The Green Library

As part of a broader strategic plan for a sustainable urban renewal and cloudburst protection of southern Copenhagen, we participated in an experimental process that had to test new functions and target groups around the library in the Karens Minde (In memory of Karen) cultural centre. Our answer was an inexpensive temporary playful wooden structure with space for books, plants and people in an open public space connected to the old library and the adjacent park. The Green Library should contribute to opening the library to the outside world and draw the many different activities and offers into the green surroundings around Karens Minde, as well as give the people of Sydhavn a new look at the library and the area in general, create more life in the area and a better connection between the existing offers at Karens Minde.

The Green Library was a temporary urban space experiment that aimed to investigate both the clear and the hidden potentials that the area around Karens Minde contains, and set the framework for what the future Karens Minde Park should contain when the affected areas were to be re-established in 2022.

The Green Library was developed in collaboration between the Sydhavnen Library, the local working groups and associations, Emergency Architecture & Human Rights, Social Cities and financed by Area Renewal Sydhavnen and Sharing Copenhagen, Copenhagen Municipality.