The Opera Park

The mixed-use densification of Copenhagen’s inner harbor has resulted in a lively and buzzing capital city. However, as increasing density and activity result in more residents and more visitors, green recreational spaces have become more and more scarce. The Opera Park is a public park on the Copenhagen harbor front designed for recreation, relaxation and contemplation in the middle of the dense city center. A park offering a diverse variation of trees, bushes, plants and flowers. Organized with inspiration from the European capital’s historical gardens with winding paths and carefully crafted viewpoints, The Opera Park consists of six gardens from various parts of the world, a café and greenhouse, underground parking garage for up to 300 cars as well as a covered pedestrian bridge connecting the park with the neighboring Royal Danish Opera.

Located next to The Royal Danish Opera, the site had been a modest green lawn since the completion of the Opera nearly 20 years ago. Utterly transformed today, the island which was otherwise prime for the development of new housing, is now home to a diverse and natural landscape.

The park consists of six gardens from various parts of the world: the North American Forest, the Danish Oak Forest, the Nordic Forest, the Oriental Garden, the English Garden, and the Subtropical Garden housed within a greenhouse and atrium at its center.

The diverse gardens hold surprises such as a fountain, a water lily pond, and a reflecting pool where drops of water from a mast gently strike the water’s surface in a soothing rhythm. Meandering paths and organically shaped flowerbeds knit together the park’s elements.

Designed to be an inviting, all year-round public attraction, the park features 628 trees, 80,000 herbaceous perennials and bushes, and 40,000 bulb plants, from all around the world. In total, 223 unique exotic and local species provide a vibrant and ever-changing backdrop for visitors.

The vegetation’s appearance, scent, color, and density vary with the seasons. The wide variety of plant species and diversity of sizes provides a rich environment for birds and insects to find food and shelter.

In addition to the gardens, the park features a central greenhouse with a café, giving access to car parking underneath the park’s surface. The greenhouse is designed as an organically shaped glass structure with a hovering roof, intended to surprise and delight visitors as they navigate the lush landscape. The greenhouse and café ensure that The Opera Park remains a vibrant destination year-round, even during winter when many of Copenhagen’s parks are desolate. Inside, the greenhouse terraces down to the parking levels, while its subtropic biotope also descends to vertically weave together the park with the underground levels.

The park also features a covered connection to the adjacent Royal Danish Opera via a covered walkway atop a landscaped bridge, allowing a weather protected link between the parking facility, the park, and the Opera.