The intervention by SLA studio, Grønningen-Bispeparken, redefines the relationship between the city and nature. Located in Copenhagen, in a 1950s social housing development, the project transforms a 20,000 m² area of barren meadows into a rolling natural landscape that integrates nature in its wildest and most beneficial form.
Copenhagen’s latest and most radical nature-based climate adaptation project, where rain is not seen as a threat – but as a natural resource to be celebrated.
The project incorporates 18 natural drainage channels that collect and filter rainwater, protecting the area from flooding and transforming that water into a social and ecological resource for residents. Furthermore, the park offers safe and inclusive spaces, with typologies that combine biodiversity and community: wetlands, open meadows, social spaces between buildings, and former bunkers that become terraces in summer and toboggan runs in winter.
The project also includes the art intervention "Concerning a Meadow," which, over four years, involved residents and artists in the creation of wooden structures integrated into the landscape.
Grønningen-Bispeparken is not a conventional park, but a paradigm shift in urban development, a statement of intent on how cities can adapt to climate change, improving the quality of life and celebrating nature.
Grønningen-Bispeparken by SLA. Photograph by SLA.
Project description by SLA
Grønningen-Bispeparken is Copenhagen’s most radical climate adaptation project to date, integrating nature in its wildest and most beneficial form into the city. The project transforms 20,000m² of barren grassland into an undulating natural landscape with 18 natural rainwater bioswales that protect the area from flooding, enhance biodiversity, and serve as social pockets for residents.
Grønningen-Bispeparken is not a romantic promenade park but a paradigm shift in Copenhagen’s urban development: where form follows nature, and landscape architecture’s highest purpose is to create places for life – all life.
Objective
Grønningen-Bispeparken is a typical 1950s social housing estate in Copenhagen. The task was to transform the housing estate’s public spaces from derelict, unsafe, and barren grass lawns into a new climate park that would secure the area against thunderstorms and flooding while also adding social, biological, and cultural values to the neighbourhood.
Approach
To meet these goals, we designed Grønningen-Bispeparken to be Copenhagen’s most radical nature-based climate adaptation project to date.
By letting the form of the park follow nature, we created an interconnected series of 18 bioswales throughout the sloping park that can collect, contain, and infiltrate more than 3,000 m3 of rainwater falling in the park and the adjacent courtyards and streets.
The park features five main nature typologies designed according to their climate and social functions:
Bio Oases: Wetland zones prioritizing wildlife and ecological richness.
Between the Trunks: Small, dry biotopes for intimate play and pause.
Common Lawns: Open meadows for sports, markets, and gatherings.
Pocket Squares: Informal social zones nestled between buildings.
The Bunker Hills: Repurposed Cold War bunkers become sun decks in summer and sledding slopes in winter.
By combining climate challenges with social and cultural opportunities, the bioswales double as ‘social swales’ providing the park with a host of playful, nature-rich, and safe meeting places for community and togetherness.
A meandering path of gravel and yellow tile (referencing the iconic nearby Grundtvig’s Church) ties the park together and invites residents to experience its varied ecologies.
The planting scheme introduces 149 trees of 23 native species and over 4 million seeds of specially designed seed mixes. All vegetation is locally adapted to reinforce biodiversity and support sustainable ecosystems.
As part of the park’s conception, the Danish Arts Council supported a four-year artistic intervention: Concerning a Meadow. Blurring boundaries between planning, public art, and social engagement, the artist worked alongside local residents, city officials and our own inhouse Social Design Team to co-create informal experimental elements in the park.
A series of wooden artwork structures emerged from this process – integrated seamlessly into the natural landscape as places for play, rest, and movement.
Evaluation
The park was inaugurated on August 31, 2024. Just five days later, a major thunderstorm flooded highways across Copenhagen. But in Grønningen-Bispeparken, the heavy rain only made the new park more sensuous and lush while the surrounding houses remained safe and dry. All proving that in Grønningen-Bispeparken, rain is not seen as a threat – but as a natural and social resource to be celebrated.
