Copenhagen Islands
A visionary project exploring how Copenhagen can adapt to a changing climate through nature-based solutions
How can we protect cities and landscapes from erosion and flooding – and how can we learn to live with water?
This is a question that should be asked from a broad societal perspective, and the answer requires an interdisciplinary approach. Global climate change entails that our shared landscapes along coasts, in cities, and in rural areas face significant transformations – both in a Danish context and internationally. Rising sea and groundwater levels, storm surges, and extreme rainfall will cause erosion, permanent and temporary flooding, with enormous costs as a result.
The method is found in nature
Schønherr’s visionary project Copenhagen Islands explores how Copenhagen can adapt to a changing climate through nature-based solutions. The project is based on a thorough reading of the city’s underlying landscape through studies of geological conditions, topography, water flow, and former wetlands. Historical sources – including the General Staff Map from 1865 – reveal how diverse natural environments beneath the capital were drained and vanished. This knowledge, combined with data-driven simulations, is used as a basis for re-establishing an understanding of the landscape’s natural hydrology. The project examines the spatial, urban, and recreational potentials of nature-based approaches, as well as the complex social issues that arise from potential retreat of built areas.
Not a single answer, but a new question
Copenhagen Islands has been exhibited in the Danish Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2023 and at the Danish Architecture Center in 2024–2025. The project’s methodological approach has proven to be a key foundation for public discussion of long-term climate adaptation strategies, and it has been developed in close collaboration with researchers from the University of Copenhagen: Anna Aslaug Lund, Ole Fryd, Gertrud Jørgensen, and Iisa Eikaas.
