big wins competition to redesign three major copenhagen plazas
After nearly two decades of shaping Ørestad’s skyline, BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group returns to the Copenhagen district with a ground-shifting public realm project titled The Impact. Together with American artist Doug Aitken Workshop and collaborators NIRAS, Volcano, and RWDI, the team’s winning proposal is set to renew the three major plazas around DR Concert Hall, Bella Arena, and Royal Arena. Merging more than 50,000 square meters into one interconnected landscape, The Impact replaces the area’s paved voids with a living, breathing terrain designed to support daily life, spontaneous play, and large-scale performances alike.
BIG’s proposal departs from the idea of adding more surfaces to the city, and instead, it subtracts, revealing and revitalizing the layers beneath. Through this process, the designers open the ground to allow light, water, and nature to animate the plazas, introducing wetlands, local flora, and public art into one continuous environment. At its core, a sculptural ‘crack’ runs like a fault line across the site, linking the three plazas. This glowing incision becomes the connective tissue that transforms fragmented urban surfaces into a unified public domain.
‘It is with immense pleasure that we return to Ørestad 15 years after completing the 8 House. This time with the intention of breathing life between the buildings. With The Impact, we have taken an approach that breaks open the perfect, finished surfaces of the city like a meteor strike, creating space for all forms of life, plants and animals, nature and culture,’ shares Bjarke Ingels, Founder & Creative Director of BIG. ‘Like a form of urban Kintsugi – the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold – the cracks and fractures will create a kind of accelerated patina on the otherwise very new district. In the words of Leonard Cohen: ”There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.”’
renderings by BIG, Playtime, and Ping-Pong Space
water, light and life shape The Impact project
Through BIG’s project, each of the three plazas follows its own concept within the whole, responding to its immediate context while aligning with the larger narrative. At the DR Concert Hall, the international architecture firm reimagines the plaza’s water feature as an urban pool and amphitheater. Tiered seating and floating islands offer a moment for pause, while reused paving materials are woven into steps and platforms around a central stream of light and water that changes with the time of day and season.
At Bella Arena, the plaza becomes more intimate, with a series of sunken green ‘rooms’ shaped by lush vegetation, stone surfaces, and warm microclimates. Planting climbs up the building facades, acting as a soft wayfinding element that continues the crack vertically. Meanwhile, a luminous green line guides movement, intertwines public paths, and marks the continuity of the landscape. Seasonal flora, wetlands, and reused materials anchor the site in both sustainability and visual richness.
Where Fields Mall meets the urban fabric, The Impact begins with two sculptural installations that resemble meteorites, setting the tone for the transformation. From this origin point, the golden crack travels across streets and squares, culminating in a dramatic rupture at Royal Arena with a sculpted urban void turned into a gathering space.
BIG returns to the Copenhagen district with a ground-shifting public realm project
Turning Underused Spaces into Climate-Responsive Landscapes
The design achieves a calculated carbon footprint of less than 0.1 kg CO₂ per m² per year, thanks to the reuse of materials like granite and concrete, passive climate strategies, and the integration of native biodiversity. Rainwater is collected and filtered on-site through topographic basins, open channels, and permeable surfaces, forming part of the landscape’s aesthetic and ecological identity.
‘The Impact will disrupt the ordinary to unveil the extraordinary. With a cohesive language that adapts to both grand and intimate spaces, pavements and building surfaces crack open to reconnect fragmented areas, allowing life to breathe through. Interactive water, nature, and light flow through these cracks like lifelines, stitching together the existing urban fabric while creating unexpected encounters,’ comments Giulia Frittoli, partner at BIG. ‘In doing so, we demonstrate how art and landscape design can reactivate public space and achieve low environmental impact, while delivering a powerful, socially driven transformation. As landscape architects and residents of Copenhagen, we are thrilled by the opportunity to help shape Ørestad’s future and celebrate its unique potential.’
The collaboration between BIG and Doug Aitken Workshop brings an artistic approach to Ørestad’s public spaces. Using elements like light, reflection, and sculptural forms, the design aims to make walking through the area feel more engaging and comfortable. Rather than treating the plaza as just empty space between buildings, the project turns it into a more active and welcoming environment, including flexible features that can serve as a performance area, offer shade, reflect the surroundings, or support plant life.
the team’s proposal is set to renew the three major plazas around DR Concert Hall, Bella Arena, and Royal Arena
at Bella Arena, the plaza becomes more intimate
planting climbs up the building facades
a series of sunken green ‘rooms’ shaped by lush vegetation, stone surfaces, and warm microclimates
a soft wayfinding element that continues the crack vertically
seasonal flora, wetlands, and reused materials anchor the site
BIG’s proposal departs from the idea of adding more surfaces to the city
at the Fields Mall plaza, The Impact begins with two sculptural installations
a sculpted urban void turned into a gathering space
the golden crack travels across streets and squares
this glowing incision becomes the connective tissue between the three plazas
project info:
name: The Impact
architect: BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group | @big_builds
location: Ørestad, Copenhagen, Denmark
area: 56,000 square meters
client: By & Havn, Danmarks Radio, BellaGroup, BellaKvarter, Live Nation, Metroselskabet, Ørestad Innovation City Copenhagen (ØICC)
collaborators: Doug Aitken Workshop, NIRAS, Volcano, RWDI
partner-in-charge: Bjarke Ingels, Giulia Frittoli
project manager: Ulla Hornsyld
project lead: Xu Lian
design team: Christian Vang Madsen, Parastoo Salehi Farhadpour, Elif Merve Türköz, Xinyu Zhao, Alicia De Nobrega, William Emil George Abdou, Lucia Rocio Hurtado Ayala, Matthew Goodwill, Louise Natalie Mould, Gisella Birardi, Frida Sofia Otterbeck, Jonathan Udemezue
sustainability: Chiara Gargiulo, Will Chuanrui Yu
renderings: BIG, Playtime | @playtime.barcelona and Ping-Pong Space | @pingpong.space
The post BIG to reactivate three copenhagen plazas with cracked terrain of water, light and greenery appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.