The City Dune / SEB Bank
Turning a bank's headquarter into a generous, playful, and climate-adapted public place.

Location
Copenhagen, Denmark
Size
7,300 m2
Year
2007 — 2011
Client
SEB Bank and Pension
Role
Lead landscape architect
Partners & Collaborators
Lundgaard & Tranberg, Rambøll
The green urban realm The City Dune for SEB Bank’s Copenhagen headquarters is a green and welcoming public space located near the harbor front for employees and local citizens to enjoy.


SLA has created the iconic urban space that connects the two buildings, making up SEB Bank’s Danish headquarters. As well as an obvious place for the employees at SEB Bank to socialize and enjoy their lunch, the City Dune has quickly become a popular place for recreational activities on both workdays and weekends.
The City Dune is designed as a prolific Swedish mountainside with a terrain that rises from street level to the second floor. Steps and inclined surfaces foster a new relation between the urban space and the two office buildings at different levels and allow for opportunities for both play and stays.



The City Dune is Copenhagen’s first climate-adapted urban space. The white concrete surfaces reflect the heat, and all rainwater is collected and used for irrigation and for cooling of the urban space in summer. The Nordic vegetation and trees provide shade on hot summer days and shelter when it rains as well as providing SEB Bank with a strong and unique Nordic identity.
“SEB is living proof that you can create value with urban space. The branding value of our landscape is five times bigger than what a regular branding campaign with the same budget could have given us.”
— Peter Høltermand, CEO of SEB, Arkitekten March 2011


We design places for life. All life.
Fundamentals






fund. 26
Atmosphere
Read more


fund. 26
Sound
Read more








fund. 19
Essay: The Bark Room
Read more
fund. 25
Roots
Read more
fund. 27
White
Read more
fund. 20
Sakuteiki
– The Book of Garden
Read more




fund. 12
Mist
Read more

