Superkilen Park

A colourful corridor through multicultural Nørrebro

Superkilen Park stretches like a long ribbon through Nørrebro, one of Copenhagen’s most diverse neighbourhoods, turning an everyday green strip into a statement about shared public life. Conceived by the architecture studio BIG with artists Superflex and landscape designers Topotek1, it opened in 2012 as a kind of urban manifesto: a park that mirrors the many backgrounds of the people who live around it. Running alongside one of the city’s busiest bike routes, the park feels less like a fenced-off green and more like an extended public living room. Cyclists glide through, families linger on benches, and kids dart between sculptural play equipment. Despite the bold design, it remains unmistakably a local space, woven directly into the rhythm of the neighbourhood streets and apartment blocks.

The Red Square: graphic energy and urban play

At the southern end, the Red Square announces itself with an explosion of colour. The ground is painted in sweeping bands of crimson, pink and orange that bend around sports courts, seating and open areas where skaters carve arcs through the space. The strong graphics make this the park’s most photographed corner, and also its loudest – music drifts from nearby cafés and impromptu ball games often claim sections of the square. Fitness equipment, open areas for team sports and steps for sitting turn this zone into a flexible stage for everyday life. In the evenings, the coloured surfaces and lighting create an almost theatrical atmosphere, with silhouettes of cyclists and skaters standing out sharply against the painted ground.

The Black Market: monochrome lines and quiet corners

Moving north, the mood changes on the Black Market, where inky asphalt is overlaid with crisp white lines that swoop and loop over the surface and up low mounds. These striped contours subtly guide how you walk, sit and play, while giving the space a surreal, almost optical-illusion feel. At its centre, a glossy black octopus-shaped structure doubles as a climbing and sliding playground. Here you find chess tables, benches and a calmer pace, making this area a natural place to pause. Fountains and imported street furniture create pockets where people read, chat or simply watch the slow choreography of everyday Nørrebro: prams rolling past, kids on scooters, elders playing board games in the open air.

The Green Park: lawns, cherry trees and everyday sports

Further north, the Green Park softens into a more familiar landscape of lawns, low hills and trees, but with the same playful design language. Paths curve through grassy mounds, and in spring the Japanese cherry trees dust the park with pale pink blossom, adding another seasonal layer of colour to the already vivid setting. This is the part of Superkilen where you are most likely to see picnics spread out on the grass, dogs chasing balls and informal workouts on simple sports facilities. Playgrounds and open spaces keep it firmly family-friendly, while the rolling terrain offers enough variety for children to invent their own games away from traffic.

Objects from the world gathered in one neighbourhood

One of Superkilen’s defining ideas is its collection of everyday objects from dozens of countries, echoing the origins of the local residents. Benches from Brazil, a fountain from Morocco, swings inspired by designs from the Middle East, neon signage and lampposts from far beyond Denmark are all catalogued and placed throughout the park. Each item carries a small plaque describing its origin, turning a stroll into an informal world tour. Rather than imposing a single aesthetic, the park stitches together these fragments into something coherent yet delightfully eclectic. It is both an artwork and a catalogue of global urban life, condensed into a single city block.

Experiencing Superkilen throughout the day and seasons

Superkilen is open at all hours and shifts character with the light and weather. On bright days, the contrasts between red, black and green are almost graphic-novel sharp; under cloud or drizzle, the colours deepen and the white stripes glow softly. In winter, light dustings of snow redraw the lines and edges, while in summer the park becomes a busy outdoor extension of nearby homes and cafés. Whether you drop by for a quick photowalk, linger over a picnic or follow the bike path from end to end, the park invites repeat visits. Its layered design reveals new details each time, from a foreign street sign you had not noticed before to an unexpected vantage point over the Nørrebro rooftops from the top of a modest grassy hill.