to play more freely. The nursery schools and day institutions for children bring the kids out everyday, regardless of weather. On any weekday, you will see kids bundled up in rows of extra-capacity strollers, or walking along in rows holding hands on the street. They go everywhere - to parks, museums, the library, to Parliament, businesses - you name it. Here on Nyhavn, they come to visit the wooden ships owned by the National Museum. I have seen kids getting a tour at the grocery store. I have also seen a class of four-year olds in snowsuits on the Metro with sandpails get out at the beach stop - in November.

Kids in snowsuits enjoying a winter picnic in Kongens Have ( the King's Garden), Copenhagen

Kids also play much harder, because they're dressed for it. They slide down hills on their butts, climb trees, sit in the dirt and stomp through puddles. In Vesterbro, near Kodbyen, we saw two boys in rainsuits riding their bikes through a public fountain and about four inches of water. It looked like the most fun thing in the world. On a very slushy day last week, I saw a dad walking down a shopping street with his snowsuited kid, who was happily splashing through the side gutter. I wasn't the only passerby smiling at the sight.

If one purpose of play is to learn about your environment - what it feels like and sounds like, what is soft and what is hard, how some ice is thin and some ice is thick - then it certainly helps to be properly dressed for that exploration. It also helps if your teachers not only allow you to explore the world with your body, but encourage it.

To this last point (although it is sort of tangential to the snowsuit argument), I recently saw a group a middle-school aged kids on a field trip to Castellet. When they left the fort there was a nice grassy rampart, and the teachers basically told them - "OK, go run around now before we get back on the bus." Which is just about the last thing a teacher would say at the end of any field trip I have ever been on or chaperoned in the US. But it was exactly the right thing to do. The kids got some exercise and burnt off some steam, and the teachers got a group of kids who were better prepared to sit down for a while and learn something.

Danish schoolkids burning off steam at Castellet.

*18 weeks for the mom, 2 weeks for the dad, and the rest as they see fit
**all parents pay, but not more than 25% of the actual costs

Museums in Greater Copenhagen (including Bornholm) - Part 2

OK, so maybe Bornholm is not part of greater Copenhagen. But I did go there and I did see an amazing .museum, so I'm gonna play it a little bit loose with Danish geography.

Bornholms Kunstmuseum, Gudhjem (http://www.bornholms-kunstmuseum.dk)

Only 41,000 people live on the small and exceedingly charming island of Bornholm, which sits in the Baltic off the Swedish coast but is officially part of Denmark. Now that I am denizen of the booming metropolis of Copenhagen, I had to admit my expectations were pretty low going into a small musuem on this tiny island. Dashed expectations are the best.

The beautifully designed and situated Bornholm Art Museum

Designed by Danish architects Johan Fogh and Per Folner, the museum unfolds along a bright central corridor and follows the downward path of the hillside. On the top floor, older paintings by Bornholm artists are hung in small rooms with colorful walls and small pocket windows framing the views out to the coastline and the long-horned yaks in the field. The lower galleries featured a European Art Glass exhibition the day we were there. From the looks of their previous catalogues, decorative arts seems to be a pretty constant feature here. Bornholm has a strong craft tradition, so this makes a lot of sense.

Contemporary glass by a Danish artist - my apologies for not writing down his/her name.

The lowermost floor ( with windows, so basement is the wrong word) led outside to a viewing platform, and featured a softly lit works-on-paper gallery with a rippled ceiling and an additional gallery for the permanent collection of decorative arts.

Rare opportunity to use the Danish word "gangbro" for this ramp to the viewing platform.

The battery light on my camera was screaming at me, but luckily held out for one last view of the amazing glass exhibition at Bornholms Kunstmuseum.

Contemporary glass installation by a Swedish artist- ditto my apologies for not getting the artist's name.

 Arken Museum of Modern Art, Ishoj (http://www.arken.dk/)
 Arken is another stunning modern building on a dramatic seaside spot, on the Koge Bay in the dunes of Ishoj, a southern suburb of Copenhagen. Arken opened in 1996 and the design, by Soren Robert Lund, is meant to, and does, suggest a long, lean ship foundered in the dunes.

Arken,  on a day with beautiful clouds and a beautiful Danish visitor (my sister-in-law).

