Copenhagen Field Journal

One of the first things I noticed coming from the airport and moving into the housing was that all of the machinery to transport people (like escalators, moving walkways, and elevators) are built by the Otis brand. This isn’t necessarily a Denmark specific trait or design, but shows a sort of monopoly that Otis has on the people movers throughout public spaces. Clearly the city found that Otis machinery is a reliable and cost effective option for their high-traffic spaces. 

They generally incorporate very simple iconography for simple and easy user understanding with minimal actually interaction from the user to avoid slow-down time or user error. Bold bright colors like yellow are used to warn users where the edge of the gap is or where you should be stepping off. They are not particularly designed for aesthetics, but are as simple, safe, and easy to produce as possible that you will see them everywhere.

A very noticeable difference from the US when walking down the streets of Copenhagen is the cable supported hanging street lamp used everywhere. This would be a lot more difficult to execute with American infrastructure because the building aren't all similar heights as they are here, but they simplified a problem that US has invested a lot of money into directing all of the lamps light into the street. American lamp posts are almost always on the side of the street pointing light towards the center, but usually very unsuccessfully covering just a small portion of the side of the street.

Danish lamps solve this very simply by just putting the lamps in the center of the street so extra light emanating outwards just continues to light up the whole street. It is generally less material and cost required to set these up and make for a very unique look and simply efficient lighting method that lights the street better than the lamps I am used to.

All of the metro stations have huge brutalist concrete design that often can create a feeling of disconnection from nature or dystopian and depressing vibe, however I think the execution of the design in these stations actually works very well. First of all, the brutalist feel would be very uncomfortable to live in, but for a public underground space like a metro station, can work pretty well as you don’t spend much time there, it is meant to be a transitionary space that doesn't need to feel cozy. Additionally, it doesn’t feel as disconnected from nature or depressing because they all have huge triangular prism skylight that allow sunlight to reach all the way down to the station, brightening the room and the vibe.

The successful execution of the brutalist look is an efficient and cost-effective way to make an interesting subway system that requires no more cost than just the chunks of concrete required to hold the walls up. Compared to other subways that spend tons on ceramic tiles and other decor, this very minimalist approach feels weirdly much more lively (primarily due to the skylights) and is way cheaper to construct.

Denmark is a very rain heavy country and therefore has had lots of issues and solutions for rain water irrigation. I noticed tons of different solutions to this that are either successful or not so much. I noticed these grates from the first image everywhere from paved roads to cobblestone paths that are either placed in line with a divot irrigation path or just placed around somewhat randomly. The edges of outdoor stairs often have an open smooth path for water to run down to reach the gutters rather than pouring down the center of the stairs. I also noticed that house gutters drains into a irrigation path that cuts through the sidewalk and leads into the street or directly into a grate.

As the layouts of the roads are sometimes very old, they don't always successfully place enough grates or in the right places leading to big puddles on the sides of the roads or sometimes in the center of cobblestone paths. The biggest failure of drainage I noticed was the base of the metro station stairs where all of the rain water pours down the steps and collects at the base where the grates just fill up all the way leading to massive and kind of dangerous puddles on the concrete floors.

There were a handful of interactive elements on the public transit systems, specifically the trains that were not very intuitive to understand or use. Although I did not get a picture of it, many of us were confused or complaining about the S train doors that were a contactless to open. There was a sign with iconography near the center of the door to indicate waving your hand to automatically open the door, however the actual sensor was at the top of the door making it really difficult to sense your hand unless you know to wave at the top by the sensor. Other examples include the metro seats that fold down, but have no clear indication they do so, so for the first whole week I though they were just little leaning benches before seeing people pull it down to sit and my mind was blown. 

Similarly on a longer distance train, there was a fold down table that did include an arrow to show how to push down and fold out, but because it is flush with the chair, I didn’t immediately know that it was a table, and at my height (which isn’t even that tall), I could not see the arrow at all until I slouched down and noticed it. Lastly the metro maps were not posted enough at locations that they are helpful for, and are very simplified to likely try to make it easier to understand, but because they are so overly simplified, it does not clearly represent the actual directions and route that they actually go. If you are looking at the map and know you need to go north, it will not accurately show the right route to take, it requires you to check the lines and compare with a maps app to see where it actually goes.

Denmark and many other European countries have an architectural problem that the US doesn’t really have to deal with, and that is integrating new and modern designs and buildings into the old and historical buildings. It’s difficult to execute this without it feeling out of place or jarring, which there were still some places that felt disconnected to the old style, but in general they do a very good job of incorporating these two drastically different styles.

There are examples like 7/11s placed in old historical building that feel like they should be out of place, but when they are everywhere, it feels weirdly in place. Other examples like the metro stations and a modern glass roof placed above an old building courtyard that surprisingly blend together super well. Even intimidating towering modern buildings imposing over the waterfront and historical building, they managed to make it feel very integrated.

Throughout the city and even neighboring towns I noticed a reoccurring motif in design for the drainage grates and even railings. They all use this squiggly flat metal bar to fill the space and leave openings. In addition to it being an interesting and aesthetically pleasing design, it is very functional to only require bending one continuous metal bar and only needing a few contact points to weld together.

This cost-effective design is seen everywhere around the country and even from different brands or the government. Just another simple and effective design achieved by intelligent planning and classic Scandinavian design.

Denmark is world renowned for their interior furniture design, and specifically their chairs and lamps. Their chairs have become an art form with some of the most unique and beautiful designs in the world, and yet of course they are still often designed with function and efficiency in production in mind. They try to minimize the amount of sperate materials they have to use and limit the number of failure points. This was one the main consideration points with my favorite chair the Panton chair (first image  red chair) where they set out on a goal to make a comfortable and sturdy chair all out of one injection molded piece of plastic. 

As plastic was a new and practical material, they could make these chairs very quickly and cheaply to meet the needs of the time. Their lamp designs are also surprisingly well engineered and thought out beyond just the stunning look. They mapped out all of the directions of deflected and direct light from the bulb to create the highest density of lighting directly below and still softly fill the surrounding area and the entire room with light, and direct none towards the ceiling. This creates what they thought was the perfect distribution of light above a table and the room, and I’d have to agree.

They have tons of intelligent design choices to encourage proper recycling and trash deposits, but I specifically noticed a fun concept for a bin in Malmo, Sweden. This trash bin was designed to be very visible from afar and still not take away from the scenic surroundings sporting the classic dark green usually associated with trash there. These bins have a very enticing pull bar on the opening as well as a foot pedal to open it to avoid your hands having to touch it, making it super accessible and easy to use. Beyond just the expected and hygienic features, the bin will actually speak to you through a speaker and say thanks for throwing out your trash properly, which makes a mundane or annoying task into a fun, comedic, and ‘tik-tokable’ moment unique to any trash experience I’ve ever had.

Additionally in terms of environmentalism and ease-of-use, their bottle caps are another perfect example. At first I found it slightly inconvenient to use and annoying because it was different than I was used to, but now returning to the US I really miss these bottle caps. They have a serrate piece of plastic that connect the cap to still be attached after unscrewing, resulting in less cap litter and honestly so much more convenient to keep track of. It only requires a slight change in drinking it to the side, but makes sure you never loose the cap and satisfyingly only remains stable in the fully open or closed position, locking in place with a little lip. Another example of such a small tweak that is so well thought out and designed and results in a better environment for everyone.