The People’s Park in Odder – Nature, Life & Community Along Odder Å
The People’s Park in Odder represents a visionary transformation of a former parking lot into a vibrant, multifunctional urban park at the heart of a typical Danish provincial town. Once characterized by a struggling, lifeless center and a disconnected urban structure, Odder is now redefined by a green spine that reconnects its civic life, enhances biodiversity, and prepares the city for the challenges of climate change.
The Challenge
Like many small towns across Denmark, Odder faced urban decay in its center—empty storefronts, a fragmented city structure, and a lack of attractive public spaces for gathering and everyday life. In response, the municipality envisioned a green, social, and climate-resilient core to reenergize the heart of the city, and in 2020, as a result of an invited competition, BOGL was commissioned to lead this transformation.
The Vision
BOGL’s design for The People’s Park in Odder is rooted in a clear ambition: to unite city, nature, and people through a layered landscape that celebrates the town’s history and its future. Central to this vision is Odder Å, the stream that once powered local mills and shaped the settlement of the area. By reintroducing a meandering, nature-friendly course to the stream and making it the centerpiece of the park, BOGL reclaims Odder’s natural heritage as its defining public asset.
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Design Strategy
The park is structured around three key elements:
The Park Promenade – a north-south urban spine that links the robust everyday functions of the town to the more refined historical layers, weaving together shops and stores, the surrounding streets, and Odder Town Hall.
The Stream (Odder Å) – restored from a canalized course to a dynamic, ecologically rich water body, with flat vegetated banks, stepping stones, and diverse habitats for flora and fauna, including restored spawning grounds for sea trout.
The Town Hall Mill (Rådhusmøllen) – an adaptive reuse of an old transformer station into a covered community space with outdoor kitchen, nature lab, and social infrastructure, inviting both spontaneous and programmed use regardless of weather.
Social and Civic Impact
The park is both destination and catalyst. Designed to welcome all ages and activities, it includes open lawns, shaded seating, sensory plantings, and a mill-inspired playground. It’s a place for everyday play, school excursions, picnics, and weddings. Importantly, it strengthens local identity by enhancing the architectural presence of Odder’s iconic town hall, designed by renown Danish architects Friis & Moltke—giving it a new civic forecourt and a celebratory stair for newlyweds.
Meanwhile, the transformation of traffic and parking areas into green and multifunctional surfaces—including permeable basketball courts and discreet skate features—ensures urban functionality without sacrificing ecological or aesthetic value.
Ecological Performance
The People’s Park in Odder is a living demonstration of how urban landscapes can actively support biodiversity. The park’s eastern zone features wild grasslands, native perennials, and nutrient-poor soils to support rare flora such as orchids and nectar-rich plants. Rain gardens and permeable surfaces delay and purify runoff from roofs and streets before it enters the stream, while the riparian zones are designed for periodic flooding, creating ephemeral wetlands rich in biodiversity.
Careful tree planting along the stream provides shade and microhabitats, supporting aquatic life and creating a mosaic of sensory experiences for visitors. By designing for both common and specialist species, the park fosters a healthy and self-sustaining urban ecosystem.
Climate Adaptation
The project serves as critical climate infrastructure. It intercepts and filters stormwater through landscape-based climate resilience strategies and safely manages cloudbursts through planned flood zones. This includes expanded flood plains and resilient terrain shaping along the stream, with stepping stones and natural materials allowing access even when water levels rise.
Process & Collaboration
The project was realized through close collaboration with the municipality, local stakeholders, and environmental experts. The design honors both the cultural heritage of Friis & Moltke’s town hall and the natural history of Odder Å and its mills, aligning modern landscape practice with deep site sensitivity. The result is not a park imposed on the town—but a park grown from its very character.
Conclusion
The People’s Park in Odder is more than a park—it is a reinvention of Odder’s identity. It connects people to place, history to future, and ecology to everyday life. It is a model of how landscape architecture can address complex urban challenges with clarity, beauty, and generosity. And it proves that even small towns can act boldly in creating spaces that are generous, green, and future-ready.
Other credits:
WSP Denmark (engineer),
OKNygaard (contractor)