I remember visiting Arken soon after it had opened and feeling like the collection didn't live up to the promise of the building, but that is no longer the case. The first major gallery has an amazingly strong collection of Damien Hirst pieces, one of which was commissioned for Arken.

Damien Hirst room at Arken

The following gallery had a small but extremely select group of sculpture, paintings and installation pieces by British, American and Scandinavian artists. Someone has clearly done a good job of meeting important Danish collectors; the development director on me noticed some repeat credit lines from room to room.

The big show this fall at Arken is "India: Art Now"  and is a remarkable selection of contemporary work from India, alongside a gorgeously arranged exhibition of Indian fashion. From what I have heard and read, the show is somewhat political as there is a great deal of tension now between Denmark and India over a very complicated court case involving an un-rendered defendant on Danish soil. Hard to say what the show, and the complementary program of Indian-made independent films at the Danish Film Institute, will do to soften the situation. But I came away with a greater appreciation for the contemporary art and fashion scene in India. So I can only assume that others did, too.

India: Fashion Now exhibition at Arken

The Indian show ends in January 2013, and I'm not sure what's coming up next, but I'm definitely coming back to eat in this beautiful dining room.

Sun-filled dining room at Arken overlooking Koge Bay

Thorvaldsens Museum, Copenhagen (http://www.thorvaldsensmuseum.dk/)
And now for something completely different, old art in an old building.

Thorvaldsens Museum in central Copenhagen

Bertel Thorvaldsen ( 1770-1844) was a Danish sculptor in the Neoclassical tradition who spent most of his professional life in Rome, where he enjoyed commissions for portrait and architectural sculpture throughout Europe. After his death, the contents of his studio came back to Copenhagen, including plaster casts for all his important commissions, myriad marble statues and friezes, his personal collection of ancient Roman coins and seals, and his furnishings, which included paintings by Danish and European artists of the day. A special museum was purpose-built to house all of these items and opened in 1848. The sides of the building are decorated with scenes of his collection being unloaded from ships and unearthed from crates.

Decorations on the outside walls of the Thorvaldsens Museum

The Thorvaldsens Museum occupies a prime piece of real estate in central Copenhagen, right next to Christiansborg Palace (the Parliament), and looks out on a broad public square (Bertel Thorvaldsens Plads, not coincidentally) across form Gammel Strand. It is frankly remarkable to me that this fixed collection museum dedicated to the work of an artist that few people outside of Denmark have ever heard of, still occupies this central location. But it is a wonderful place and I'm glad that the Danes aren't like the Americans, who tear stuff down the minute it becomes unfashionable.

The Thorvaldsens Museum has also kept itself relevant by integrating modern pieces into its display, and by hosting outdoor performances and light shows on its interesting facade. In 2012, the museum has held a series of exhibitions which place modern furniture and Danish design in among the galleries.

Galleries at Thorvaldsens with contemporary furniture

I wouldn't say that Thorvaldsen's art is my all-time favorite. Too many sober portraits, putti, robed and unrobed goddesses for most of us, although he does get a little crazy with the satyrs and other hybrids. But the collection gives a great overview of classical mythology, as it was presented to early 19th-century viewers.

And, in what is fast becoming the theme of this blogpost, the museum building itself is worth the trip. Each room in the Thorvaldsens has delicately plastered and painted ceilings ( same designer as the Carlsberg Glyptotek), marble mosaic floors and richly painted walls in dark green, maroon, gold, cream and deep blue.

And.....Kanal Cafeen is right around the corner.

Richly decorated ceiling at the Thorvaldsens Museum

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KULTURNATTEN!: Culture Night in Copenhagen

October 12th was Kulturnatten in Copenhagen - the 20th year that some 250 museums. theaters, libraries, churches, clubs and select businesses across the city have opened their doors to public from 5PM to midnight (or later).  Admission is 90 Danish crowns ( or $15.83 at today's exchange rate) for adults, and free for children. For that price you get a button to wear, a 96 page brochure describing the 970 different "experiences" offered within greater Copenhagen, and a ticket to use until the end of the month for free admission at certain participating museums. Also a free ride on all forms of public transportation all night - even if you are travelling from well outside the city. (In English, see http://www.kulturnatten.dk/en/culture-night)

Kulturnatten is held on the Friday evening before the fall break for all school students, so it kicks off a  week of family activities in town and is terrific advertising for all the amazing museums and cultural sites in Copenhagen.

