Dania Park (Daniaparken) is located along the water’s edge of the Öresund strait that divides Sweden and Denmark. Before development the site had been a flat and barren landfill: an industrial desert of contaminated mud. Landscape qualities on the existing site were hard to identify but eventually positive aspects of a more ephemeral kind became evident: the light, horizon, long views, sky, wind, and sea. It is a place to experience climate and seasons. Those qualities served as the point of departure for the design. The immense scale of the coastal landscape is reflected in the elements of the park and their spatial disposition. The park’s principal features are the Scouts: three inclined concrete planes that intersect the rough boulder shoreline and permit park visitors to reach the sea. The Bastion, a 40 × 40-meter flat table, elevated some six meters above the sea, leaves the visitor exposed to the elements, whether a harsh wind or a beautiful sunset. The Balconies—three large wooden trays—overlook the large, slightly sunken grass meadow called the Lawn, which is protected from sea winds by a double row of Swedish whitebeam trees (Sorbus intermedia) and salt-resistant shrubs (Rosa and Elaeagnus).
All the features in the park turn to the sea; all activities orient toward the water. The majestic coastal landscape, adjacent more than distant, is made part of the park experience. In the design, the greater landscape has been visually borrowed into the park to celebrate the sea.
Dania Park, Malmö, Sweden
Landscape architect: Thorbjörn Andersson @ Sweco Architects
Design team: PeGe Hillinge, Veronika Borg, Anders Lidström, Sven Hedlund, Peter Ekroth, Clotte Frank, Michael Hallbert (lighting)
Area: 20,000 square meters
Opened: 2001
SWECO Architects
P.O. Box 340 44
SE- 100 26 Stockholm, Sweden
Telephone +46 8 522 952 00
For further information contact
Thorbjörn Andersson, Sweco Architects
