COVID-19: Ever wondered why is Copenhagen the best city to visit on a holiday? Innovations in its public spaces is one definite answer! From developing a series of floating islands to create space for public parks, Copenhagen has literally set the ball rolling by coming up with innovative measures to tackle COVID-19 pandemic. Believe it or not, the country has even opened one of its biggest football stadiums into a school! A video on Twitter went viral as it showed 200 Copenhagen school children from fourth and sixth grades starting their first day at school in Telia Parken stadium! Notably, with its series of creative solutions, Copenhagen’s upcoming events show that innovations are the way forward for tackling COVID-19 pandemic. This not only requires out-of-the-box thinking but also a completely different style of problem solving.

What Copenhagen is famous for?

The city has always been famous for bike paths and cobbled walkways among other things. With its new urban planning initiative, Copenhagen has shown the world an innovative way on how to generate recreational space through a series of innovative measures such as creating ‘floating islands.’ No, this is real and not from a book or movie!

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The project’s own official website ‘Copenhagen Islands’ explains that recreational areas are being planned in a futuristic way. In winter months, these floating islands will be utilized to host festivals, in addition to having an alternative option to form accessible clusters from the harbour. Further, a prototype of its first island had already been created in 2018, making it a huge success and a popular feature of the harbour.

To understand the extent of thorough detailing, the project website delves into the functional aspect of each floating island. While some may function as swimming areas, floating gardens, floating cafes or floating mussel farms, all areas are free for tourists to explore and savour. Strikingly, each different purpose of these floating islands adds to the recreational diversity of what it offers.

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On its website, Studio Fokstrot has also explained the importance of preserving traditional seafaring as part of Copenhagen’s value system and symbolic of their own work as designers who are keen to intensify their interest for maritime architecture. In their words, these values are key to each project that they undertake whether it is floating on water or in a public space.

For India, the importance of innovative urban initiatives is gaining more momentum and relevance. Social distancing is going to be a part of our lives now.
Post-COVID-19 lockdown, the importance of creating safe public spaces and parks is sure to be an area of public importance and focus,