Fifteen years ago, we had a memorable time with our (then small) children on Kulturnatten, so knew to plan around it. An artist friend from the US was invited to come on that specific weekend, and I read through most of the brochure to come up with a good walking plan. There is so much in central Copenhagen, especially around the Parliament and City Hall, that I have to admit just glancing over the offerings in non-central neighborhoods. Nonetheless, I think we did an admirable job.

Here is what we did, with some asides on things we didn't do.

Copenhagen sky on Kulturnatten 2012, as seen from the Opera House.

It was a cold but dry night with an amazing sky full of cirrus clouds. We took the harbor bus from Nyhavn over to the Opera House at around 4:30, just to get around to the other side of the harbor in a fun way. We peeked into to the windows at the mammoth chandeliers, but did not attend the "sing with the stars" events hosted later on at the Opera House.

From the Opera House, we walked over to the Royal Danish Art Academy/ Schools for Architecture, design and Conservation, and saw an amazing collection of advanced student projects laid out in a big salon, with kids' workshop tables in an adjacent room. I have stopped in here a few times over the years, and there is always high-quality works on view. Memorable displays this time included: a grid of ceramic mushrooms with glaze experiments adorning the hoods; an elegant glass with a wooden bowl fitted to its bottom, forming a sleeve for hot drinks or a bowl for peanuts if you put something else in the glass; a colorful sofa whose modular pillows could be reassembled a dozen ways to make a dozen different sofas; and a remarkable fashion collection that seemed to be made of cut and cleverly braided combinations of industrial fabrics and silk.

Next up was a boat tour of new architecture on the harbor, hosted by the Danish Architecture Center (DAC). The tour was in Danish, so the instruction was lost on my friend, but it was a beautiful time of day (6PM) to see the buildings as the lights came on as well as the many other boats on the harbor.

DAC Harbor tour with Bryggebro (bridge) and Allerhuset (R) lit up.

One activity we witnessed from the boat was "winter bathing" at the Harbor Baths in Islands Brygge - that is, folks in bikinis and bathing suits jumping into the harbor water from a floating dock. Mind you, it was probably 45 degrees at this point and the water was considerably colder, so this was an offering we did not do. Even though it apparently included a sauna.

Once back, we toured the excellent architectural model show in the DAC gallery and took in the related family art projects upstairs. Kids and their parents were building models from dry reeds and pipe-cleaners, cutting bicycle inner tubes and tying them into a webbed city, and building towers with oblong clay bricks and cedar blocks.

Creative kids' activities at DAC, Kulturnatten 2012

After DAC, we walked across the bridge from Christianhavn into the Slotsholmen section of the city which by now was abuzz with bonfires and live music and light shows playing on the facades of many buildings. Right away a pair of friendly greeters invited us into the building(s) housing the Ministries of the Environment, Foodstuffs, Land-use and Fisheries ( which had not been on the list), but which had really interesting informational displays. One display was about how many resources are expended to produce 1 kg of different foods; rice is easy on the planet, butter not so easy. Of particular note was a set of photos showing families from countries around the world - USA, Germany, Egypt, Japan, Peru - posed in front of one week's worth of food. The American family had pizzas and frozen Hot Pockets and all manner of bad food arrayed before them, and we took objection to it, which seemed to amuse some of our Danish co-viewers. Also at this stop we got big colorful bags with partitions for sorting recycling for FREE!

Next up we kinda wandered around the Stock Exchange and Parliament Buildings, where there were all sorts of medieval-style cloth tents selling beer and wine and hearty food. There were long lines to get into Borsen, the old Stock Exchange building with the dragon tail spire, and the longest line was to get into Parliament, where apparently the politicians were on hand to meet and greet. These are things we did not do, Although my Danish husband committed a chunk of his evening waiting on line for tour of the Finance Ministry, which is housed in the oldest administrative building in the city (1715-21) and only open to the public on Kulutrnatten.

Bonfire and culture-hounds on Slotsholmen

What we did do was to drop in on the Tojhusmuseet (Military Museum), which was in between jousting exhibitions, but still a good spot to buy a miniature trebuchet. (Such a great word and perfect for launching small objects over your carrel walls and onto your co-workers). Also checked out the Royal Stables and said hi to the majestic grey Czech horses that pull the royal carriages on ceremonial events. The stalls are built with real marble and faux marbre pillars. Some of the carriages were on view as well, and we saw young women soldiers shovelling royal horse manure.

