Bredalspark, Hvidovre

Small blocks of apartments, high density, 4 storey,
extensive greenspace -
Example of how a very skilful landscape architect with a high level of knowledge and plantsmanship can create a site which has withstood changes and remained of high quality over 50 years

Bredalsparken was one of the first large housing estates in Denmark. It was built in the late 1940s. The whole area is lush and green, and well kept, as a result of a programme of constant renewal. Doing a little maintenance on a regular basis has proved a relatively cheap method of keeping a high standard of greenspace over a 50 year period.

New entrances to the blocks have been made recently.

There is a home for the elderly in the middle of the area and the whole landscape is designed to support the needs of this age group. There are also several well kept play areas which appear to be well used and act as sitting/ meeting places for all age groups.

This feels a very safe area to walk through, perhaps because of the relative small-scale of the spaces. Even though there are many shrub beds with large shrubs and also some small hedges dividing one space from another, in this instance these just seem to add to the general attractiveness of the site. Here these features do not create any sense of its being an unsafe place. Only the edges of shrub beds are tended and kept low - the shrubs within are allowed to grow naturally.

Some new tree planting has taken place in the recent renovations but most of the trees on the site were planted in the 1950s - it is these that are the most important visual element, giving a sense of scale to the site.

The maintenance work is done by the on-site caretakers - the residents comment on what needs doing through the local committee.

Around the site there are several pieces of art - carved into the trunks of the elm trees which had to be felled because of disease.

This was one of the friendliest high density urban landscapes that the researchers have come across in northern Europe. The fact that this site was so well designed in the first place has remained an advantage to the present day, as it has kept renewal costs down, when compared with similar schemes of similar density elsewhere.

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24 Sept 2001