Carlsberg Byen

Anyone who ever had a beer, is familiar with the famous Danish brand Carlsberg. Carlsberg brewery started its production in 11th of November 1847 in western part of Copenhagen called Valby. Valby was home to the Danish giant brewery until 2008. In 30th October 2008 Carlsberg moved its brewery to Jutland in western part of Denmark, and its Copenhagen headquarters became a new canvas for architects, urban developers and city planners.

City of Copenhagen collaborated with the famous Danish city planner and Architect, Gehl Architects to craft a masterplan for the city’s new development site, named Carlsberg Byen (The City of Carlsberg).

Entasis architects won the masterplan in May of 2007, and it focuses on a good connection between buildings and the outdoor life amongst them. This is one of the many reasons that Carlsberg Byen’s masterplan won Master Plan Award of World Architecture festival in 2009.

Today, the area is nearing full completion and when you take a stroll through the neighborhood, you realize a couple of things. Perhaps the most striking feature would be the perfect harmony between the newly build edifices and the old beautifully restored historical buildings with amazing ornaments. But you also notice the public spaces and open areas between all these buildings; that are providing an incredibly friendly and welcoming neighborhood. This is not only useful to the residential community, but it can also be very helpful for the businesses in the area, since this urban design, invites people into the Carlsberg Byen through a network of public spaces connected to each other very cleverly. In the 618,000 square meters of the masterplan there are 25 public spaces and any visitor can immediately realize the abundance of open areas in this quarter. These public spaces perfectly stitch the entire masterplan and buildings with different usages and purposes together and making a large community in service of everyone to enjoy.

Carlsberg Byen is home to residential buildings, hotels, commercial activities, recreational areas, restaurants, cafés, artist studios, venues for conferences, fair &concerts, as well as educational buildings. This makes this area alive and vibrant during both day and night.

Now that the final shape of Carlsberg Byen is becoming visible and more and more people and businesses are moving in, you can see that once more this district is becoming an important part of the city of Copenhagen. Moreover, you can see the importance of designing a masterplan and an urban environment that would benefit the entire society by inviting people through a network of public spaces.