Royal Stables at Christiansborg 

By now, we were in need of serious refreshment, so we made a serious stop at Kanalcafeen for Danish smorrebrod, beer and snaps. This is a classic cellar restaurant where a lot of politicians meet and greet (and leave a picture on the wall). I have been wanting to visit this restaurant since Sarah Lund ate here in the first season the Danish TV series, the Killing (Forbrydelsen).

Fortified, we pushed on to the National Museum, where a Plains Indian Pow Wow was in progress. Again, I felt slightly embarassed about how Americans are presented to Danish society. I'm pretty sure that a real pow wow is a very serious and sacred thing. There were many 20 "Indians" in full regalia pulling visitors into a dance ring, but maybe 2-3 looked like they had any Indian blood and the rest looked like the type of folks who are into Civil War enactments and volunteer to dress in colonial garb at your local historical society. All fine activities, but not enough to hold us for long on Kulturnatten.

Pow Wow in the foyer of the National Museum

Next up was the Danish Design Center, which was totally packed and between sets of live jazz music. It was too confusing a scene to look at the exhibition, but I did get a bargain (just 50 kroner!) on a really good book about Danish architect and designer Arne Jacobsen, and a few more of their free postcards.

We proceeded through the busy, music-filled streets to the Copenhagen Firestation, which is a very interesting old building that looks like a medieval Italian fortress. In the courtyard, they had firetrucks and equipment on view. Little boys were sitting behind the wheels of the big trucks while their dads checked out the cool tools and chatted up the firemen.

And on to Copenhagen Cityhall, where the floor of the grand salon was covered with an enormous Tyvek aerial map of the city. As we walked in, friendly greeters gave us a little red sticker that read "We live here" and we searched the map to find our street. This was a fun way to look at the city and involved a lot of bumping into all the other people who were walking around with their heads down.

Oversized aerial map of Copenhagen and my sneakers.

All around the perimeter of the room there were booths set up for all the different offices that make up the Copenhagen Municipality. The Copenhagen Cykel Forbund  was giving out bicycle route maps of the city. Also stopped at the booth for the city's parks, where I got a map of all the playgrounds in the city.

We made one last stop at the little gift shop just inside the door of City Hall, where we had earlier picked up free gift paper with the logo of the city. This place is a real find and has very inexpensive and well-designed wares like messenger bags and umbrellas and water bottles with the city logo. Also free maps and tourist info.

It was getting on 11:30 so we headed out for one last stop at Rundetaarn. For some reason, I decided against walking down the main pedestrian street, Stroget, and chose instead the roughly parallel street, Studiestraede. Here my friend got a full view of Copenhagen youth standing in line for bars while barfing into the shrubbery and picking fights with each other. Not a pretty sight for a mom like me, whose just-turned-18-years-old daughter was at large in the city that evening, but a memorable scene nonetheless. We did not select any bars along this route for our last beer of the evening.

By the time we got to Rundetaarn they were just closing the doors, but our final eyeful of Kulturnatten was the wonderful lightshow playing on the walls of the observatory. This picture doesn't do it justice, but you will have to take my word for it that it was on a par with the evening as a whole.

Light show on the walls of Rundetaarn,  Christian IV's observatory tower.

Museums in Greater Copenhagen - Part 1

I'm a huge fan of museums of all stripes, and Copenhagen has a wealth of great collections for someone like myself, who is pretty much a full-time tourist at the moment. Having worked in art museums, I'm always interested in the practicalities - like label placement, lighting, text length and how they acknowledge and ask for donations. For this account, however, I want to focus on the take-away, or mini-epiphanies in my museum visits. If I learn one interesting thing, or have a brain tremor in front of an amazing work of art, then the visit was worth the time and admission price.

So rather than passing along a more thorough review of all my greater Copenhagen museum visits - when most of these institutions have great websites with professional photos - I thought I'd just pass along basic info and my take-away impressions - such as they are. Also, since I visit museums pretty much on a weekly basis, this installment is Part 1, and just mentions four museums - in no particular order.

