Helsinge Garden City
Helsinge, Denmark

The Helsinge Haveby (Helsinge Garden City) – Village of Tomorrow – is the concept and masterplan for a new residential enclave 55 minutes north of Copenhagen in Denmark. It was developed in a collaboration of Karres and Brands, EFFEKT, Atkins, CFBO, and Trafikplan. It won the first prize of a competition in 2016 and is currently in development.

Helsinge Garden City is a proposal for a new form of living together in the Danish countryside that has a strong connection to surrounding landscapes, has its own identity and is based on a sense of community. The Village of the Future is designed in clusters, which have a large number of communal spaces and a high degree of 'sharing', making coexistence more sustainable. The master plan has been developed with ecological, social and economic sustainability as the three main parameters in mind. Together, they create new opportunities to live a healthier, self-sufficient life, in close relationship with the landscape - and within travelling distance of Copenhagen.

The winning project responds to an ever-growing demand for increased life quality in the built environment among future home owners. A new study by analysis institute YouGov, made for the Homeowners Knowledge Database, Bolius, shows that every fifth person living in the city today, plan to live in the countryside in 2030 – calling for a better, more healthy living environment, more community and affordable homes.

Transforming traditional mono-cultural agriculture fields into a diverse mix of wetlands, meadows, orchards and agroforestry, the new neighborhood enable its future residents to lead a more sustainable lifestyle with a higher degree of self-sufficiency, while offering the same services, amenities and freedom as urban life in the city.

The master plan for the new village community is an organic plan, where landscape and buildings merge. The traditional detached houses are replaced by social clusters integrated in the surrounding natural landscape. To strengthen community life, and build a strong relationship with the surrounding landscapes, the settlement is developed as high-density residential clusters, which possess only a limited area of private outdoor space. The landscape and spacious 'in-between spaces' are collective; they contain recreational functions and are in use for landscape-integrated food production, such as fruit orchards, permaculture and livestock farming. The proximity to the food production can help eliminate food waste and lower the general energy consumption.