Copenhagen’s harbour, once a working industrial waterway lined with shipping infrastructure, has been transformed over the past two decades into a network of public, clean-enough-to-swim-in bathing areas, a deliberate environmental restoration effort that included major upgrades to the city’s sewage overflow systems, allowing officials to open harbour swimming baths directly in the city centre, a transformation now frequently cited internationally as a model for urban waterway rehabilitation elsewhere.
Nyhavn, Copenhagen’s famous 17th-century harbour district lined with brightly coloured townhouses, was originally a rough, working port area frequented by sailors, its now-picturesque canal only becoming the polished, tourist-favoured waterfront it is today after substantial gentrification in the latter half of the 20th century, a considerable shift from its earlier reputation.
A City Shaped by Design as Much as by History
Copenhagen has cultivated an international reputation as a centre of furniture and industrial design, designers including Arne Jacobsen and Hans Wegner working from the city through the mid-20th century in developing what became known globally as Danish Modern, a design philosophy emphasising functional simplicity that remains closely associated with the city’s identity today. That design-forward culture extends to urban planning, Copenhagen has invested heavily and consistently in cycling infrastructure since the 1970s, and now roughly half of all trips to work or school within the city are made by bicycle, among the highest cycling rates of any major capital in the world.
The Little Mermaid statue, installed in the harbour in 1913 and inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale, has been vandalised, decapitated, and even briefly blown from its rock on multiple occasions over the decades, remarkably resilient controversy for a relatively modest bronze figure that remains one of the city’s most visited, if often described as underwhelming, attractions.
Painting a Harbour City in Clean, Cool Light
Copenhagen’s colourful harbour townhouses beneath clear Scandinavian light give a watercolourist crisp colour and reflective water to work with. We’ve captured that setting in our own Copenhagen Watercolor Print, painted first by hand and printed to order on archival paper, a small piece of Denmark for a wall at home.
Having cleaned its own harbour well enough to swim in, Copenhagen remains a capital whose design instincts run well beyond its furniture.