Louisiana Museum of Art, Humlebaek (http://www.louisiana.dk)
Even if you didn't go inside and just walked around the grounds of the Louisiana, it'd be worth the train ride from Copenhagen. The former private home is on a bluff overlooking the Oresund, and the lawns are dotted with monumental sculptures by Henry Moore, Alexander Calder, Jean Dubuffet and others. I love the shade garden with whimsical carved stone faces and funny little people by Danish artist Henry Heerup.

Calder "stabile" on the grounds of the Louisiana, Sweden in the background

The permanent collection is amazing, but the highlight for me this fall was a major exhibition about contemporary Nordic architecture. I learned more about projects I have already seen in Denmark, and lengthened my list of buildings to see before I leave.

Major takeaway: In a wonderful short film about architecture and urban life, the narrator convincingly argues that a successful city makes great use of the spaces in between the buildings to create a vibrant street life. The projects he cited included the pedestrian-ization of Broadway in Manhattan and a score of small projects which make great use of alleyways in the city of Melbourne, Australia (World's Most Livable City, 2012).

Kobenhavns Bymuseum/ Copenhagen City Museum, ( http://www.copenhagen.dk )
Besides having what must be the most-coveted web address in town, the Bymuseum has an interesting mix of changing and permanent installations. The museum sits on Vesterbrogade, behind a small scale replica of the city from the 12th century and in among some of the city' most creative new restaurants and boutiques. They also run historical walking tours around town, some in English. Admission is free on Fridays.

A long-term exhibition about immigration and the city begins with a poignant display of what a handful of individuals brought with them in their suitcase when they first moved to Copenhagen, and ends with a thoughtful short film about the Muslim minority in the Norrebro section of town.

What I learned: The king invited Dutch farmers to settle on the flat marshy island of Amager, just south of the city, in order to improve the supply of fresh fruits and vegetables to Copenhagen Apparently, the Dutch were well-known for growing high quality vegetables. In the 1970s, a community of Romany also settled on Amager and was ultimately forced out of the vicinity by police.

Danish Design Center (http://www.ddc.dk/)
When this first opened in 2000, I thought it was a bit unnecessary, given the encyclopedic collection of Danish arts and crafts on view at the Dansk Kunstindustrimuseet on Bredgade (sure to turn up in a later post). But I was mistaken about the purpose of the Design Center. There is a concise overview of 20th Danish design in the basement, with a lot of the same type of items (Lego, Arne Jacobsen chairs, Bang & Olufsen stereos) that you might find at the Kunstindustrimusset. It is in the changing exhibitions upstairs, however, that the Design Center keeps the dialogue about good design in Denmark and elsewhere going.

This summer, for example, there was an amazing exhibition about new materials - used in buildings, clothing, commerce, etc.- that address sustainability in some way. There are wall coverings made from recycled materials, or organic materials like fish scales that are otherwise dumped in processing. There were jeans made from fabric that actually cleans the air when the wearer walks around in them, and biodegradable funeral caskets made from densely packed recycled paper. The current show highlights winners of the annual Danish Design Awards - including the wonderful Tower Playground I mentioned in an earlier blog.

The Design Center is right across the street from Tivoli and the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek Museum in a beautiful building designed by architect Henning Larsen (same firm that designed the Copenhagen Opera House), and has a gift shop with many cool design products and FREE postcards.

Free postcards from International Design prizes at the
Danish Design Center

Takeaway: The reason to buy clothing made from organic cotton and organic dyes is not just so you can feel good about the manufacturing process. When it stops being part of your wardrobe, it will degrade harmlessly - without leaving fibers and dyes in the soil that don't belong there.

Orlogsmuseet,  (http://www.orlogsmuseet.dk/)
Orlogsmuseet translates to the National Defense Historical Museum, which makes it sound like the most boring place in the world - but it totally is not! I would never have come here if I hadn't just read Carsten Jensen's wonderful novel, "We, the Drowned," which describes the maritime culture of the Danish town of Marstal on the island of Aero over a 100 year period. So I was primed to learn more about the maritime history of Denmark.

