Ladegårdsparken

Location: Holbæk
Client: Danish Housing Association
Team: Stig L. Andersson, Jens Dybbro, Maja Nikolajew, Stine Poulsen
Collaborators: Teytaud A/S, K.Fl. Jacobsen A/S
Design phase: 1995-1997
Construction: 1997-1998
Area: 3,8 ha.
Cost of construction: 1 mill. €

Read the article "Denmark: A Strategy for Improving the Residential Environment" about balancing the qualities of both the city and nature in residential areas.

In partnership with the residents, SLA have revitalised the uniform outdoor space in the residential area, Ladegårdsparken, and created 35 new, varied garden spaces. Gone is the flat, green lawn, which may have been easy to maintain, but was neither very interesting to look at nor be on. The residents requested: “more intimacy and opportunities for more uses than the existing open lawn can offer”. The whole area is therefore remodelled to a moraine-like landscape, reminiscent of the landscape history of the place and giving the park new identity.

The contouring has provided variation in the space and enabled the formation of smaller spaces with different functions. Now you find a rose garden, rubber playland, herb garden, roller-skating track, fruit grove, and sand gardens, that all offer sensory experiences and possibilities, so that individual needs to the outdoor spaces are fulfilled, while at the same time taking accessibility and utility value into account.

In the re-designing of the landscape herbs and vegetables are planted that the residents look after and use.

‘We have very little damage in our green areas. The collaboration between the residents and the building society ensures that we all take care of the area’,

Niels Hansen, Residents’ Committee member in Ladegårdsparken.

Tingbjerg Utterslevhouses is another project in a residential area, where residents and architects have worked together

1600 cherry trees of different variety are with varying density planted as a pronounced element in the park. In the spring months and into the summer the Ladegårds Park is transformed into a profusion of flowers.

Half of the old surfacing is removed, and new paths cut through the area. They lead the residents through the park in eventful routes, that do not follow the earlier restrictions determined by the housing blocks.