Bodil Koch’s Garden by Urbanlab nordic

A Place to Meet
As the most densely populated area in Northern Europe, Frederiksberg is a compact city within the municipality of Copenhagen with limited space for new parks and urban spaces. A centrally located parking lot therefore presented an ideal opportunity to create a green oasis in the intense and highly urban city centre.

The city centre of Frederiksberg is a vibrant and dynamic part of the city, with a unique blend of campus life, cultural activities, retail, and high-street activity, set among attractive green streets and the nearby large historic parks, Frederiksberg Garden and Søndermarken by Frederiksberg Castle. However, it is also a dense and intensely busy district with few inviting places to rest or meet, unless you buy food or drinks in one of the surrounding cafés or restaurants.

With a metro station, shopping centre, and a high concentration of key urbvilan functions and educational institutions, the area has become one of the capital’s most important hubs and focal points—serving as one of two key connection points between the main metro lines of Copenhagen, with more than 30,000 people passing through daily.
Against this backdrop, the idea of a pocket park on a centrally located private parking lot grew alongside the area’s newest developments. Through a lengthy process of ownership transfer, the municipality acquired the plot and reimagined it as a place where community life and greenery could take centre stage.

From the very beginning, neighbours and local stakeholders were involved in the design process. Early on, all parties agreed on the need for a green oasis to counterbalance the fast-paced, interconnected, and heavily paved urban surroundings. The vision was a park that would be introverted and tranquil—a place to meet, to sit, and to enjoy quiet moments. At the same time, it should provide a sense of safety through visual overview and openness, supported by wide paths, lighting, and moderately open plantings.

Nature and seasonal variation were central design elements throughout the process, aiming to create an inviting, lush setting for urban life—offering year-round sensory experiences of sound, scent, texture, and colour. Elements, that would not only breathe new life into the neighbourhood but also foster the well-being of both residents and urban wildlife.

Plantings were carefully selected to support local biodiversity with primarily native Scandinavian species creating a small urban wilderness, providing food and habitats for birds and insects. The planting beds are layered: sturdy perennials, bulbs, flowers, and grasses form the base, creating structure, while mid-level shrubs and trees define space and relate to the scale of the surrounding urban context.

The garden features five large, elevated, geometrically shaped planting beds that create winding paths and passages with a slightly jagged flow, leading toward a central, more intimate space that includes a fountain and birdhouses. At the garden’s north-eastern corner, towards the road, a sculpted concrete form gradually rises—functioning both as a seating area and a stylised planting bed that connects the garden to its surroundings. Wooden benches line the edges of the planting beds, nestled under trees, slightly hidden and sheltered. Here, people can pause, reflect, and connect—with themselves and with others.

Bodil Koch’s Garden is a successful example of shifting the “city-for-cars” paradigm towards a biodiverse, citizen-centred urban landscape. Built on the site of a former private parking lot, the garden emerged as a unique opportunity to create a green pocket park following the construction of a new underground metro hub.

While modest in size, the garden offers a strong response to two fundamental challenges in contemporary urban planning: the need to create meaningful, high-quality public spaces for everyday life and the urgent task of weaving nature back into dense city environments. This pocket park, co-created with the local community, provides not just a quiet green refuge in an otherwise intensely built-up area, but also an important stepping stone for urban biodiversity. Its layered planting supports a richer habitat for birds and insects, while simultaneously improving human well-being through everyday sensory and social experiences.

On a city-wide scale, the garden strengthens Copenhagen’s green infrastructure by linking into The Green Path, enhancing connectivity and offering a new kind of urban meeting place—rooted in both nature and neighbourhood life.

• Other credits:
Municipality of Frederiksberg
MøllerLøkkegaard Landscaping
Fokdal Fountains
Drias Engineering