The Orlogmuseet in the Christianshavn neighborhood of Copenhagen

The Orlogsmuseet focuses on the history of the Danish Navy, (there is a merchant maritime history museum being built in Helsingor right now), and tells the tale through one of the world's largest collections of ship models. Some of the models date back to the 17th century; King Christian IV collected them and commissioned the building of many ships during his reign. Probably everyone knew but me, but ship models are built for patrons of ships, as a guide for those who ultimately build the ships, and enjoy an after-life in naval academies, where cadets practice proper rigging on models. Also on view is the royal barge - a huge and beautifully appointed 18th rowboat for ten oars which the king used to visit ships in the harbor. Admission is free on Wednesdays.

What I learned: Figureheads - the carved figures on the bow of a ship, like the one in the photo above - helped illiterate sailors identify a ship, and hid a little seat that hung out over the waves for sailors at sea to empty their bowels.

How Cool is Copenhagen: Playgrounds for all ages

Even on our first stay in Copenhagen (fifteen years ago), I noticed that Danish playgrounds were a different breed from their American counterparts. At our son's school in Hellerup, for example, the playground was built by the students from old lumber and giant tree branches. There was lots of rope walks and plenty of climbing opportunities. Definitely not as safe as your standard American school playground, but lots more engaging and very attached to the community it served.

On our current stay in this fair city, I have noticed that playgrounds have become even more important to urban life. Playgrounds- for children and adults - have evolved into the essential furniture of Copenhagen's many "outdoor rooms." I'll illustrate this assertion with a picture of a fairly standard children's playground around the corner from us on Sankt Annae Plads.

Playground on Sankt Annae Plads, near FDR monument



Horse sculptures at Sankt Annae Plads playground

The playground is nicely integrated into a larger park - increasing the usefulness of both. An older resident using the benches along the perennial border might enjoy hearing and watching the children in the playground. This one is geared to younger kids ( not much climbing stuff), and in fact, there is a kindergarten behind the church across the street. But what's most interesting to me is that there are original, artist-made sculptures of horses for kids to climb on. And that is no anomaly. Most of the playgrounds I've seen this year include some original sculpture or design element.

Taarnlegepladsen/ Tower Playground in Faelled Parken

Older kids section of Tower Playground in Faelled Parken

Taarnlegepladsen, or Tower Playground, in Copenhagen's enormous Faelled Park is not your standard playground. The equipment is designed to look like the city's historic towers and steeples. Kids can pretend they are giants and jump from rooftop to rooftop, or look at a map of the stars inside the replica of Rundetaarn, the old observatory tower.

Some playgrounds are even more site-specific.

Playground with whimsical towers in Brumbleby

The playground in the contained neighborhood of Brumbleby looks like parts of the complex have broken free and started dancing.

Kongens Have (The King's Garden) Playground next to Rosenborg Castle

In the King's Garden, a giant carved dragon guards his egg, surrounded by sandbox moats and guard towers, just meters away from the Renaissance Rosenborg Castle with its actual moats and royal guards.

Another great new feature of playgrounds, and public spaces, around Copenhagen is the inclusion of fitness-related equipment for adults. The aforementioned Faelled Parken has at least three "motion centers" are well as running trails, soccer fields and basketball courts. The new Amager Beach Park has everything from kayak canals to running/rollerblade trails to umbrella-covered fitness centers with body weight-driven equipment.

Adult fitness equipment on Pakhuskaj, near Langelinie

One particularly innovative project is Superkilen (2011, by 8-House architects BIG), which links the spaces between and behind buildings in the Norrebro district of Copenhagen, through a series of outdoor "rooms" with bike and walking trails, playgrounds, fitness equipment and unique seating areas. The Red Room marks the entrance to Superkilen from the main avenue, Norrebrogade, and includes skating ramps, team sports and fitness equipment. This leads to the Green Room with an artificial hill, playground and picnic areas, and ends in the Black Wedge, with chess tables, benches and room for outdoor markets. Because Norrebro is a multicultural area of the city, design features include palm trees, a Moroccan-style fountain, a Japanese octopus and an Indian elephant slide.

Red Room of Superkilen, Norrebro

Entrance to Green Room of Superkilen, Norrebro

Japanese Octopus slide in the Green Room of Superkilen

And even though these are (for the most part) mid-morning, weekday photos - the parks are being used by adults, with or without their children. People are: a) moving their bodies, and b) sitting outside instead of in front of the TV inside. When I see someone on a park bench here, I don't necessarily assume they are creepy or a drunk. There are those, too, but there are also folks like me, enjoying my seat in a beautifully appointed outdoor room.

