Nordør – New Park in Nordhavn

For the first time in a generation, the City of Copenhagen will create an entirely new, large-scale urban park. SLA is leading the design team that will deliver this landmark project over the next many years.

Team SLA’s project Nordør – New Park in Nordhavn will deliver what is arguably one of Copenhagen’s most important urban design projects in more than a decade: A new 30-hectare (75-acre) coastal nature park in Nordhavn.

The park is a landmark project that will connect people and nature, set new global standards for climate-positive and nature-positive urban design, and redefine Copenhagen’s relationship with its water.

A climate- and nature-positive catalyst
Designed as both a carbon sink and biodiversity driver, Nordør – New Park in Nordhavn will sequester more CO2 than it emits and act as a biodiversity catalyst, both on-site and off-site, for new habitats on land, coast, and sea.

The park combines sport fields, beaches, playgrounds, activity areas, and community spaces within a dynamic framework of wild, self-growing nature – offering Copenhageners both everyday life amenities, ecological resilience, and a much-needed reconnection with nature right outside their doorsteps.

A park shaped by nature itself
The design of Nordør – New Park in Nordhavn is devised with a radical idea: to give nature’s own processes space and time to evolve.

Through minimal interventions, the new park is created from the existing landscape – decades of deposited soil, slopes, and ridges from Copenhagen construction sites – carefully refined into a varied topography of social and ecological landscapes.

Habitats for rare species are preserved, expanded, and left untouched, while a rich mosaic of lagoons, meadows, beaches, grasslands, forest edges, and marine reefs reshape the site into a dynamic meeting point between land and sea, offering equal space for both people and wildlife.

Designed with citizens, for citizens
The park is rooted in an extensive and year-long citizens dialogue involving residents, nature organizations, local sports clubs, and other stakeholders and will provide a wide spectrum of experiences: from football fields, activity areas, community houses, and a universally accessible beach in the south, to quiet wilderness areas in the north where birds, amphibians, and insects take priority and can be experienced up close.

Activity highlights include ‘The Stub’ – a 24-meter-high viewing point; ‘The Ore’ – a west-facing lagoon beach with small islands; and ‘The Forest Edge’ – a one-kilometer-long, species-rich woodland edge, the longest in Copenhagen.

Nordør – New Park in Nordhavn is designed by Team SLA for the City of Copenhagen and By & Havn, and will stand as a global inspiration for how cities can embrace nature as a driver of livability, resilience, and identity.

The construction of the park is set to start in 2028.