Fire, the Brits, and Architecture...

"When you look at a city, it's like reading the hopes, aspirations and pride of everyone who built it."

So today in my Danish culture class, we had a lecture on Copenhagen as a city and urban planning.  Here being able to discuss architecture is almost the equivalent of being able to discuss poetry in other places.  In other words, if you want to be part of the "cool kids" you have to know about such things.  While I am by no means a "cool kid" I did find the lecture really interesting and I wanted to give everyone a better idea about this city that I am living in. 

 This map dates back to the 1500 when the entire city was walled and relatively small.














 Then in 1596 Christian IV was crowned and decided to build new and improved walls and fortifications.  He also added on a new settlement, Christianshavn, which was originally built as an independent tax-free town to lure in merchants.  On this map you can also see Nyboder, which was a new area of the city built to house the naval men and their families.  Also the dark dense portion of the map is the original walled city.




Then in 1728, 2/3 of the city burnt.



This building is the rundetaarn, or round tower, and is the only building left from Copenhagen's Medieval period.

Then in 1795, another fire burned 1/3 of the city, you think after the first fire they would have gotten better firefighters but apparently not. 

Then in 1807 the British Navy bombarded Copenhagen.  They thought that the Danes were going to join Napoleon and so wanted they wanted to destroy the Danish Navy, which was one of the largest in the world at the time, before Napoleon could use it.  They not only destroyed the navy but most of the city.  On a side note, in 1980 the Danish government was informed that the Oak trees were now mature enough to rebuild their navy.  

This is a map of the city in 1849.  As you can see the city had expanded across the water.  In 1850 the ramparts were opened and people were finally able to move outside of the walls.

This map is just 40 years later in 1888.  

So do you notice the giant island of Amager that is hanging off of mainland Copenhagen?  Also did you notice that that island wasn't really on the other maps? That is because over half the island was under sea level until WWII.  During WWII due to high unemployment the government decided to drain a large part of the sea and essentially doubled the size of the island.  I am currently living on this island, hence the giant pink pin.  The area that I live in is called Ørestad (I don't know how to make the fancy Ø on my computer so from here on I will just write Orestad but know that it is wrong).  Orestad is a completely new area, the development was first started in 1992.   Part of this master development plan included huge transportation routes. Two metro lines were built running down both sides of the island, the S-trains run through Orestad to the airport, a new highway was built, and since the Oresund bridge opened both the trains and cars can cross to Sweden from Amager.    


Also since this area of the city has been built in the last 20 years all of the buildings are completely modern (and weird in my opinion but that is just me).  Buildings such as these:

Really? a mountain?

 I feel like the architect of this building really liked Dr. Seuss.

I just don't even know what to say about this one, what is wrong with square balconies?

 And this lovely building is the place I call home.  You can't really see in the picture but there is a balcony running all the way around and in places this balcony is covered in metal bars which just makes it look sort of prison like.

And because making buildings in the shapes of numbers is just cool I guess.

and because squares are too old fashioned.

So obviously I will not be part of the "cool kids" who discuss and appreciate architecture any time soon.   Because truly I do not understand these buildings.  Yes the look nice now but what about in 30 years?  Seriously does anyone not remember the hideous buildings built in the 70's? Anyone from my home town just think of the city/county building.  I am sure at one time it was beautiful and everyone loved it, but now it is pretty much an eye-sore.  Personally I think every building should be built in a classic style but that's just me. So there you have the city of Copenhagen in a nut shell.  

I apologize because the pictures and maps that my professor used today were much better, but I could not find them so sorry.  Also I haven't really done anything exciting lately so sorry there really aren't any of my own photos on here.  And since this entire post was about Copenhagen and not about me there really is no need for interesting fact.