With these playgrounds in mind, I was excited to read an article in last week's NYTimes about how Oklahoma City is taking advantage of the Prevention and Public Health Fund of the new Affordable Care Act to build bike lanes, walking paths and an Olympic rowing complex, and to put in place nutritional counselling. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/11/health/door-to-door-in-oklahoma-city-preaching-healthy-living.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&moc.semityn.www The article states "Republicans in Congress derided the prevention program as 'a slush fund to build sidewalks, jungle gyms and swing sets.' " But the (Republican) Mayor Mick Cornett is using funds to turn this famously fat city into a "laboratory for healthy living" - which is just how I would characterize Copenhagen.

Go, swing sets, go!

Organic food: a rant from my desk in Copenhagen

One of the lead stories in the NYTimes last week reported on a Stanford University study of organic fruits, vegetables and meats. The decades-long study concluded that organic foods are not substantially more nutritious than conventionally grown products, and may still contain some trace of pesticides (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/04/science/earth/study-questions-advantages-of-organic-meat-and-produce.html). I read the article and the subsequent op-ed piece by Roger Cohen (Sept.7) with jaw dropped, because both the Stanford study and the opinion piece had so completely missed the mark about organic foods.

How incredibly limited to view the production of food solely in terms of the costs and benefits to the individual consumer! What about the impact on the planet and on climate control, for chrissakes! As Mark Hertsgaard points out in a story related to the Farm Bill -- and not in reaction to the organic foods study -- conventional farming is a leading contributor to greenhouse gasses. (see http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/13/opinion/the-farm-bill-should-help-the-planet-not-just-crops.html)  Conventional monoculture farming practices also leach the soil of moisture, which further contributes to extreme drought. In other words, so what if we're creating catastrophic weather conditions for ourselves and future generations - as long as my peas cost a little less and carry an acceptably low level of pesticides.

And what about the workers who must apply the pesticides and handle the products covered with pesticides day in and day out? Maybe a significant trace of pesticides don't leach through a banana's peel into the fruit itself, but how many hands are on those bananas before we peel it? Years ago, I heard Eric Schlosser speak at Princeton about his landmark book, Fast Food Nation. While he was gratified that many readers had eschewed fast food in favor of sustainably grown products as a result of his book, he was shocked that there wasn't more outrage about the working conditions fostered by conventional agriculture and slaughterhouses. For him, this was the biggest take-away from all his research on the subject.

In Copenhagen right now, there is a very personable poster around town explaining that public kitchens, which prepare the food for Copenhagen's nursery schools, senior centers and meals for shut-ins is now 75% organic, with a goal of achieving 90% by 2015. Copenhagen will then have the most sustainable municipal food service in the world.

Billboard in Kongens Nytorv about Copenhagen Community Kitchens

If one then goes to the website for the Copenhagen public kitchens,  http://www.kbhmadhus.dk/ , it becomes clear that the 90% benchmark is part of a larger sustainable energy plan for the city - a plan which includes more and better public transportation and bike paths, and increased reliance on incinerated trash and windmills for energy. One will also find menu plans and seasonal charts of local fish and produce for use by parents - because local foods use fewer fossil fuels to travel to your table.

Some of the 1,750 food service workers employed by Copenhagen public kitchens

The emphasis on organic, locally sourced food in Denmark is not just occurring at the public level. It is part and parcel of what makes the restaurant scene here so vibrant. The "new Nordic" restaurants such as Noma and its progeny are buoyed by a compelling world view about food, where it should come from and how it should be grown. As a result, the food is remarkably fresh and delicious. You can taste the outdoors in the salads and the seafoods we've had the pleasure of eating here. Even humble root vegetables - locally grown potatoes, Jerusalem artichokes, beets, and black radishes - are taking a star turn in these restaurants because they taste of the earth, and not because of some extraordinarily complicated preparation.

Whether public or private the overriding message in Denmark is clear - it's about the planet, stupid. Keep an eye on the big picture, including the food you eat,  and everyone is better off.

A tour of new architecture in Orestad Syd

We having been dragging friends and family to see the 8 House and other notable building projects in the new city of Orestad for a few years now. But on Sunday, we went on a tour professionally-led by the Danish Architecture Center of the city's southern section, and now have some more info to match our amazement (http://www.dac.dk/da/service-sider/kalender/).

