New bascule bridge in Copenhagen 

A striking, boomerang-shaped bascule bridge will form the main link over Copenhagen Harbour between the Opera House and the Danish Royal Theatre’s new Playhouse. In September, French architects Marc Mimram Ingénierie, with COWI as consultants, won a project competition organised by the City of Copenhagen to design a new bascule bridge across the harbour.

The winning proposal will come to characterise the architecture of Copenhagen. The bridge – for pedestrians and cyclists – has two identical bridge sections running from the edge of the quay out into the harbour basin. In the middle is a fixed transverse platform, where people can stop and admire the view.

The platform connects to a bascule bridge reminiscent of a boomerang with thin wires. But the bridge will also be of functional importance, says city architect Jan Christiansen from the City of Copenhagen’s Building and Construction Administration:

Direct route across the harbour

"The bridge will bring the city areas of Frederiksstaden and Holmen closer together. Whereas today you have to use another bridge further distant to reach Christianshavn and Holmen, on the opposite side of the harbour from the city."

"The new bridge will provide pedestrians and cyclists with a new direct route across the harbour. We estimate that 10,000-15,000 Copenhageners a day will use the bridge. And finally, audiences attending the new Opera House will make use of the bridge before and after performances when they park their cars in the underground car park planned across the harbour at Kvæsthusbroen."

Political majority

Following the decision by the Danish Parliament to accept the Opera House a majority of the parties represented on Copenhagen City Council agreed to assist in establishing an underground car park at Kvæsthusbroen and a bridge link across the harbour to the Opera House. However, the bridge still awaits a formal political decision.

"The first step is to invite tenders for the car park and determine whether it can finance the cost of the bridge. The decision to build the bridge will probably not be taken before November 2005. But at present there is a political majority in favour of giving the project the go-ahead," says Jan Christiansen.

Valkyrie-like proposals

He admits that there has been much debate concerning the qualities the new bridge should embody. Some of the proposals from the seven architects invited to submit proposals were simply too pragmatic, Valkyrie-like or self-effacing. But the winning entry got it just right: sculptural, refined and elegant, but not overly massive, comments Jan Christiansen:

"Copenhagen is undergoing rapid development – including the harbour area, where private yachts from Sweden and Germany have replaced the ferries that used to sail from here to Oslo and the Danish island of Bornholm. We are no longer a small town – we can measure up against cities such as Berlin and Hamburg. The new bridge could well serve as a landmark for the harbour."

Posted 19.11.2004
By: Christina Tækker, cht@cowi.dk