Reorganising the city core into green, climate-adapted public space

From car corridor to people-first park

Vesterbro Passage is located in a part of Copenhagen with limited accessible green space and is also part of the historic green fortification ring around Copenhagen’s city centre, while also forming part of the historic green fortification ring around the city centre. At the same time, it is a busy hotspot for pedestrians and cyclists.

Gehl developed a vision to transform Vesterbro Passage into a new public recreational space in the heart of Copenhagen—a sensory city park designed to accommodate the high number of visitors throughout the day, week, and year. This vision is now being tested through a pilot that temporarily removes car traffic and introduces a city park, shifting the area from a car-dominated corridor to a pedestrian-oriented public space.

Located centrally in Copenhagen, within close proximity to City Hall Square, Central Station, and Tivoli, the site represents a key opportunity to showcase the city’s ambitions to be a green, sustainable, and people-oriented metropolis. Based on mobility studies, the area experiences some of the highest pedestrian volumes in the city, while car and bus traffic remain relatively low. This highlights a long-standing mismatch between how the space has been designed and how it is actually used.

The project seeks to establish a strong green, sensory, and sustainable identity, including the integration of water and lighting, while creating space for improved accessibility and vibrant city life. It also focuses on integrating bike flows and providing safe, convenient parking solutions, as well as embedding safety and security through landscape design and a high level of maintenance.

The pilot project explores how a sensory city park can better respond to current and future patterns of use, supporting large numbers of users while introducing climate-adapted, low-CO₂ urban spaces. The pilot serves as a real-world test of these principles, informing the ongoing conceptual development and future permanent transformation of the site.