Landscape Architecture in Contemporary Danish Suburban Development

This paper focuses on landscape urbanism theory in relation to practical urban design experiences so as to discuss the potentials of approaching contemporary Danish suburban development by means of landscape and ecology. The theory described is predicated on the assumption that even before it became a theory, landscape urbanism has been common practice in European design projects. This implies that the urban challenges have been in the centre of landscape thought and practice for so long that Danish landscape architecture already includes urbanism. In order to recover momentum in Danish urban design, it is argued that the current discourse of landscape urbanism needs to define itself more clearly in relation to the Danish landscape architecture tradition and more actively consider amenity and aesthetics. Via the discourse of landscape urbanism, landscape architecture in Danish suburban development can shift from one of relatively superficiality to one of more structural influence. The paper first positions landscape urbanism in the context of urban landscapes; then it introduces the current Danish debate on suburbia and sustainability; Finally, the paper reflects upon two urban design projects of suburban residential development in Hillerød (Ullerødbyen) and Odense (Bellinge Fælled) by introducing yet unpublished interview material from conversations with the respective architects behind the projects: Stig L. Andersson (SLA) and Nina Jensen (Schønherr a/s). Facing today’s effort to evaluate and re-think the both loved and criticised suburbia and its incompatibility in relation to the current environmental and climate prospects, these projects suggest that a landscape orientated approach to (sub)urban development can provide more adaptive and flexible frameworks to meet the indeterminacy of the future.

KEYWORDS: Suburban development, landscape urbanism, landscape architecture, sustainability