Move over Pangaea. Danish studio Fokstrot and Australian architect Marshall Blecher are teaming up, with financial backing from the Danish Arts Foundation and Havnekulturpuljen, to develop a new versatile ‘super-continent’ of public parks that can be broken apart into what they call a ‘parkipelago’.
The Copenhagen Islands project first launched at sea in 2018 with the introduction of CPH-Ø1 – a 20 sqm wooden platform with a linden tree at its centre for stability.
CPH-Ø1 will soon be accompanied by a CPH-Ø2, CPH-Ø3 “and many more”, according to the project’s official website.
Whimsy and wonder coming to the harbour
The movable islands will serve as public spaces for different activities – “swim zones, floating saunas, floating gardens, floating mussel farms and a floating sail-in café” – and will be accessible by only personal boats or kayaks.
The islands will be dispersed to under-utilised areas of the Copenhagen Harbour coastline during the summer months for kayakers, GoBoaters and tourists alike to enjoy, and can be conjoined as a super-continent in the winter months for special events and festivals.
A parkipelago wrapped in a metaphor
The islands will be hand-crafted entirely from recycled materials using traditional Danish boat design techniques.
They are also intended to provoke discourse on rising sea levels, rapid urban development and the overall function of public spaces in the city.
The three prototype islands beyond CPH-Ø1 are expected to be completed by the spring of 2021.
