As a part of a larger planning scheme for reducing traffic, Ballerup Boulevard provides a pilot project for transforming our car-oriented, oversized streets into multi-functional transit ways with human scale and character. The charming yet straight-forward design language of path geometries and planting beds allows the user to move through a coherent whole and at the same time differentiates sequence of spaces. Over time the plantings will create a lush, dense green corridor.
- from the award statements
A former intersecting traffic corridor dominated by high-speed traffic has been transformed into an urban space, with a strong green identity, that provides urban cohesion. A busy road space located in the outskirts of Copenhagen, has been narrowed down from a heavy traffic four-lane road to a calm two-lane green boulevard. The former roadway areas now serves as a green parkland and the urban space hierarchy of Ballerup Boulevard has been turned upside-down and now accommodate a strong focus on pedestrians and cyclists.
The idea of the planting strategy was to vitalize and strengthen the relation between the nearby central station plaza and Ballerup Boulevard, whilst connecting the two city patches on each side of the road. By confining the number of road lanes from four to two and increasing the overall city green space Ballerup Boulevard no longer acts as a barrier between two areas of the city. Along the sidewalks and bicycle paths storm water management systems, gravel-covered zones with groves of trees and planting beds with a variety of perennials and ornamental grasses creates a green atmosphere and room for stay. Today the boulevard is an urban green space much loved by dog walkers and pedestrians traveling from one side of the city to another.
The successful transformation of Ballerup Boulevard is part of a strategic urban planning project. The landscape design has given the boulevard a new identity as a public green space and has initiated a sustainable urban development. In the long term, the large amount of trees will provide Ballerup Boulevard with a significant character as a lush urban green space and thus the boulevard will be able to match scala and size ratio of the city that is to grow along the boulevard in the years to come.
Name of the project: Ballerup Boulevard
Project category: Infrastructure
Role of the entrant in the project: Idea and design, procurement, tender and construction
Project location: Ballerup Boulevard, DK-2740 Skovlunde, Denmark
Design year: 2017
Year Built: 2018