Tour group under Metro in Orestad with Ramboll building in background

The city has roots going back to the 1930s, when talk first began creating a rail-link between Copenhagen and southern Sweden, and the implications that would have for development in the Kastrup/ Amager Faelled area south of the city. By the time the Oresund Bro linking Denmark and Sweden opened in 2000 (http://uk.oresundsbron.com/page/976), metro lines and city plans for Orestad were already in place on a former military site. A Finnish-Danish design group was selected and established a plan which included mixed educational, commercial, housing and cultural sites in a series of bands moving out from the metro line and incorporating three new urban centers. Green building practices were an important standard and all buildings were to be 600 meters or less from a metro entrance.

After a much longer and better explanation of the larger plan than the one I just gave, out tour group moved on to the front of the corporate headquarters of Ramboll - a firm that was very much involved with building the Oresundbro and other large engineering projects in Scandinavia.

Mirrored sky on the facade of the Ramboll building, Orestad

As it was a Sunday morning, the building was closed and we had to peek into the soaring lobby through glass doors. The tour guide informed us that on weekdays all the buildings in the area were open to the public and generally receptive to visitors.

Next up was Copenhagen Towers, which is just across the street. So far just Phase I of the four phases this project, designed by Norman Foster and Danish partners, has been built. This phase constitutes the Crowne Plaza Hotel Copenhagen Towers, which has been distinguished as the greenest hotel in the world. Among other features, the south and western sides are lined with solar panels, they utilize ground water versus geothermal systems for air-heating and cooling, the shampoo containers are biodegradable within three months, and guests can give back to the grid when they spin on one of the bikes in the fitness center. Apparently this is one of the buildings that is particularly receptive to visitors, as they have a Walk of Sustainability throughout the building with QR codes directing you to info about their sustainability practices.

Crowne Plaza Hotel Copenhagen Towers lined with solar panels

The next stop for the group was in the middle of a field, buzzing with late summer yellow-jackets, where Denmark's largest multi-use stadium complex would be standing by 2015.

Future site of Hannemann's Quarter and Arena, with Orestad city in the backgorund

Our guide distributed maps which outlined all the development planned for this area over the next several years, including housing, schools, businesses, sports fields and a gigantic arena complex linked to the Metro lines and trains to Sweden. Thus far, only the Phase I of Copenhagen Towers, on the upper right of the map (left of the metro line) had been built.

Plan for development of Orestad Syd

We continued southward on a path through the field till we hit the "Plug n Play" - a temporary playground of sorts designed to attract foot traffic and buzz to this as-yet fully-developed area of Orestad. The Plug 'n Play has an outdoor skating oval and skateboard park, parcours park, all manner of climbing equipment, a kayak bay with water polo, as well as more traditional basketball and soccer areas. Families were unloading kids and equipment while the guide explained all this, so apparently the idea is working.

Entrance to Plug n Play Zone in Orestad Syd

Surrounding this amazing play zone were a number of small garden plots. Anyone can reserve one for a nominal fee, as long as they commit to working it and to abide to organic gardening standards.

Organic garden plots in Orestad Syd

Soon enough we had reached the southernmost point of the development, where seniors' and student housing is going up alongside multilevel parking lots. In keeping with the green standards throughout, the parking spaces planned for this area are at half the normal proportion of slots to other areas of the city. The hope is that most residents will find it more convenient to take the Metro or bike than deal with carrying bags out of a multilevel garage. But I did notice there was 30-minute parking alongside most of the established housing and a surface lot behind the 8 House.

Interior courtyard of the 8 House looking south across the marshes

Which brings us to the 8 House and one of our favorite spots in all of Copenhagen. We came across it the first time in a bike ride around Amager Faelled when it was just going it up. It looked like a ski slope or that horrid Xanadu complex in the Meadowlands of New Jersey. Later on, we found the vimeo featuring architect Bjarke Ingels ( BIG Group) describing the project and how it was conceived: http://vimeo.com/3499612.  And if we ever win the lottery, we will have to buy a unit there.

I won't bore you with my praises here. Just watch the vimeo, look at the few photos I have included and take a chance to visit when you are next in Copenhagen.

View of Viking Ship playground and marshes from atop of the 8 House

Green roofs at southern end of 8 House

Looking into the north courtyard of the 8 House.